Former German chancellor Angela Merkel has defended Israel’s response to the October 7 massacre, highlighting the difficulty of fighting terrorists hiding behind civilians and criticising disproportionate media scrutiny, while saying that Israel had in some respects gone too far.
In an interview with the German podcast “Kaffee und Fluchen” (“Coffee and Cursing”), Merkel acknowledged the extraordinary difficulty facing Israel’s leaders in fighting Hamas in Gaza.
“I never had to make such a difficult decision,” she said, before describing the dilemma posed by Hamas operating beneath civilian infrastructure.
“When there is a bunker beneath every kindergarten and beneath every hospital, and Hamas is sitting there, knowing that I can only destroy its position if I simultaneously attack what is above it, then the task becomes at least somewhat more complicated,” she said.
An Israeli prime minister, she added, had a fundamental duty to protect his country’s citizens, just as Germans expected their own government to protect them.
“Because an Israeli prime minister must do everything possible to provide security for his citizens. That's what our citizens here in Germany also expect from those governing them,” she said. “He must be able to promise his citizens security, or at least the greatest possible degree of security. Otherwise, you won't get elected.”
Merkel, who visited the sites of the October 7 massacre near the Gaza border, insisted that any discussion of the war must begin with an acknowledgement of who started it and the existential threat Hamas poses to Israel.
“October 7 was not an attack by Israel on the Gaza Strip. It was an attack by Hamas on Israel,” she said.
She recalled that Israel had withdrawn completely from Gaza in 2005, the year she became chancellor, only for Hamas subsequently to seize control of the territory. The terrorist organisation’s declared ambition to destroy Israel, she stressed, was not an abstract threat.
“On October 7, they demonstrated that this is not merely a theoretical proposition. That has to be kept in mind if we want to have a reasonable discussion.”
Merkel also expressed astonishment at the relative absence of public criticism of Hamas from within Gaza, despite the devastating consequences of its attack for the territory’s own population.
“What surprises me, on the other hand, is that we've heard very, very few people from the Gaza Strip speaking critically about Hamas,” she said.
When the podcast host pointed out that speaking out against Hamas could be dangerous for Palestinians living under its rule, Merkel acknowledged the point.
The former chancellor also challenged the extraordinary attention devoted to Israel’s conduct in Gaza compared with other international conflicts, arguing that media coverage lacked proportion.
“If you look at how much is said about Yemen, where millions of children are starving, how much is said about Sudan, and how much is said about Israel, then there is also a certain disproportionality in the fact that virtually no discussion takes place about other situations,” she said.
Merkel reaffirmed her longstanding conviction that Israel’s security and right to exist form part of Germany’s "Staatsräson”, or reason of state, a principle rooted in the country’s historical responsibility for the Holocaust.
She first articulated that commitment during her chancellorship, most notably in her 2008 address to the Knesset, and insisted that it must continue to inform Germany’s approach to the Jewish state.
“I must always keep in mind how I can help ensure that the State of Israel continues to exist, and preferably that it can also live in peace,” she said.
Taking that responsibility seriously, she argued, meant rejecting one-sided condemnations that ignored the threats Israel faced from Hamas, Iran and other enemies seeking its destruction.
The former chancellor also criticised Germany’s Left Party over its stance towards Israel, warning against treating the threats to the Jewish state’s existence as merely theoretical.
Merkel nevertheless made clear that Germany’s special responsibility towards Israel did not amount to unconditional support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or his government.
She recalled having criticised Netanyahu repeatedly during her 16 years as chancellor and said there were legitimate grounds for doing so over the war in Gaza.
“In many respects, particularly regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Israel went too far,” she said.
“You can and must identify and speak openly about instances of disproportionality in what the civilian population is being forced to endure. Especially when it comes to food supplies and other matters.”
But Merkel insisted that such criticism must never lose sight of Israel’s right to defend itself and the circumstances in which its leaders had been forced to act.
“So criticism is not prohibited at all,” she said. “But I must always keep in mind how I can help ensure that the State of Israel continues to exist.”
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