{"id":616452,"date":"2025-12-06T18:36:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T18:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/616452\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T18:36:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T18:36:29","slug":"german-chancellor-merz-arrives-in-israel-ahead-of-sunday-meeting-with-netanyahu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/616452\/","title":{"rendered":"German Chancellor Merz Arrives in Israel Ahead of Sunday Meeting With Netanyahu"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-chromatic=\"ignore\" title=\"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and President Issac Herzog (right) at the opening of the winter assembly of the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, October. Credit: Olivier Fitoussi\" alt=\"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and President Issac Herzog (right) at the opening of the winter assembly of the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, October.\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1603\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/513577.jpg\"  decoding=\"async\" class=\"jVbbfp cWvkUx fwqTyU eLDTYY cRUUAa kkZhTg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><img data-chromatic=\"ignore\" title=\"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and President Issac Herzog (right) at the opening of the winter assembly of the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, October. Credit: Olivier Fitoussi\" alt=\"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and President Issac Herzog (right) at the opening of the winter assembly of the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, October.\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1603\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/513577.jpg\"  decoding=\"async\" class=\"jVbbfp cWvkUx fwqTyU eLDTYY cRUUAa\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>Close<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and President Issac Herzog (right) at the opening of the winter assembly of the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, October. Credit: Olivier Fitoussi<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and President Issac Herzog (right) at the opening of the winter assembly of the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, October. Credit: Olivier Fitoussi<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"rich-text\" class=\"rXoKk hYDRe hnysah jUVRgC gZAOgR kTHets jRwofS qSgdC brXQGp kHlstv eeFyyU krpnci cLDOsk cgtMrY TSpXR\">Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that his presidential role is God-given and that he carries a &#8220;huge&#8221; emotional weight on his shoulders. In an <a class=\"eGCNgh dLUwcr fqmBkg bDhwrW ldclWd iRietU gAhwfJ iaemGh klOnSG jXnPOM cxrii bsfUtT hVpJBA jAPbjB\" href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2025\/12\/06\/israel-president-isaac-herzog-netanyahu-mamdani-interview-00674658\" target=\"_blank\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" rel=\"noopener\">interview with Politico<\/a>, Herzog said &#8220;there are many, many issues to discuss&#8221; following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu&#8217;s request for a pre-emptive pardon.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"rich-text\" class=\"rXoKk hYDRe hnysah jUVRgC gZAOgR kTHets jRwofS qSgdC brXQGp kHlstv eeFyyU krpnci cLDOsk cgtMrY TSpXR\">When asked if he is concerned about political retaliation from U.S. President Donald Trump if he doesn&#8217;t <a class=\"eGCNgh dLUwcr fqmBkg bDhwrW ldclWd iRietU gAhwfJ iaemGh klOnSG jXnPOM cxrii bsfUtT hVpJBA jAPbjB\" href=\"https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/israel-news\/2025-12-01\/ty-article\/.premium\/herzog-admits-netanyahu-pardon-plea-unsettles-israelis-but-vows-fair-review\/0000019a-da8d-dcce-adff-ffed2c910000\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pardon Netanyahu<\/a>, Herzog replied, &#8220;I respect President Trump&#8217;s friendship and his opinion,&#8221; adding that, &#8220;Israel, naturally, is a sovereign country.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"rich-text\" class=\"rXoKk hYDRe hnysah jUVRgC gZAOgR kTHets jRwofS qSgdC brXQGp kHlstv eeFyyU krpnci cLDOsk cgtMrY TSpXR\">He added, &#8220;Our relations with President Trump and with his administration are warm, frank and open. We should see it in the right context, and not immediately go to all sorts of doomsday analysis.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"rich-text\" class=\"rXoKk hYDRe hnysah jUVRgC gZAOgR kTHets jRwofS qSgdC brXQGp kHlstv eeFyyU krpnci cLDOsk cgtMrY TSpXR\">On New York City&#8217;s incoming mayor, Zohran Mamdani, Herzog said he is &#8220;extremely bothered&#8221; by his statements, adding that the mayor-elect &#8220;should understand that so many people have Israel in their DNA&#8221; and &#8220;should study and understand their viewpoints better, and not show such disgust and hate.&#8221; He also said it will be &#8220;very interesting&#8221; to see Israelis&#8217; attitude toward the Palestinians in the country&#8217;s next election.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"rich-text\" class=\"rXoKk hYDRe hnysah jUVRgC gZAOgR kTHets jRwofS qSgdC brXQGp kHlstv eeFyyU krpnci cLDOsk cgtMrY TSpXR\">Herzog told the magazine, &#8220;The emotional weight that I carry on my shoulders is huge, but I&#8217;m very proud of it that God gave me this role at this moment, to be there for Israel in its most difficult hour.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Close Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and President Issac Herzog (right) at the opening of the winter assembly&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6505,32,2194,182428,88931,170853,12,92426,37647,13131,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-616452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-gaza","11":"tag-hamas-hostages","12":"tag-idf","13":"tag-israel-u-s","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-october-7","16":"tag-palestinians","17":"tag-west-bank","18":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115674074757453010","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}