BRUSSELS — I’ve been following Israel’s foreign relations closely for 30 years. I have often heard German statesmen and politicians say that Israel owes Germany’s support to the victims of the Holocaust. The words were always whispered behind closed doors, off the record.

Last week, they were uttered publicly by a senior German politician, Hans-Gert Pöttering, one of those closest to Chancellor Angela Merkel. Pöttering, who served for many years as president of the European Parliament, spoke at a packed auditorium in the center of Brussels. “Were it not for the Holocaust, Germany would not have abstained at the UN vote on the recognition of Palestine as a non-member state,” said the man who was appointed last year to chair the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, named after the first post-World War II German chancellor who was responsible for the reparations agreement between Israel and Germany. “It would have voted in favor.” Pöttering did not attempt to conceal his hope that Avigdor Liberman — whose name (meaning “a beloved man” in German) does not suit him, he said — would not be coming back to Brussels as Israel’s foreign minister.

He finished by saying that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict makes it hard for Europe to conduct a dialogue with the Muslim world. “Previously, the Israelis did not want European involvement, now you are also opposed to American involvement,” he lashed out.

On the stage, to the left of the German speaker, sat Adm. (Res.) Ami Ayalon, who has served as a cabinet minister, head of the Shin Bet security service and commander of the navy, and Gilad Sher, a lawyer who was Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s chief of staff and policy coordinator. In the front row were philanthropist and peace activist Orni Petruschka, Ayalon and Sher’s partner in the leadership of Blue White Future, [a pro-peace movement] and the organization’s CEO, Dar Nadler. They came to the capital of the European Union at the instigation of the Hanns Seidel Foundation to persuade the Europeans to exert their influence on the Americans. Ayalon and Sher sought to equip the Europeans with their diplomatic blueprint, the gist of which is Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state and the launch of negotiations on a permanent agreement, based on the Arab Peace Initiative (peace and normalization of relations with members of the Arab League in return for Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders) and a declaration that Israel has no territorial claims on the eastern side of the security/separation fence.