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On December 3, 2012, pro-Israel German weekly Der Spiegel International reported that Germany’s recent abstention from voting on enhancing the Palestinians’ status in the UN General Assembly shows just how deeply frustrated Chancellor Angela Markel government is with the Netanyahu government’s policies.

“The UN vote was a defeat for Israel. In the end, 138 of the 193 UN member states supported the Palestinians’ petition including France and 13 other EU member state. Germany’s abstention weighed particularly heavy because it meant that Canada and the United States were the only major western nations to vote on Israel’s side,” wrote the paper.

Germany’s abstention irked Netanyahu. He said that he is disappointed in Chancellor Markel, who is the most admired foreign leader in Israel. Some Israeli lobbyist have equated Markel with former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who called Netanyahu a liar during a private meeting with Barack Obama in Paris in November 2011.

Angela Markel has also shown her displeasure over Netanyahu’s announcement of building new illegal Jewish houses units in occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem – and withholding NIS 1.6 billion of PA share of taxes collected by Israel.

“Netanyahu is nowhere near breaking the relationship between Germany and Israel. But it is fraying. Future chancellors of a Germany that is taking a more independent course in foreign affairs may not be as pro-Israel as Merkel. So Netanyahu is following a perilous path. He should be shoring up Israel’s relations abroad. Instead, his true legacy may be that he has further damaged Israel’s relations with key allies and isolated it,” wrote Jacob Heilbrunn, an American Jewish writer and author, on December 13, 2012.

It was under Anglo-American occupation of West Germany for decades, which re-established diplomatic, military and economic relations between Germans and Israeli Jews. German chancellor Konrad Adenauer, under American pressure signed a restitution agreement with Israel under which German taxpayers have paid over $93 billion so far to Israel for feeding a ’non-decreasing population’ of European Holocaust survivors. Since then, successive German chancellors have tried their best to follow Israeli dictation in order not to offend Washington which still keeps 53,000 soldiers in Germany. United States has used West Germany to supply several dozens of Phantom jets between 1965-68.

Markel has maintained US-Israel arms supply line by donating four Dolphin-class diesel-electric submarines (two more to follow) in June 2012. Israel has outfitted those with nuclear missiles to be used against Iran in future. She also voted against accepting the Palestinians into UNESCO last year.

Germany’s most famous living writer and Nobel Prize winner, Gunter Wilhelm Grass had criticized Markel’s decision to supply submarines to Israel – while calling the Zionist entity as great threat to world peace.

Markel irks Netanyahu on Palestine | Rehmat's World
 
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