Ex-Diplomats for a Harder Line VS Israel
In a letter sent to Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle (FDP), former German top diplomats called for a more resolute stance against the Israeli settlement policy. “Israel must not be able to hope to win both the peace and to retain the Palestinian territories,” says a position paper of the group, reported on the Saturday edition of “Süddeutsche Zeitung“.
Critical words are unusual in the German-Israeli relationship. The federal government is always on the side of Israel, but now for the first time this unconditional loyalty was questioned, as twenty-four former German ambassadors urged the German government to take a harder position against Israel.
It sounds like the break of a taboo: 24 German top diplomats in retirement are calling on the federal government to take a harder line against Israel. In the thesis paper which was published in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” web page, the ex-diplomats asked the government, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, to rethink its Middle East policy and to not be afraid to apply pressure against Israel’s settlement policy.
Specifically, they called for a “tougher stance” against Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which would implement the two-state solution. How could “the continuation of certain benefits or financial support to one side or the other, as well as an increasing convergence with the European Union, could be made dependent on concrete progresses in management of the conflict.”
Among the signatories are the former chief of Germany’s Federal Intelligence service (BND), and German ambassadors Michael Libal and Gerhard Fulda. Mr. Libal said to the “ARD Morning Magazine” “We are not against Israel. We are for a just peace in the Middle East”. The addressee of their paper was the federal government, and the signatories wanted to encourage them to support the US-American initiatives while at the same time avoiding blocking within the European Union policies promoting the peace process with some emphasis on pressure.
The Federal Government as a Blocker
The European diplomats in the Middle East have been complaining for a long time that their attempts to oblige Israel to respect international agreements are actively sabotaged by the Federal Government of Germany. For example, it has been impossible to enforce within the European Union a ban on the goods from the Jewish squatter colonies in the occupied areas, which are excluded from the customs reduction agreement with Israel. Also, the growing criticism against the settlement policy in the EU is weakened by German diplomats, over and over again. A consumer ban on settlement-produced goods by some European countries exists, but Germany hinders these, and Germany makes strong efforts within EU bodies to curb the growing criticism of Israel’s the settlement policy.
This is also the position espoused by Rabbi Arik Asherman, head of the organization „Rabbis for Peace” in front of German journalists in Jerusalem. “Friends don’t let friends drive while drunken”. True friendship does not mean that one allows the friend everything, and even supports them. In this way, destructive behavior can be patronized. “I think that the international community has patronized the self-destructive behavior of Israel with their support for Israel” said rabbi Asherman.
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