Germans' opinion of Israel has deteriorated
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A study by the Bertelsmann Foundation, published on Friday, confirms a trend that predates October 7. Only 36% of respondents today express a positive opinion of Israel, which is 10 points less than in 2021.
Friedrich Merz, made unequivocal statements. "It must be very clear again that Germany is not in a gray area, but that it stands very clearly alongside Israel," he warned during a speech at the Körber Foundation on January 23. He also promised to "put an end to this more or less effective embargo on arms exports to Israel" and deemed it "inconceivable" to prevent "an Israeli prime minister from visiting Germany or elsewhere in Europe
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A study by the Bertelsmann Foundation, published on Friday, confirms a trend that predates October 7. Only 36% of respondents today express a positive opinion of Israel, which is 10 points less than in 2021.
Friedrich Merz, made unequivocal statements. "It must be very clear again that Germany is not in a gray area, but that it stands very clearly alongside Israel," he warned during a speech at the Körber Foundation on January 23. He also promised to "put an end to this more or less effective embargo on arms exports to Israel" and deemed it "inconceivable" to prevent "an Israeli prime minister from visiting Germany or elsewhere in Europe
"The far-right party AfD and some conservatives have partly succeeded in making anti-Semitism an issue for others," he said. "When you blur the line between criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism, you avoid talking about far-right anti-Semitism, which is, in my opinion, the crux of the problem, if one believes the incidents reported by the Central Council of Jews in Germany." He acknowledged the existence of anti-Semitism in certain Muslim circles in Germany, "but no one dares to talk about it for fear of being instrumentalized." The polarization is such that the conflict in Israel is "actually a projection of the question of immigrant integration."
This raises a key aspect of the insanity of it. pro-Israeli lobby groups have been pushing this narrative of "imported antisemitism" together with the far right. Netanyahu recently invited many Fascists from Europe and the German AfD is one of the loudest supporter for Israel in Germany with the other parties often following the AfD. This mounted to two recent resolutions to "combat antisemitism" by the federal parliament that was jointly passed by AfD, CDU/CSU, SPD, FDP and Greens. The first resolution gave an example of "Antisemitism" in the Berlinale 2024 where the Israeli and Palestinian Directors of the documentary "No other Land" criticised Israel as an Apartheid regime. The resolution however did not mention the terror attack in Halle where a German neonazi tried to storm a synagogue and murder Jews. Instead the nazi went to a nearby kebab place and murdered two people after he failed to enter the synagogue. This example shows that Jews and Muslims are interchangeable as opportunistic targets of nazi terror.
The AfD fascists are instrumentalizing the alleged fight against Antisemitism for racist and authoritarian policies while also sporting the main source of Antisemitism in Germany in the shape of neonazis. Most of the other parties in parliament play this game instead of challenging it and pro-Israeli lobby groups are joining in on it.
At the end of this everybody looses including Jewish Germans and other Jewish people living in Germany.
Edit with sources:
Halle synagogue shooting
Jewish Currents - Strange logic of Germanies Antisemitism bureaucrats
2019 anti-BDS resolution
2024 resolution to combat antisemitism
GER - Press conference of scientists and artists criticizing the 2024 resolution
GER - Press conference of scientists and artists criticizing the 2025 resolution