Did Netanyahu's ultimatum to German foreign minister pay off?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel of provocation by meeting with anti-occupation organizations during a visit to Israel.
On April 25, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a meeting with German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel over Gabriel's decision to meet while in Israel with two anti-occupation organizations, a decision that keeps making waves in the Israeli media.
The outgoing director of Breaking the Silence, Yuli Novak, said on the evening of April 25 at a meeting with Meretz activists, “The prime minister is behaving unreasonably. A bull in a diplomatic china shop is a compliment for Netanyahu’s conduct, and that is certainly what is not expected from a seasoned politician. … It’s so insane. … The amazing thing is that Netanyahu issued an ultimatum: ‘You either meet with us or with them.’ You give an ultimatum when you think you can win. Here he ate his hat.”
Novak's words came at the height of the diplomatic crisis between Israel and Germany, with her organization at the center. Novak and Breaking the Silence celebrated their victory over Netanyahu: The German foreign minister preferred to meet with them and with B’Tselem over an official meeting with the prime minister of Israel. Gabriel did not give in to Netanyahu, who conditioned their meeting on the cancellation of that with the leftist organizations.
But Novak and her friends don’t understand that she and the organization she leads were only pawns in a much larger political game. Not only is this not a victory for Breaking the Silence, this is a setback in their effort to convince Israeli society to fight against the occupation. Even before the organization stood at the center of a storm that hurt relations with an important ally of Israel, large segments of the public disagreed with its work and see it as slandering Israel Defense Forces (IDF) abroad.
