“Our fight against anti-Semitism and our full support for the right to exist and the security of the state of Israel must not be instrumentalized for the conflict and the warfare currently being waged in the Gaza Strip,” Wadephul told public broadcaster WDR.
“We are now at a point where we have to think very carefully about what further steps to take […] Where we see dangers of harm, we will of course intervene and certainly not supply weapons so that there will be further harm.”
Germany has been one of Israel’s staunchest backers since the 7 Oct 2023 Hamas attacks, but the tone shifted as Gaza’s humanitarian crisis deepened and opinion polls showed a majority of Germans oppose continued arms exports.
Standing alongside Finland’s prime minister in Turku, Merz said Israel’s massive bombardments “no longer reveal any logic to me - how they serve the goal of confronting terror.” The chancellor, who meets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later this week, declined to say whether pending defense contracts would be frozen.
Pressure inside the coalition
Members of Merz’s Social Democratic coalition partner have urged an outright embargo, arguing Germany risks complicity in war crimes. Wadephul said no new export requests from Israel were currently on the table, but Berlin reserved the right to intervene.
The comments come as the European Union reviews its Israel policy and Britain, France and Canada threaten “concrete actions” over Gaza.
Public opinion sours
A Civey poll published this week showed 51 % of Germans oppose sending weapons to Israel. A separate Bertelsmann survey found that only 36 % now view Israel positively, down ten points since 2021.
Despite the tougher rhetoric, officials stressed Germany’s post-Holocaust “Staatsräson”—the pledge to guarantee Israel’s security—remains intact, even as Berlin weighs what Wadephul called the “unbearable” reality on the ground in Gaza.
Israeli strikes have killed dozens in recent days, while a UN-backed monitor warns that more than two million Gazans face worsening hunger. Israel says its operations respond to rocket and drone attacks on its “social infrastructure.”
(jh)
Source: Reuters, Rzeczpospolita