Germany is proving its love for Israel by muzzling dissent.
Michael Kuenne PRESSCOV / SIPA USA
Germany’s political leaders come and eventually go. The decisions they take can have consequences long after they leave office.
In 2008, Angela Merkel issued a solemn proclamation in her then capacity as chancellor. Israel’s security was a Staatsräson – a “reason of state” – for Germany, she affirmed.
The effects of that declaration are more pronounced in 2025 than they were 17 years ago.
The German authorities have ordered that four foreign residents be deported over their participation in protests against the Gaza genocide. The Staatsräson policy is cited in three of the four orders.
Merkel’s formal commitment to defend Israel’s “security” has now become a tool of repression.
Three of the four people the German authorities wish to expel – the orders are being contested – come from countries inside the European Union (Ireland and Poland). Although the EU nominally regards the free movement of people as sacrosanct, the deportation threats have mainly met with indifference – or perhaps tacit approval – by the Brussels hierarchy.
Sadly, that is not surprising. Germans occupy key positions in the EU’s institutions.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann chairs the European Parliament’s committee on security and defense. Staatsräson permeates her work, though she is less than frank about how it does.
In a form she signed during June last year, Strack-Zimmermann admitted that she sat on the German advisory board of the European Leadership Network (Elnet), a pro-Israel lobby group.
The following month she made a pledge undertaking to behave with “integrity and transparency” as a committee chair. When making that pledge, she claimed that she had “no conflict of interest” to declare.
The claim is astonishing as Israel will almost certainly benefit from the EU’s efforts to bolster its weapons industry and increase military expenditure, the main topics addressed by Strack-Zimmermann and her committee.
Perks
I contacted Strack-Zimmermann asking her to explain why she believed there was no conflict of interest.
“You are misinformed,” she replied. “I am not a member of the Elnet advisory board.”
Strack-Zimmermann did not respond to a follow-on query, seeking clarification. In that query, I pointed out that she had confirmed in 2024 that she was part of the Elnet team and asked if she had subsequently stepped down.
Even if she is no longer counseling the pro-Israel lobby directly, Strack-Zimmermann retains close connections with it.
Two weeks ago, she hosted a visit to the European Parliament by Carsten Ovens, head of Elnet’s German branch, who lauded her as a “powerful liberal voice in the European Parliament.” After their discussions, Ovens pointed out that the EU and Israel are “strong partners” and contended that “we can only gain by further deepening our relations” particularly in the areas of “security and defense.”
Eine kraftvolle liberale Stimme im @Europarl_DE. Vielen Dank, @MAStrackZi, für den intensiven Austausch. 🇪🇺 und 🇮🇱 sind starke Partner. Insbesondere in Sicherheits- und Verteidigungsfragen können wir nur gewinnen, wenn wir unsere Beziehungen weiter vertiefen. pic.twitter.com/rE80Cyi7iY
— Carsten Ovens (@CarstenOvens) March 12, 2025
Strack-Zimmermann is known to have held talks with Israeli diplomats since taking up her job as a committee chair. She has also been lobbied by Diehl Defence, a German firm that clinched a 2024 deal on rocket artillery ammunition with Israel’s Elbit Systems, a major supplier of weapons used in waging the genocidal war against Gaza.
Strack-Zimmermann has stated that she advised Elnet free of charge. Even if she was not paid, she has availed of the perks awarded to politicians befriended by the Israel lobby.
In 2022 – when she was a member of Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag – Strack-Zimmermann led an Elnet-funded trip to the Middle East.
Participants in that junket celebrated how modern Germany was building submarines for Israel. When she was not marveling at the destructive potential of such vessels – it has been widely reported that they can carry nuclear missiles – Strack-Zimmermann lamented how the “suffering the Nazis inflicted on the Jews” defies comprehension.
The pretext for the crimes committed by Germany in the 1930s and the 1940s is not a mystery. Adolf Hitler and his acolytes spent decades preaching hatred of Jews, then implemented a plan for industrial scale murder once they were able to do so.
Taking a page out of the Nazi playbook, Israel described the Palestinians in Gaza as “human animals” in October 2023, then set about trying to exterminate them.
History is seldom complicated or difficult to understand – unless you are determined to learn nothing from it. Blinkered by Staatsräson, Germany is standing by Israel as it commits a holocaust in the 21st century.
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