2023-10-18 18:40:01
After Hamas’s murderous attack on Israel, there was in fact only one place for Germany: on the side of the invaded state and people. Chancellor Scholz underlined this by flying to Tel Aviv before Biden. There, with reference to the voluntary commitment owed to Germany’s past, he renewed his vow to stand up for Israel’s right to exist. Scholz once again resorted to a formula that is only used in Germany and only towards Israel: its security is German raison d’être.
This huge sentence is already political common knowledge in this country. But what exactly does it mean? The Chancellor leaves the Republic in the dark as to what this determination obliges the German state and thus its citizens to do in detail. What is actually meant by the term from pre-democratic times? Still that what is declared to be the reason of state takes precedence over all other values, principles and interests?
The term, which has been used again and again since Botero and Machiavelli and which today’s constitutional lawyers and political scientists also use differently, cannot be found in the German constitution. In the Basic Law, which takes the lessons of the past to heart from the first to the last article, it is not the state that comes first, but rather people and their dignity.
Federal President Gauck did not use the term
The republic has been waiting for a concrete interpretation of the reason of state formula since Chancellor Merkel used it at the United Nations in 2007 and in the Knesset a year later. Federal President Gauck did not adopt the term during his visit to Israel in 2012. He also “didn’t want to think up every scenario that would put the Chancellor in enormous difficulty in politically implementing her statement that security is German reasons of state.”
Back then, Gauck probably had in mind a war with Iran, which, like Hamas, wants to wipe out Israel. Tehran is one of the “actors” that Scholz warned in Tel Aviv against intervening in the current conflict. But what would Berlin do if its declarations of solidarity, diplomatic efforts and the return of two drones were not enough to deter Tehran’s terrorist group, Hezbollah, from attacking Israel?
Foreign Minister Baerbock said Israel would get all the help it needs from Germany, “even if it needs military support.” For CDU MP Kiesewetter, the sentence about raison d’état means “that we are prepared to defend the security of Israel with our lives.”
Would Berlin be prepared to bomb Tehran?
With such statements and definitions, the number of question marks does not decrease. Would Germany really be willing to send soldiers into battle with Hezbollah or into urban warfare in Gaza? Tornadoes to fire Taurus missiles at Tehran? Even if Berlin only wanted to supply weapons, it would come close to committing an oath of disclosure. To achieve this, the Bundeswehr would have to be further exploited or aid to Ukraine would have to be reduced.
Hopefully there will not be a steely test of the oath of reason of state. Israel appreciates Germany’s “incredible” solidarity – its security policy does not rely on armed help from Berlin. Much more important is the support of the superpower America. But in the end, the state, which has been attacked so often, relies only on its own strength. His nuclear weapons serve as his ultimate life insurance policy. Germany made its greatest contribution to Israel’s security years ago with the delivery of submarines, which are the backbone of Israel’s second-strike capability. Since then, Iran has known that a nuclear attack would result in its own destruction.
Hamas’ diabolical calculations are paying off
Currently, Germany can best help Israel by influencing the states that have control over whether the war escalates. That also depends on how Israel leads him. Hamas’s diabolical plan was undoubtedly aimed at forcing Israel into a reaction that would inflame hatred of the Middle East’s only democracy (not only) in the Arab world. The normalization of Israel’s relations with former enemies is a thorn in the side of Islamist fanatics of all stripes. Their calculation, to which they unscrupulously sacrifice even those they claim to be fighting for, is already working. There is no war without innocent victims.
Eckart Lohse, Berlin and Matthias Wyssuwa, Tel Aviv Published/Updated: Recommendations: 2 Franca Wittenbrink Published/Updated: Recommendations: 22 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 21 Thomas Gutschker, Matthias Wyssuwa and Franca Wittenbrink Published/Updated: Recommendations: 43
This is also something to keep in mind when formulas are used in Germany that sound like unconditional support on the one hand, but also like political imposture on the other. There is no doubting the good intentions. But what Gauck said in the migration debate also applies to German Middle East policy: Our hearts are wide, but our possibilities are finite. Merkel should actually have known this when she said the big word about reasons of state.
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