German envoy: 'No cause on earth justifies October 7'

• Published date: 26 April 2024
• Author: TOVAH LAZAROFF
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

"I get called a Nazi [by] pro-Palestinians... not all of them, but some of them... because I stand with Israel on some very principled questions," Seibert said as he spoke with The Jerusalem Post in his Tel Aviv office about the antisemitism and vitriolic debate that has surrounded the Israel-Hamas war

Standing with Israel as a German

"I also get called a Nazi" by some people "on the Israeli side, when I criticize, as I think I must, the terrible extremist settler violence" against innocent Palestinians, he said.

"Then very, very quickly" someone comments, "well, he, as a German, has to talk." Then "five seconds later, someone will use the word Nazi."

It's a barb that particularly hits home for Seibert given the complex history of the two peoples and nations, re-forging a new relationship in the aftermath of the Holocaust that speaks to the power of memory and forgiveness.

"When you're the German ambassador, you're reminded every day that you're not the Finnish or the Mexican ambassador and that there is a terrible history behind you," he said.

The tall, dynamic envoy so loves Israel and the Jewish people that he has taken time to study Hebrew with a tutor."I could do my daily work as an ambassador without Hebrew, but I would miss much. It opens the doors to a very Israeli and Jewish way of thinking."You start thinking about a word and that takes you 3,000 years back in some cases," exposing layers of Jewish thought and tradition, explained Seibert.He has an unusual history for a diplomat, arriving in Israel in 2022 after working for 21 years as a television journalist and then for another 11 as the spokesperson for former German chancellor Angela Merkel.Typically, he said, "98% of our ambassadors are from within the diplomatic services."So he was glad an exception was made in his case, he said, and even more appreciative to have been sent to Israel."In the whole diplomatic service of Germany," Seibert said, there "for me at least, is no more challenging, and no more rewarding post than this."Then came the invasion of Hamas, in October, in which Germany stood shoulder to shoulder with Israel."I represent a new Germany that has learned the lesson [of the Holocaust]. And this is very important to me."Seibert recalled how Merkel in addressing the Knesset in 2008 said that every "chancellor before me has shouldered Germany's special historical responsibility for Israel's security. This historical responsibility is part of my country's raison d'etre" and can...