Angela’s Got Game

A few days before she embarked on a 3-day state visit to Israel (from March 16 to 18), public opinion and the German media were still dubitative : over and above the particularity of the relationship between Germany and the Jewish State, why the devil was Angela Merkel wrapping the visit in such a mantle of significance ? Even if she did announce that she would make a visit specifically to the Palestinian Territories in the near future, wasn’t she running the risk of being perceived as pro-Israeli ? Legitimate questions when you consider the diplomatic means Angela Merkel deployed for her visit to Israel : bringing all of her cabinet’s heavy artillery along with her, and delivering a speech described as “historic” before the Israeli Parliament, stressing the value of German-Israeli friendship. Symbolically, she is also the first Head of State to commemorate in Israel the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish State. And strategically, she raised Israel to the rank of “natural” allies with whom Germany maintains inter-ministerial consultations (along with Russia, Poland, Italy, Spain, France and others).“ A lot of people thought that this visit would be nothing more than a required minimum to acknowledge, once again, the “very particular” relationship between the two countries,” explains a diplomat in Berlin.

Especially since Angela Merkel didn’t stand to gain anything from it at home. According to the latest surveys, only 3% of Germans say they are “pro-Israel,” while 91% want their country to maintain a strictly neutral position towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But tongues have been wagging since the Chancellor’ got back to Berlin. They’re talking openly about getting Germany’s foreign and Middle Eastern policy back on track after Chancellor Schroeder’s “wimpy” and wishy-washy attitude : doing business with the Arab world while bombarding Israel with friendly overtures. In a nutshell, all talk, no action. Angela Merkel, it would seem, is more into the “I say what I do and I do what I say”.

She proved it recently by welcoming the Dalai Lama without losing any contracts in China, despite the squeals of anger emanating from Beijing. In Russia, the dynamic duo Medvedev-Putin noticed the change too : she was the first foreign Head of State to come and congratulate the pair on their victory at the Russian presidential elections. Nevertheless, when it comes to Israel, German policy also means “friends don’t let friends get out of line” as an upper-echelon German civil servant pointed out. That was the context in which Germany invited both the Israelis and the Palestinians to participate in a Peace Conference in Berlin in late June. Just a few days before the beginning of the French presidency of the European Union, which starts on July 1st ! Both Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas have already accepted the invitation. Their old friend Sarkozy, obliged to stand on the sidelines as European leadership on the Israeli-Palestinian issue is wrested away from France, is sure to appreciate it all the more in that the American Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, warmly approved the initiative. All that makes it a little easier for Angela Merkel to be magnanimous about Nicolas Sarkozy’s sudden whim for a Mediterranean Union…

Translated by Regan Kramer

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Elle en a, tata Angela