Correction Statement
This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not affect the academic content of the article.
Notes
1 Matthias Kammann, “Mehrheit für Solidarität mit Israel—aber nicht unter AfD-Anhängern” [Majority in favor of solidarity with Israel—but not among AfD supporters], Die Welt, October 19, 2023, https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article248056114/Umfrage-zu-Israel-Mehrheit-der-Deutschen-fuer-Solidaritaet-mit-Israel-nur-nicht-unter-AfD-Anhaengern.html.
2 Ellen Ehni, “Mehrheit in großer Sorge wegen Nahost,” ARD, November 2, 2023, https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/deutschlandtrend/deutschlandtrend-3408.html.
3 Note the difference with the Forsa survey in October. Back then, 51 percent answered “no” to the question “Does Germany have a special obligation toward [eine besondere Verpflichtung gegenüber] Israel?” The Allensbach question in November was: “Does Germany have a special responsibility for the fate [eine besondere Verantwortung für das Schicksal] of Israel?”
4 Renate Köcher, “Mehrheit der Deutschen steht nicht an der Seite Israels” [Majority of Germans Are Not on Israel’s Side], Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, November 23, 2023, https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/umfrage-zu-nahost-krieg-mehrheit-der-deutschen-nicht-an-der-seite-israels-19332200.html.
5 “Schuldenbremse: Mehrheit gegen Lockerungen,” ZDF, November 24, 2023, https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/deutschland/politbarometer-ampel-koalition-haushaltskrise-regierung-100.html.
6 For a particularly instructive example, see Livia Gerster’s “Als ob sich ein leerer Raum um einen bildete” [As if an empty space were forming around you], Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, November 5, 2023, https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/angriffe-auf-juden-in-deutschland-wo-die-empathie-der-mehrheit-bleibt-19288907/sicherheitsvorkerungen-an-der-19294037.html.
7 Eva Illouz, “Wir, die Linken? Nicht mehr” [We, the left? No longer], Süddeutsche Zeitung online, October 27, 2023, https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/eva-illouz-linke-hamas-1.6295055.
8 “Streit um Israel-Statement: Regula Venske tritt bei PEN zurück” [Dispute over Israel statement: Regula Venske resigns from PEN], Bayerischer Rundfunk Kultur, November 20, 2023, https://www.br.de/nachrichten/kultur/streit-um-israel-statement-regula-venske-tritt-bei-pen-zurueck,Tw9iiYX.
9 Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz, “Robert Habeck on Israel and Antisemitism,” YouTube, November 3, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdZvkkpJaVI.
10 Anna-Lena Scholz, “Das Unbehagen an Judith Butler” [The Uneasiness with Judith Butler], Die Zeit, November 16, 2023, https://www.zeit.de/2023/48/judith-butler-israel-hamas-lebenswerk-universitaet.
11 Deborah Feldman, “Germany is a good place to be Jewish. Unless, like me, you’re a Jew who criticizes Israel,” The Guardian, November 13, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/13/germany-jewish-criticise-israel-tv-debate.
12 See the groundbreaking essay by A. Dirk Moses, “Der Katechismus der Deutschen” [The German Catechism], Geschichte der Gegenwart, May 21, 2021, https://geschichtedergegenwart.ch/der-katechismus-der-deutschen/.
13 Nicole Deitelhoff, Rainer Forst, Klaus Günther, and Jürgen Habermas, “Principles of solidarity: A Statement,” Normative Orders, November 13, 2023, https://www.normativeorders.net/2023/grundsatze-der-solidaritat/. See also Philip Oltermann, “Israel-Hamas war opens up German debate over meaning of ‘Never again,’” The Guardian, November 22, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/22/israel-hamas-war-opens-up-german-debate-over-meaning-of-never-again. This article is full of inaccuracies and misinterpretations.
14 Ulrich Gutmaier, “Der Antisemitismus der Progressiven” [The Antisemitism of the Progressives], Tageszeitung (taz), November 5, 2023, https://taz.de/Free-Palestine-from-German-Guilt/!5967918/.
15 However, Bartov signed the following text: “An Open Letter on the Misuse of Holocaust Memory,” The New York Review of Books, November 20, 2023, https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/11/20/an-open-letter-on-the-misuse-of-holocaust-memory/.
16 Quoted from Sam Sokol, “The Tension between Historical Memory and Realpolitik in Israel’s Foreign Policy,” The Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, XII:3 (January 2019), 317.
17 “Israel–Palestine attitudes in the US and Western Europe,” YouGov Eurotrack Survey Results, May 10–23, 2023; and “Attitudes to the Israel–Palestine conflict in Western Europe and the USA in 2023,” YouGov, July 3, 2023, https://yougov.co.uk/international/articles/45869-attitudes-israel-palestine-conflict-western-europe.
18 Timothy Garton Ash, In Europe’s Name: Germany and the Divided Continent (New York, 1993), p. 601.
19 “The war in Ukraine is going to change geopolitics profoundly,” The Economist, March 5, 2022, https://www.economist.com/briefing/2022/03/05/the-war-in-ukraine-is-going-to-change-geopolitics-profoundly.
20 “Vereinsverbote ‘HAMAS’ und ‘Samidoun,’” Bundesministerium des Innern und für Heimat, November 2, 2023, https://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/pressemitteilungen/DE/2023/11/vereinsverbot-hamas-samidoun.html.
21 Bundesanzeiger, BAnz AT 02.11.2023 B10, p. 6, www.bundesanzeiger.de/pub/publication/M0JVrk5Qop55DhqscjE/content/M0JVrk5Qop55DhqscjE/BAnz%20AT%2002.11.2023%20B10.pdf.
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Michael Mertes
Michael Mertes is a German freelance writer and analyst. He served as a political adviser to Chancellor Helmut Kohl from 1987–98. Mr. Mertes worked as a journalist from 1998–2006 and represented the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to the federal and European institutions in Berlin and Brussels from 2006–10. From 2011–14, he headed the Israel Office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.