The nation that perpetrated the Holocaust will
never be in a position to lecture Israel on human
rights, said Jan Fleischhauer. Foreign Minister
Sigmar Gabriel was inundated with praise last
week after he refused to cancel meetings with
pro-Palestinian groups in Israel that Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu claimed were actively
working to undermine Israeli security. Gabriel’s
intransigence prompted Netanyahu to cancel his
own planned meeting with the foreign minister,
and Gabriel’s visit ended with “mutual recriminations
and a badly damaged relationship.” Yet German
pundits feted Gabriel as if he had stood up
to a tyrant, rather than spurned one of Germany’s
most important allies. I get it: It’s frustrating when
Israel doesn’t listen to us, even though they are
clearly harming Palestinian civil rights. But you
know what? “There are plenty of other countries
that also know what Israel should do, and that
don’t have 6 million Jews on their consciences.”
Sure, it’s a “heavy burden” for Germans to bear,
and the temptation is strong to throw it back at
Israelis, to say that they, too, have sinned, so we’re
off the hook. That old saying “The Germans will
never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz” still holds
true. Gabriel, who has spoken of his shame at
having a “committed Nazi for a father,” is its living
embodiment.
