Merz: Israel's actions in Gaza can 'no longer be justified' - Euractiv
Merz: Israel's actions in Gaza can 'no longer be justified'
The Israeli government's actions in Gaza "can no longer be justified," said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday, signalling a profound shift in tone from one of Europe's traditionally most staunch supporters of Israel.
Ok so despite the other salty comments, I do feel like this is a big shift in Germany’s rhetoric, and it’s a move in the right direction.
Yes, the actual news is that he said it, aloud and in public.
Problem is that it is only a rhetorical shift. At the same time Germany opposes to review the EU association agreement with Israel. The same day the government reemphasized that they want to continue selling weapons to Israel against a parliamentary initiative.
They try to claim that them "talking" to Israel is working, while opposing any actual action.
It is crucial not to let them get away with it. Merz is big on talk and it is often not followed by action, or by action directly opposing the talk. For instance they blew up the former government by blocking the taking on of new debt to finance infrastructure investments/upkeep that are direly needed. Now as the new government they passed a huge block of new debt to do exactly that.
It is a poor attempt of getting plausible deniability.
When is genocide ever justified? Fuck Israel.
Some kind of military response in Gaza was justified by October 7. Not the wholesale slaughter of civilians we have seen. But something beyond stern words of disapproval.
Why? Have military responses been shown to improve the situation in the past few decades? Isn't October 7 the direct result of decades of military responses by both sides? Wouldn't it make more sense to suppress that instinctive desire for revenge and say "enough is enough, this approach is clearly not working"? Especially if you are the only side in the conflict that has a chance to keep everyone on your side from acting independently since guerrilla cells don't exactly lend themselves to centralized control.
Why would colonial violence ever be justified?
"Only a little genocide is justified, but this is too much!"
Germany still sells Israel weapons.
No longer should have happened decades ago.
Took him rather long to notice what nearly the whole world has known for quite some time now.
