Tensions are rising in Jerusalem as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz present sharply opposing visions for the future of Gaza and Palestinian statehood. During Merz’s first official visit, Germany refused to recognize a Palestinian state, while Netanyahu announced that the second phase of Israel’s security plan to disarm Hamas and establish a transitional authority in Gaza is “very close.”
00:00In view of the severe suffering endured by the civilian population of Gaza, we also had to take a stand here.
00:05In the meantime, thanks to the mediation of President Trump, we have achieved a ceasefire in Gaza.
00:11There are always setbacks, but the war that raged for two years is over, and peace, a lasting peace, is possible.
00:19The return home of the last surviving hostages, among them German citizens, has moved and delighted us.
00:25Now, as we both discussed, we must succeed in implementing the second phase of the peace plan,
00:30Germany is helping. We have sent officers and diplomats to the civil military center in Kiryat Gat.
00:35We are providing humanitarian aid for the people in Gaza, who continue to live under very precarious conditions.
00:41We will contribute to the reconstruction.
00:43Above all, we will continue to engage diplomatically to bring about peace.
00:47One thing is clear, there can be no role for Hamas in Gaza.
00:51Gaza must no longer pose a threat to Israel.
00:54We must not think or act too short-sightedly now.
00:57After the traumas of war that both Israelis and Palestinians have endured, we must lay the foundation for a new order in this region.
01:04A new order in which Israelis, Palestinians and their Arab neighbors can live together permanently in peace, freedom, security and dignity.
01:11We are working towards the goal of a new Middle East, in which the state of Israel is recognized and accepted as an integral part.
01:19Our conviction is that the prospective establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel likely offers the best prospects for precisely this future.
01:28A two-state solution can only be achieved through negotiations, and it will stand at the end of those negotiations.
01:34But these negotiations are precisely what is necessary now.
01:37The German federal government maintains its position that the recognition of a Palestinian state can only come at the end, and not at the beginning of such a process.
01:46That is why the federal government provides assistance to the Palestinian Authority.
01:51There are many valid criticisms that can be made of this Authority.
01:54I do so as well.
01:55I also spoke about this with President Abbas yesterday morning.
01:58But especially now, when there are approaches to reform, we should offer our support.
02:02It is also part of the truth, ladies and gentlemen, that from our perspective, there can be no steps toward annexation in the West Bank.
02:08No formal political construction-related or any other measures that would, in effect, amount to annexation.
02:15These and other statements are very important because they reflect a deeper commitment which expresses the intertwined destinies of Israel and Germany.
02:25We went through the greatest tragedy that any people suffered on German soil and committed by Germans.
02:35And the generations that followed the Holocaust understood that there was a special moral commitment to enable the Jewish state, the Jewish people, to recover from this horror.
02:46And Germany was committed and remains committed to Israel's security in many important ways.
02:53What has happened since the rise of the Jewish state is that we have been able to fend off our enemies.
03:00And in order to do that, we developed capacities that now enable us to reciprocate.
03:08Not only does Germany work in the defense of Israel, but Israel, the Jewish state, 80 years after the Holocaust, works for the defense of Germany.
03:20And that is a historical change that comes at the time of great international turbulence and change.
03:30We are undergoing vilification on a historic scale.
03:36A historic scale for the last 80 years, but not for the Jewish people.
03:40We've been maligned through centuries.
03:41In the Middle Ages, in Germany and throughout medieval Europe, we were accused of poisoning the wells, of slaughtering Christian children to use their blood to bake Passover matzahs.
03:55We were carrying vermin.
03:57These were the accusations that were always, always preceded the actual annihilation that followed.
04:04And Jews were attacked.
04:07They suffered pogroms, they suffered expulsions, and they suffered wholesale massacres from a large, very large swath, from Spain to Ukraine.
04:19Enormous vilifications, enormous attacks, culminating in the greatest massacre of them all, the Holocaust.
04:27What has happened since we thought, some thought, actually I didn't, but some thought, that anti-Semitism was gone.
04:35It's not gone.
04:37That cyclical phenomenon of attacking the Jews in ways that prepare their destruction, delegitimizing them, was transferred from the Jewish people to the Jewish state.
04:49It just took a respite.
04:50A few decades where anti-Semitism was not done in polite company.
04:56Now it's done in every capital.
04:57They reflect a deeper commitment, which expresses the intertwined destinies of Israel and Germany.
05:05We went through the greatest tragedy that any people suffered on German soil, uncommitted by Germans.
05:12And the generations that followed the Holocaust were understood that there was a special moral commitment to enable the Jewish state, the Jewish people, to recover from this horror.
05:26And Germany was committed and remains committed to Israel's security in many important ways.
05:32These people who tortured women, raped them, then beheaded them, burnt children alive, babies alive, took hostages, Holocaust survivors, babies.
05:47This is outrageous.
05:48People demonstrate for them and accuse Israel of bogus war crimes because Israel has gone to lengths that no army in history has done in the most difficult urban situation, urban warfare situation.
06:02They're asking the population to leave, asking the population to leave, and Hamas shooting them to keep them there so the casualties can appear on the various international networks.
06:15I understand the enormous effect this has on the publics in Germany and Europe, and to some extent America.
06:27There's a third phase, and that is to de-radicalize Gaza, something that also people believed was impossible, but it was done in Germany, it was done in Japan, it's done in the Gulf states, it can be done in Gaza too, but of course Hamas has to be dismantled.
06:43And the last thing that I would say, they're very concerned with my future, they want to make sure that I'll, how shall I say this?
07:05They're concerned with my future, well so are the voters, and they'll decide obviously, but we have big tasks to do.
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