Germany's ambassador to U.N. compares Israel to Hamas
Germany’s best-selling paper slams UN ambassador for anti-Israel attacks.
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALGermany's Ambassador to the UN, Christoph Heusgen(photo credit: REUTERS/AXEL SCHMIDT)
NEW YORK – Germany’s best-selling newspaper Bild published a scathing editorial last week accusing the country’s UN Ambassador Christoph Heusgen of betraying Chancellor Angela Merkel’s security pledge to Israel by comparing the Jewish State to the terrorist organization Hamas.The editorial, authored by Filipp Piatov, took Heusgen to task for comparing Israel’s security measures against Palestinian terrorists with Hamas rocket attacks.In response to Heusgen’s statement that “Civilians must live without fear of Palestinian rockets or Israeli bulldozers,” the Bild journalist wrote: “After 130 missiles in a week, pure malice. Murderous rockets are not bulldozers. The Israeli government is not a terrorist militia. This comparison has nothing to do with the promise of Chancellor Merkel.”In 2008, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Israel’s Knesset: “For me as German chancellor, Israel’s security is non-negotiable.”The Bild journalist wrote, ”At the UN Security Council meeting, German UN Ambassador Christoph Heusgen compared Hamas rocket terrorism with the demolition of houses without a building permit – a means that Israel uses against buildings illegally built by Palestinians,” as well as Israelis.The journalist further noted that Heusgen’s parallel between Hamas and Israel came after “In recent days, the radical Islamic Hamas has fired more than 130 missiles at Israel... injuring seven people, including two small children.”The US government, the European Union and Israel classify the Sunni Jihadi organization Hamas as a terrorist entity.Piatov concluded his editorial: “When Islamist terrorists fire rockets at Israeli children,” the German government should be “crystal clear about standing on Israel’s side.”Germany voted 16 times at the UN in 2018 to condemn Israel.In mid-March, the German parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of Merkel’s anti-Israel voting record at the UN. The vote in the Bundestag was from a total of 626 MPs participating. An eye-popping 408 voted to reject a pro-Israel resolution to urge Merkel to change her anti-Jewish state voting pattern, while 155 urged its acceptance. A total of 63 MPs abstained.
Israeli diplomats have expressed to The Jerusalem Post over the last eight years their intense loathing of Heusgen because of his alleged anti-Israel activities.A Wikileaks cable revealed in 2010 that Heusgen, who was Merkel’s foreign policy adviser at the time, urged the US to water down its opposition to the UN’s anti-Israel “Goldstone Report” in order to force Israel to freeze settlement construction.
