Two political extremes are expected to come out stronger from the regional elections that will take place September 1 in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg, three states in the former East Germany: from the right side Alternative for Germany (AfD) and from the left side Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), called after its leader.
Israel has been boycotting the AfD since its foundation in 2013, as it was considered by the political establishment in Germany as an extreme right party. The boycott of the AfD was kept over the last 11 years, despite puissant pro-Ísrael positions and initiative taken by some in the AfD leadership over this period and after October 7 and despite the fact that the AfD has in its ranks a small Jewish group (JAfD).
Now, a question pops up: how will Israel deal with the BSW, which was founded last January and has since adopted a very hostile line toward Israel in the light of the war in Gaza, accusing Israel of committing war crimes and demanding a weapons export ban on Israel.
Should Israel boycott the BSW as well or should it look for open communication channels to it, as Israel did in the case of the other radical left party, Die Linke, of which the BSW splitted? Some branches of Die Linke openly supported the BDS movement and two of its Bundestag deputies participated in the Navi Marmara flotilla of 2010.
AfD origins
Zahra Wagenknecht (55), born in East Germany, whose father was an Iranian student in West Berlin and returned to his country, joined the ranks of the communist ruling party of the GDR a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, in order to "preserve socialism".
After the reunification of Germany, she continued her political activity in the ranks of the successor party of the Communist ruling party, the PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism), which for years was under surveillance by the Federal Agency for the Protection of the Constitution on the suspicion that it was operating under German democracy, as is now the AfD.
In 2007, Wagenknecht and her party members founded the Die Linke party, which was born from a union between leftists who withdrew from the social democratic party (SPD) and the PDS. One of the first leaders of Die Linke was Oskar Lafontaine, nowadays Wagenknecht's husband.
In May 2016, while serving as one of the two chairpersons of Die Linke, Wagenknecht visited Israel and held a series of meetings with left-wing politicians and organizations. The visit was organized by the office in Israel of the political foundation close to the party, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.
The highlight of the visit was a meeting with the Israeli President at the time, Reuven Rivlin. An Israeli official, who was involved in the preparation of that visit, recalled: "It was impossible to understand at all what Wagenknecht´s position was in relation to Israel. She radiated absolute coldness around her, like the princess of ice".
Wagenknecht avoided making blatant anti-Israeli statements for years, even though she and her husband were never suspected of having a special affection for Israel. However, after October 7, when it was already clear that she was going to form her own party, Wagenknecht broke the ice and began to attack Israel in a manner reminiscent of the positions of extremists in the British Labor Party, of Jean-Luc Melonchon's "La France Insoumise" and of members in the radical left coalition of Pedro Sanchez in Spain.
'Stop selling weapons to Israel'
Wagenknecht's party is currently leading the demand in Germany to impose an embargo on arms exports to Israel and calls for a conditionality of Germany's commitment to Israel's existence and security as being part of its raison d'etat. According to BSW this commitment, made by former and present Chancellors, Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz, should be linked to the composition of the Israeli government.
In the opinion of Wagenknecht and her team, the German government should not be obliged to implement this commitment as long as Netanyahu and his right-wing government are in power. This position has now also been heard in the rows of the "Greens" party, which is part of the federal government.
Two weeks after the pogrom of October 7, around the announcement of the establishment of her new party, Wagenknecht declared that Israel has the right to defend itself, but she warned against a ground attack in the Gaza Strip and added that the Strip has been for years an “open air prison".
In November, Wagenknecht participated in a "peace demonstration" at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, in which she stated: "We Germans have a special responsibility for Jewish life and we have a responsibility to unconditionally defend the existence of Israel. However, this responsibility does not require Germany to gloss over and support the unrestrained conduct of the war by Netanyahu as if it were self-defense".
Wagenknecht added: "We were all shocked on October 7 by the terrible massacres of the Islamist Hamas, the murders of innocent civilians, women and children. We should be equally shocked by the merciless bombings in the Gaza Strip. It is absurd to think that bombs will weaken the Islamist terror. They will only strengthen it."
During the founding conference of the BSW Party last January, Wagenknecht's husband and ideological mentor, Lafontaine, gave a speech. It was on January 27, the International Holocaust Day. The symbolic date caused Lafontaine to create a connection between the Holocaust and the situation in Gaza Strip: "We remember the day Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army.
This day is a must, of course for all those involved in politics in Germany. Because this day, due to the industrial killing of 6 million Jews, obligates us to do everything so that this does not happen again, and also to act for the Jews so that they can live with us like everyone else, that there will be no antisemitism, and of course for the State of Israel and for the Jews' right to life. However, the Holocaust also obliges the Germans to act for the Palestinians' right to life.
Therefore the moral obligation of the German government is not limited only to the fact that we murdered 6 million Jews, since this murder led, among other things, to the expulsion of the Palestinians and the establishment of the State of Israel. That is why we are also obligated to these people (the Palestinians). No matter what religion or nationality the dead and suffering belong to, we are committed to doing everything so that peace prevails in Gaza."
German ongoing responsibility for past atrocities
It was not the first time that Lafontaine spoke of Germany's “double responsibility” towards the Jewish Nazi victims and the "victims of the victims", the Palestinians. He already did this during the Second Lebanon War. Lafontaine also saw fit to make a distinction in his speech between the new party led by his wife and AfD:
"Since it is claimed that there is an ideological affinity between us and the AfD, I allow myself a comment - AfD stands by Israel like no other party in Germany does, even now in the war against Gaza. There is not a single word of criticism on the part of the Israeli army. This, in my opinion, is a completely intolerable position. In my view, what is happening in Gaza is a war crime that we must criticize and accuse without limitation."
After the killing of seven employees of the "World Central Kitchen" organization by the IDF in Gaza, the members of BSW intensified their attacks on Israel and began to demand the imposition of a German arms embargo on Israel. "The death in Gaza and Israel's attacks on its neighbors must stop," Wagenknecht stated, "It's complete hypocrisy to organize humanitarian aid on one hand and on the other hand to provide weapons for the continued killing, mainly of women and children.
This is indirect complicity in the war crimes of the Israeli government. The inclusion of Israel in the German raison d´etat should also mean bringing back to line an Israeli government that has gone out of control". The BSW co-chairperson, lawyer of Egyptian origin Amira Muhammad Ali, also accused Israel of committing "war crimes."
Following the Iranian missile attack on Israel last April, while condemning the regime in Tehran, Wagenknecht added: "Everything must be done to prevent a major war and to stop the death in Gaza, as this is one of the reasons for the escalation. The Israeli government's way of conducting the war is not self-defense, but revenge and a war of extermination."
The term "war of extermination" creates a direct comparison to the Holocaust. Last week Wagenknecht sharply attacked the head of the Jewish community in Germany, Dr. Josef Schuster, who had accused the BSW of spreading hatred of Israel in Germany. "If anyone who expresses Criticism of Netanyahu's brutal war conduct in Gaza is a hater of Israel, a significant portion of Israelis are haters of Israel," she said, adding, "I lack a clear criticism of the Central Council of Jews in Germany against the Netanyahu government and its barbaric war."
In light of all these positions, Israel will face a serious dilemma in its approach to the BSW. Talking to it while boycotting the much more pro-Israel AfD will send a wrong signal to Israel´s friends on the German Right. Boycotting both extreme parties that might get over 40% of the votes in three German States would reduce Israel's political stand in a pivotal and friendly European country.