Jerusalem, 18 March 2008. A first: German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivers a speech to the Knesset. Thus far, only heads of state, not heads of government, were permitted to address the Israeli parliament. The Knesset bylaws were changed to facilitate Merkel’s special address for the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel. The Chancellor had been known for her strong pro-Israel stance. In the speech, Merkel outlines Germany’s position on German-Israeli relations. She stresses the unique and eternal bond between the two countries through the memory of the Shoah, ‘which fills us Germans with shame’. As a lesson from the past, ‘antisemitism, racism and xenophobia must never be allowed to gain a foothold in Germany or Europe again.’ Today, Germany and Israel share the values of freedom, democracy, and respect for human dignity.
Addressing political tensions in the Middle East, especially the Iranian nuclear crisis, the Chancellor then utters the following words:
‘Here of all places, I want to explicitly stress that every German Government and every German Chancellor before me has shouldered Germany’s special historical responsibility for Israel’s security. This historical responsibility is part of my country’s Staatsräson,’ the German equivalent of raison d’état. The Chancellor continues, ‘for me as German Chancellor, therefore, Israel’s security will never be open to negotiation. And that being the case, we must do more than pay lip-service to this commitment at this critical point’.
Merkel concludes her speech with ‘Germany will never forsake Israel but will remain a true friend and partner.’ 16 years on and, so far, time has proven her right.
The current governing coalition, established in 2021 and succeeding the 16-year-long Merkel era, states in its coalition agreement that ‘for us, Israel’s security is Staatsräson’. Some days after the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, the present German Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivered a government statement at the Bundestag, the German parliament, invoking Merkel’s declaration of Staatsräson:
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