Germany had a past tense with Israel mired in the scars of the Holocaust. Time became the great healer and the changing dynamics were shaped by Germany’s sense of guilt and Israel’s desire to move on.
Germany’s genocide of six million Jews between 1933 and 1945 when Adolf Hitler turned anti-Semitism into holocaust has shaped its policymaking post World War II and shaped its view of the world.
Shani Louk, a German woman, was among 1,300 Israelis killed in a Hamas attack in Israel. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was quick to condemn the terror unequivocally. “What we saw on the Gaza border was beyond a pogrom. We saw a sluaghterhouse,” Scholz said.
Germany’s unstinted support for the Jewish nation and opposition to terror became all the more apparent when Scholz declared his country’s decision to side with Israel in the German Parliament Bundestag. “At this moment, there is only one place for Germany. That is the side of Israel,” Scholz said.
“That’s what we mean when we say, ‘Israel’s security is German ‘reason of state.'”
Incidentally, Scholz became the first Western leader to visit Israel after the Hamas attacks. The foundation of the Israel-German relationship was being laid for some time. Iarael’s fear of attack by Iran significantly drew the Jewish nation close to Germany in 2022 when the ex-PM Yair Lapid visited Germany. Israel’s ambassador in Berlin Ron Prosor also came up with a big statement.
He mentioned German-Israeli relations as the most intense strategic relationship that Israel has with Europe after the US.