Germany has remained one the most steadfast allies of Israel despite increasing concerns that the country could be breaking international law in its war on Hamas. This article maps out the reasons behind the German stance.
It might be time to stop calling it "German guilt". It is not the guilt of what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, but the self-inflicted trauma and suffering experienced by Germany during and after the war. Every German family has a war horror story, loss of loved ones, destruction of a town, and years of suffering. It is what the Holocaust brought to the German people, that acts as the strongest force behind "never again". It is not guilt, it is the awareness of what hate and ideological war can do to your own family and life. This is why the German people can sense the ideology behind the Palestinian holy war and Israel's need to defend itself.
The true lesson of the Holocaust is of course that you can’t half eradicate Nazism. Just as Germany had to be denazified by the Allies after the war, Gaza and the Occupied Territories will have to be dehamasified, to coin a phrase, if there is to be a future for the State of Israel. The dogma that Israel’s existence is part of Germany‘s Staatsraison is, incidentally, a lot older than Merkel‘s pronouncement, though erroneously, lately you hear a lot that this was her invention.
It might be time to stop calling it "German guilt". It is not the guilt of what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, but the self-inflicted trauma and suffering experienced by Germany during and after the war. Every German family has a war horror story, loss of loved ones, destruction of a town, and years of suffering. It is what the Holocaust brought to the German people, that acts as the strongest force behind "never again". It is not guilt, it is the awareness of what hate and ideological war can do to your own family and life. This is why the German people can sense the ideology behind the Palestinian holy war and Israel's need to defend itself.
I guess because I'm not German I don't quite understand the guilt (the worldwide obsession with WW2 I get) around the holocaust.
The Russians don't feel guilty about their history
The French feel no guilt about Algeria
The British feel a bit guilty about empire
Americans feel no guilt about slavery
All of Europe willing participated in the holocaust and promptly forgot about it.
Africans (as far as I know) feel no guilt about participation in slavery.
So on and so forth,
The true lesson of the Holocaust is of course that you can’t half eradicate Nazism. Just as Germany had to be denazified by the Allies after the war, Gaza and the Occupied Territories will have to be dehamasified, to coin a phrase, if there is to be a future for the State of Israel. The dogma that Israel’s existence is part of Germany‘s Staatsraison is, incidentally, a lot older than Merkel‘s pronouncement, though erroneously, lately you hear a lot that this was her invention.