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.