There is hardly anything more repulsive than when the German ruling class justifies its support for Israel\u2019s genocide of the Palestinians by referring to the \u201cfight against antisemitism\u201d and its own historical crimes. It was precisely this repugnant double standard that Chancellor Friedrich Merz (Christian Democrats, CDU) practiced on Thursday during his inaugural visit to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the subject of an international arrest warrant for war crimes.<\/p>\n
At Yad Vashem, Merz wrote in the guest book that Germany\u2019s commitment to Israel\u2019s security is \u201can unalterable core element\u201d of bilateral relations. \u201cThat applies today, it applies tomorrow, and it applies forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz speak to the media during a joint press conference in Jerusalem Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. [AP Photo\/Ariel Schalit]<\/p>\n
It is the height of cynicism and criminality when the German government, under the mantra of a \u201creason of state,\u201d whitewashes Israel\u2019s campaign of destruction and legitimises it with responsibility for the Holocaust, of all things. In reality, it is not continuing the tradition of \u201cNever again!\u201d but rather the criminal traditions that led to Auschwitz\u2014and is continuing them in a new form.<\/p>\n
Between 1904 and 1908, German imperialism committed the first genocide of the 20th century with the suppression of the Herero and Nama uprising in German South West Africa. Only a few decades later, the murder of 6 million Jews and the war of extermination against the Soviet Union\u2014which cost the lives of up to 30 million Soviet citizens\u2014followed as the greatest mass murder in history.<\/p>\n
In the 21st century, the German ruling class is seamlessly continuing this tradition. Its support for Netanyahu\u2019s campaign of extermination leaves no doubt about this. After more than two years of genocide, the Gaza Strip is almost completely destroyed, and tens of thousands\u2014mostly women and children\u2014have been murdered. The survivors face either the same fate or violent expulsion. At the same time, the Netanyahu government is using the implementation of Trump\u2019s so-called peace plan for Gaza to systematically expand the war to the West Bank.<\/p>\n
This \u201cpeace plan\u201d is in reality a colonial reorganisation: a US-supervised protectorate, the final crushing of Palestinian resistance, and the legalisation of Israeli occupation measures. \u201cPeace\u201d here means nothing more than the continuation of genocide by other means.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu himself is a war criminal wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on an arrest warrant. The central charge is \u201cdeliberate starvation of civilians as a method of warfare.\u201d In addition, there are numerous other crimes against humanity, including murder and persecution.<\/p>\n
With his visit, Merz made it unmistakably clear that the German government not only stands by this regime, but is further deepening its cooperation with Israel. The Social Democrat (SPD)\/Green\/Free Democrat coalition government under Chancellor Scholz (SPD) and Foreign Minister Baerbock (Greens) already provided political cover and military support for the genocide\u2014and defamed and criminalised anyone who denounced the crimes as \u201cantisemites.\u201d<\/p>\n
Merz is seamlessly continuing this course. At a joint press conference with Netanyahu, he rejected the immediate recognition of a Palestinian state. Such recognition could come \u201cat the end and not at the beginning\u201d of a process\u2014in other words, never. At the same time, he justified the criminal policies of the right-wing extremist Netanyahu regime with the platitude that Israel has \u201cthe right and indeed the duty\u201d to defend its existence. Criticism is \u201cpossible,\u201d he said, but \u201cmust not be misused as a pretext for antisemitism, especially not in Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked about his interim alibi announcement of an arms embargo, Merz explained that German arms deliveries would continue unabated. \u201cOur very fundamental stance on Israel … on military support for Israel has not changed.\u201d This stance, according to Merz, would \u201cbind every chancellor … for decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
The basis for this supposedly \u201ceternal\u201d alliance is obvious. Germany\u2019s ruling class uses Israel as a geopolitical outpost to enforce its imperialist interests in the resource-rich and strategically central Middle East region. Merz himself admitted this in a moment of unusual candour after Israel\u2019s attack on Iran in June, when he declared that Israel was doing \u201cthe dirty work for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n