He added he planned to hold a call with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week to tell him “to not overdo it,” though for “historical reasons,” Germany would always be more guarded in its criticism than some European partners.
“But if lines are crossed, where international humanitarian law is really being violated, then Germany, the German chancellor, must also say something about it,” Merz said.
“No longer justified.” Is what decent people said immediately after the IDF shot up that first hospital.
Anyone else here remember that far back?
If it is the same hospital, I am thinking of, there was a lot of fuzz about it and about where the missile came from. IDF blaming Hamas, then they said Hamas launched it and IDF intercepted it ending up on the hospital… articles concluding that tracking the sound wave, the missile could only have been launched from Israel controlled territory…
Is this the one?
If you mean Al-Ahli hospital it was certainly the first where there was a lot of people killed at a hospital in October 2023. It was followed by the Al-Shifa hospital raid in November 2023 where after the IDF left hundreds of bodies were found in mass graves, including medics who had gunshot wounds and their hands tied, indicating a massacre. The same hospital was then raided again with even more people found likely massacred there in March/April 2024. Since then it seems that mass destruction and murder at hospitals was just shrugged away as business as usual by most western politicians and media outlets.
That rings a bell. But it’s all mashed together in my brain at this point. I can’t process this anymore.
“No longer justified”, “don’t overdo it”, “IF lines are crossed”!
Please tell me it’s not only the pro-Palestine protesters in Germany who find this language absurd.
I spent a weekend dealing with a couple of Germans and I must say that in some things there is some kind of mental barrier and some kind of guilt pride that got smeared in my face more than once in 2 days, but we really need you to be better than this and I want to have faith you can be.
(There were also Israelis, but I stopped talking to them the second they introduced themselves as such.)
German brains started malfunctioning as soon as you criticize Israel’s actions, and they easily end up justifying Nazi atrocities, in support of Israel. Kinda explains those past Nazi rallies where people from all walks of life were chanting Heil.
It got worse, if possible.
At some point I got in an elevator with them and one of them was judging me for getting in the elevator skipping one person in the queue (to my defense Romero’s zombies move faster) and even the position I took in the elevator which was “not efficient”.
Jokingly, I commented of all that sounding “so German” and immediately him and his colleague started saying “oh the Italian now will start saying…” and then bursted in the most chilling collection of German=Nazi stereotypes I ever heard.
I could only stare at them and wait for the elevator to end its run.
In some minds “Never again” means “We must never do what we did in WW2 again”. It should mean “We can never allow what we did in WW2 to happen again”.
Beautifully said. Saving the comment.
It is absurd, and complicit at this point. I think most people who are informed about what’s happening in Gaza would agree on this. But it’s not much of a topic in public discourse here and quite a few people still believe that the IDF is fighting against terrorists, so there’s not enough pressure against this. Especially amongst the conservatives.
Yeah, dont believe a word coming out of Merz mouth, unless there is actual actions.
The new coalition plans to treat Israel “like a NATO partner” in arms exports, effectively removing any oversight and any chance to appeal against arms exports used for war crimes.
They also want to make further financial contributions to UNRWA “dependent on extensive reforms”. Furthermore they want to remove funding from any scientific, cultural or education project that is deemed “hostile to Israel”.
In February Merz told Netanyahu he would find a way to have Netanyahu visit Germany without the arrest warrant by the ICC being executed. The only way to do that is to defy the ICC. Just two weeks ago the German president Steinmeier invited the Israeli president Herzog to Germany and subsequently visited Herzog and Netanyahu in Israel too. Aside from shaking hands with a wanted war criminal, Herzog also is known for genocidal statements against Palestinians.
Just last week Germany opposed the EU to reevaluate the association agreement with Israel on the basis that the agreement requires conforming to international law and human rights.
The reason why Merz is saying something now is because Germany is getting more and more isolated. However so far Germany wants to only talk, while giving Israel the weapons, money and diplomatic cover to finish its genocidal onslaught.
Just like Israel will not react to any words and only understand concrete pressure, Germany will not wane from the side of Israel unless forced to do so. German politics across the spectrum from the Greens on the center left to the AfD Fascists embrace support for Israel and try to shift the blame of antisemitism on Muslim (or perceived as such) immigrants, while quietly or loudly enjoying the mass slaughter of brown people.
Also note how he is saying
“Harming the civilian population to such an extent as has increasingly been the case in recent days, can no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas terrorism,”
Meaning all the extent before, including executions of medics, rape of prisoners and all the other atrocities are justified in the eyes of the German government.
He added he planned to hold a call with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week to tell him “to not overdo it,”
So the destruction of almost all civillian infrastructure is acceptable. Displacing people dozens of times is acceptable. Starving people for 20 months is acceptable as long as it is done slowly…
The reason why Merz is saying something now is because Germany is getting more and more isolated.
Yeah, I also don’t believe anything a German politican says, but this is welcome news then, right? Opinion on the genocide seems to be turning in the EU?
Honest question, I can’t see the wider opinions from my info bubble.
Things are shifting in the EU. It seems like the EU - Israel association agreement will not be prolonged and Spain is pushing for an EU arms embargo on Israel. As that would also exclude ships carrying arms to Israel to use EU ports, this would only allow Israel to receive arms either directly from ships passing through Suez or through its port in the Gulf or complicit regimes, especially UAE. This would drive up the internal pressure in Muslim majority countries around Israel to stop their complicity.
People are tired of Israels bullshit and more and more politicians wake up to the fact that they can only lie for so long, when they cannot even gain anything out of it for their people, but instead Israel expects them to pay up. The same could happen with the US where all Trump needs to do is check the accounts properly and see how much money Israel is costing the US and what for.
Without the US Israel is done. But already without the EU as a trading partner and logistics access Israel will become very unsustainable economically. If the US wants to cover that, they will have to pay up much more.
The problem with Germany is that now they are trying to carry outwards, what they used to do inwards. Keep talking about how they remind Israel to uphold international law, how they “put a question mark” to the statement that Israel is in compliance with the laws, how the situation in Gaza is truly horrible and they work towards a two state solution by negotiations, but how recognizing a Palestinian state would jeopardize this, how stopping weapon shipments to Israel would jeopardize it, how it is all Hamas fault anyways and all the other nonsensical talking points you have heard over the past years.
The key takeaway here is that they are claiming that “talking to Israel” is what would move things to improve, while they oppose taking action as “too drastic”. It is good that they have to become louder in their words, but it is still meant to appease rather than to act.
I knew that after all, Eurovision is going to be the last straw /s
Seriously though, I can totally see the EU only being on board with unlimited support to Israel because they wanted to present a united front with the US, to give the US less excuse to leave the EU and Ukraine to its fate.
After Signalgate though, it showed how contemptous that relationship was, and how the US leadership views defending trade routes critical to the EU against the Houthis as a European task, despite the fact the danger to them came entirely as a result of the US-Israel alliance of the EU. I was totally thinking back then that this was not going to stand if these really are the cards, and there is no point for the EU to antagonise the Houthis just to please Trump for nothing in return.
Time to bring the deported protesters back then right?
German politicians are now in the Delay, Distract & Dissemble stage.
I’m not sure it’s at all possible for them to actually Act, even in the face of pictures of children dead from starvation.
Wait theyre not justified? Never have been
Antisemit!!!
Auchtung:
Ze government of Deuchland has become very uncomfortable vith recent events, and have decided that we are going to focus on listening instead of talking.
Please do not ask us to opine further on ze ge-WAR.
Zat is all. Danke.
[Walks off without taking questions]
