Merkel should be acknowledged for her strong support of Israel - editorial

• Author: JPOST EDITORIAL
• Published date: 09 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Merkel, who stepped down from her post in August after serving 16 years, could have decided to stay in Germany and ride out the remaining days of her government and until a new coalition is formed, most likely by the Social Democratic Party and its leader, Vice-Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

But instead, Merkel is coming to Israel and will meet with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, President Isaac Herzog, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, and participate in a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

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Merkel and Bennett will visit Yad Vashem and the outgoing chancellor will also be awarded an honorary doctorate from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and join a roundtable at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

Merkel is doing all of this because she is a true friend of the State of Israel and the Jewish people and for that we thank her. There is no pressing diplomatic issue that requires she come to Israel and there is currently no major international crisis that she - a lame duck chancellor - needs to manage right now.

She is coming to Israel on her eighth visit as chancellor to convey a message to Germany, Israel and Europe just how committed her country is to the security and viability of the Jewish state, its future and its success.

Under her reign, Germany took strides toward Israel unseen in the past. One clear example was in the subsidy provided for Israel's procurement of advanced German Dolphin-class submarines, an issue that later unfortunately became embroiled in controversy amid corruption charges brought against top Israeli officials involved in the deal. She helped Israel within the corridors of the European Union, with Germany frequently referred to as Israel's closest friend on the continent.

Merkel famously was the first German chancellor to address the Knesset in 2008 and declared that Germany's responsibility for Israel's security was part of its raison d'être. A decade later, in another visit to Jerusalem, she said that Germany is committed to "everlasting responsibility" to Israel "due to the crimes of the Holocaust."

But as Herb Keinon pointed out in these pages last week, her presumptive successor does not necessarily share that same emotional attachment to Israel. "What that means for Israel is that...