by Canaan Lidor
The head of the CDU's sister movement in Bavaria vowed to initiate "internal discussions on this within the coalition."
The German government’s decision last week to halt exports to Israel of weapons that may be used in Gaza elicited strong-worded condemnations by Jewish groups, and triggered an internal debate within the party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), that German state’s branch of Merz’s Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), publicly objected to the ban, which the German leader announced on Aug. 8, and said it would initiate an internal coalition discussion about it.
“The CSU was not involved in this decision, and we consider it questionable. This would be a departure from decades of foreign policy continuity toward Israel and, as such, requires at least some explanation. We will hold internal discussions on this within the coalition,” Alexander Hoffman, head of the group of CSU parliamentarians in the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, according to the Die Zeit newspaper.
Stephan Pilsinger, another Bundestag lawmaker from the CSU, warned that the move could cost Germany when it requires Israeli security assistance. “What happens if the Israeli government turns the tables and we no longer receive support from Israel, be it in air defense or Mossad intelligence for counterterrorism?” he told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper. “Currently, we feel like we benefit more from Israel in terms of security policy than Israel benefits from us.”
Joe Chialo, the previous culture minister in the government of the state of Berlin, called Merz’s announcement a “betrayal” in an op-ed published by Bild on Saturday.
“Now Germany is withdrawing military equipment from Israel of all places—knowing full well that at the slightest hail of rockets against Berlin or Munich, we would beg for protection of the Iron Dome,” he warned.
Merz announced the embargo on Aug. 8 in a statement. “The Federal government will, until further notice, withhold approval for the export of any military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip,” he wrote, adding that this was a response to the Israeli cabinet’s decision the previous day to intensify its military campaign in Gaza against Hamas.
The Jewish state “bears an even greater responsibility for ensuring the population’s needs are met” given its intent to intensify military efforts in Gaza, the statement read.
Israel’s ambassador to German, Ron Prosor, on Tuesday told the Welt newspaper in an interview: “Berlin and Jerusalem agree that Hamas must be disarmed. But now, the discussion is about disarming Israel. This is a celebration for Hamas,” he said.
In a post published on X shortly after Merz’s announcement, Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, joined Israel in criticizing the move. He called it a “change of course [that] contradicts all expressions of solidarity and promises that the Federal Chancellor has made since taking office.”
Israel, Schuster added, “is attacked daily by enemies in the Middle East and bombarded with rockets, not only by the terrorist Hamas in the Gaza Strip. To now deprive Israel of the ability to defend itself against such threats endangers its existence.” Germany, he added, “must increase its pressure on the terrorist organization Hamas instead of on Israel. The federal government should correct its chosen path as quickly as possible.”
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), established in 2019 and whose advisory board is headed by former Jewish Agency for Israel chairman Natan Sharansky, called Germany’s decision “extremely disturbing.”
Germany “has taken this step in trying to
prevent the Jewish State’s legitimate and necessary steps in defeating
today’s modern Nazis, Hamas, who perpetrated the greatest massacre of
Jews since the Holocaust,” CAM CEO Sacha Roytman told JNS.
He
noted that Merz “said only a few weeks ago that the State of Israel was
doing the world’s ‘dirty work’.” Roytman added: “We hope that Germany
reverses this decision as soon as possible and helps Israel continue the
world’s dirty work and fight murderous fundamentalism for the good of
all of us, Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.”
Canaan Lidor
Source: https://www.jns.org/arms-embargo-on-israel-splits-germanys-ruling-party/
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