Ex-German chancellor Merkel defends Israel’s Gaza conduct, says some actions ‘disproportionate’

Former German chancellor Angela Merkel defends Israel against much of the criticism it has faced over its conduct in Gaza following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, stressing the complexity of its security dilemma in the Strip.

Speaking on the German podcast Kaffee und Fluchen over the weekend, Merkel comments on whether Israel’s military response in Gaza has been “disproportionate,” stressing that Hamas’s presence within civilian infrastructure greatly complicates the question.

Merkel says that while serving as chancellor from 2005 to 2021, “I always tried to put myself in the position of the people I was speaking with. And if you try to put yourself in the position of an Israeli prime minister, that is such a difficult task, one that I never had to solve — if there is a bunker beneath every kindergarten, beneath every hospital, and Hamas is sitting there, knowing that I can only destroy its position if I also attack what is above it, then the task becomes, at the very least, somewhat more complicated.”

She adds, “An Israeli prime minister must do everything to be able to promise his citizens what our citizens here in Germany also demand from their political leaders: security – the greatest possible degree of security. Otherwise, you don’t get elected.”

Merkel nevertheless acknowledges Palestinian suffering in Gaza, saying “one must call this disproportionality by its name in certain cases,” pointing particularly “to food supplies and other matters” throughout the war.

The former chancellor rejects what she describes as “one-sided” criticism of Israel, singling out the Left Party in Berlin as being problematic in this regard. She says that while “criticism is by no means forbidden… one must always keep in mind: How can I ensure that the State of Israel continues to exist, and that it can live, preferably, in peace?”

She also critiques what she views as disproportionate attention to Israel compared with other humanitarian crises: “If you look at how much is said about Yemen, where millions of children are starving! How much is said about Sudan? And how much is said about Israel? Then it is, in a certain sense, also somewhat disproportionate.”

Merkel, a longtime supporter of the Jewish state, visited Israel last November to tour sites in the country’s south attacked by Hamas, and received an honorary doctorate from the Weizmann Institute of Science.