• raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    I’m guessing they’re feeling guilty for the holocaust and as an apology, they’re letting the jews in Israel do one of their own.

    As a German: Our government, as an apology, is letting the Israeli government do a genocide of their own. You were so close, and then you took the anti-semitic turn by referring to “the jews” :(

    However, also as a German: While I do absolutely wish Israel was forced to stop the atrocities they commit, and pay reparations, I believe that - given our specific history with the state of Israel and what Germans did to the Jewish population of Europe just ~80 years ago, there are plenty of states in the world that are better candidates to take an aggressive political stance towards Israel, before Germany does.

    Some of us are still very much committed to absolutely defending the absolute right of Israel to exist as a state, while also (albeit sadly less of us) there are people who at the same time see the war crimes committed by the Israeli army and secret services against civilian populations of Gaza & Lebanon.

    But the German government can not just take the side of Palestinians here, not because the current Israeli administration does not belong in jail, but because there are those who will - should the pendulum swing to the other side again - ask for revenge / war on Israel / commit crimes against Israeli civilians. Or, as we already see, use the violence in the middle east to justify hate crimes against Israelis or Jewish people in other countries.

    Those who do the killing are evil on both sides, and those who do the suffering and dying are mostly not the same group of people - neither in Israel, nor in Gaza or Lebanon.

    Long story short - Germany is stuck between a rock and a hard place in this, and it is MUCH easier for virtually any other country in the world to speak on behalf of the Palestinians. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t speak out, but I can understand why German politicians are very carefully weighing their options on this.

    • Aqarius@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      The concern is legitimate, but it falls into the same “never again - to us” pit Israel fell into. Another potential framing one could take of the issue - one I feel is more helpful - would go something like: 80 years ago, the world got together to help save Germany from itself, and it’s time to return the favor, hopefully before it gets completely out of hand like last time.