Chancellor Angela Merkel defends Germany’s voting record on Israel at the United Nations, arguing that supporting the country doesn’t mean backing all of its actions.
The Jerusalem Post reported last week that the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center criticized Germany’s ambassador to the UN, Christoph Heusgen, for casting “anti-Israel votes” among other things. The German government strongly backed Heusgen, who previously served for years as Merkel’s foreign policy adviser.
“A commitment to the State of Israel … does not mean 100% agreement with all of Israel’s political actions,” Merkel says during a regular question-and-answer session in the German parliament.
She notes that European Union countries consult on how to vote at the UN, where Germany is currently serving a two-year stint on the Security Council.
Germany works to try to ensure that “all tendencies that we can influence that could embody an anti-Israel stance” are removed from resolutions, she adds. “So I think we are doing good work.”
— AP
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