The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany and a prominent Christian Democratic Union (CDU) politician urged Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government to intervene militarily on the side of Israel in response to an Iranian regime attack on the Jewish state.
Dr. Josef Schuster, the president of the roughly 100,000-member Jewish community, told the news outlet RND on Tuesday that “Germany’s historical responsibility for Israel’s security is not legally binding, “adding “But from my point of view, this, of course, means that Germany will also stand militarily on the side of the Jewish state in the event of an attack of the magnitude that is currently threatened.”
The opposition CDU MP Roderich Kiesewetter, who is tasked with foreign policy, told German radio that the government must “finally wake up” in view of the worsening situation. He added that it is conceivable to refuel combat aircraft from friendly nations, but also to use Eurofighter aircraft to fend off Iranian drones.
Kiesewetter stressed Germany's aid would be defensive and told the FAZ paper it does not mean that Berlin will "attack targets in Iran.”
The CDU politician alluded to former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s security pledge to Israel during her 2008 Knesset speech. Merkel said at the time that “Israel's safety and security is a key element in Germany's national interests.”
The CDU MP, Thorsten Frei, said Israel has not requested immediate military support from Germany. The German defense minister, Boris Pistorius said on Saturday in South Korea that it was “completely unimaginable” for him that the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) will take part in a mission to protect Israel.
When asked by the Jerusalem Post if Germany will provide active military action to defend Israel, an interior spokesperson said “Please contact the responsible Ministry of Defense for questions regarding military support."
Germany’s federal commissioner to combat antisemitism, Felix Klein, did not go as far Schuster and Kiesewetter in pushing for active military aid as part of an allied coalition to defend Israel from Iran’s regime, the world’s worst state-sponsor of terrorism, according to the US State Department.Klein’s office is based in the German interior ministry (BMI).
Pro-Israel Germans express frustration
Klein said military support to Israel can be "justified"” and "Should there be an Iranian attack on Israel and the Israeli government requests military support from Germany, we should not refuse," the Funke media group reported. Klein declined to answer a Post press query if the BMI should immediately outlaw Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Germany. Many German companies conduct business deals with IRGC owned enterprises. The IRGC has sought to kill German Jews and pro-Israel activists in Germany and Europe. Iranian-German dissidents, Dr. Kazem Moussavi and Mina Ahadi, told the Post that the German government should ban the IRGC within the territory of Germany.
The Post also asked the BMI if the German city of Freiburg’s mayor, Martin Horn, should end its twin city partnership with the Iranian regime in Isfahan. The province and city of Isfahan are hubs for Iran’s development of nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles and drones. The interior ministry spokesman told the Post that "The BMI, as a principle, does not comment on the affairs of the municipalities.”
The Post sent press queries to the Ministry of Defence and the Bundeswehr.
The current left-center coalition government—Social Democrats, Free Democratic Party, and Green Party—have shown no appetite to furnish Israel with military troops, warships and fighter jets to aid the IDF against Iran’s clerical regime.
To the acute frustration of many pro-Israel Germans, the Green Party foreign minister Annalena Baerbock restarted funds for UNRWA, the scandal-plagued UN agency whose workers participated in the slaughter of nearly 1,200 people on October 7.
Kiesewetter’s plea to aid Israel found no echo within his party. When asked about Kieswetter’s appeal, Daniela Ludwig, a MP in the Bundestag who serves as the commissioner for Israel and to combat antisemitism for the CDU and Christian Social Union party, went silent. Jette Grabow, a spokesperson for Ludwig, told the Post “Unfortunately, Ms. Ludwig does not have time to be available for an interview.”
The Post also asked Ludwig about the growing number of antisemitism allegations against CDU commissioner in Baden-Württemberg, Michael Blume, who told the German media that Israel’s government is to blame for antisemitism in Europe--an expression of modern antisemitism, according to experts on the world's oldest hatred. The CDU in the German-State of Baden-Württemberg—under the leadership of CDU politician Manuel Hagel—have tolerated virulent antisemitism, according to German Jews and Israelis.
Blume endorsed an X post from an anti-Zionist agitator in the US in which he demanded that Prime Minister Netanyahu “tear down” the security fence in Judea and Samaria. Blume is tasked with fighting antisemitism. The Post reported that Israel’s government said Blume “often lacks moral clarity.” The Holocaust survivor and former director of the Jewish Claims Conference in Germany, Roman Haller, published a public letter demanding that Blume resign because he stoked antisemitism against the Jewish state.