Already at the start of his visit to Israel, I heard German Chancellor Friedrich Merz utter a familiar line we have heard many times from supposed friends: "I recognize Israel's right to exist." I shuddered.
The guest undoubtedly meant well. In his eyes, he was "merely" responding to those who aspire and actively seek to deny the Jews the right to maintain their own state, and there are many such people in Merz's Germany, across Europe and around the world. The problem with the German leader's remark is that he may have intended to bless, but ended up cursing. Knowingly or not, he adopted a discourse whose very existence contributes to the erosion of Israel's legitimacy.
Have you noticed that this sentence, which ostensibly affirms our state's right to exist, is said only about Israel? Merz would never utter it anywhere else, because it would be pointless. No country requires affirmation from its guests to justify its existence, just as no individual needs friends to reassure them that they are entitled to live in this world. Stating the obvious paradoxically makes it less obvious.
If Israel is the only country that needs confirmation from others to justify its existence, perhaps its existence is not a natural right at all. That is the conclusion Israel's detractors in Merz's country may draw, while others will go even further and claim they have both the power and the authority to prevent Israel from existing. And as if the patronizing and condescending tone were not bad enough, the statement is also harmful because it plants the notion that Israel's existence is conditional on the goodwill of the international community.
It is therefore no surprise that this overused and dangerous line often leads directly to the second, equally tiresome statement, which we also heard from Merz when he repeated the false mantra of a "two-state solution for two peoples." Here, the patronization reaches its peak. The visitor, who mistakenly believes he has the authority to approve or deny the Jewish state's right to exist, also feels, again mistakenly and with no basis whatsoever, that he has the authority to lecture Israel on how it should exist.
The patronizing attitude of the Germans, and Europeans in general, might have been understandable had they been able to boast success in fending off threats similar to those facing Israel. But the reality is entirely different. The experience of recent years, from waves of Islamist takeover to Russian aggression, repeatedly illustrates old Europe's inability to cope with its own challenges, as well as the self-destructive nature of its recommendations to appease enemies through concessions and withdrawals.
When Israel's prime minister visits Germany, it would never occur to him to demand that his hosts capitulate to their enemies. He would not lecture the Germans to establish an Islamic state in Muslim population centers in Frankfurt, nor would he demand that they once again divide Berlin and hand its eastern half to Vladimir Putin to satisfy his appetite.
The time has come for our German friends to recognize two simple truths. First, they have no justification for intervening in Israel's internal affairs or lecturing it on how to conduct itself. Second, their advice and admonitions are simply bad, because they do not work. Not in Europe, not in the Middle East and not anywhere else in the world. Instead, Europeans would do well to consider the opposite approach: learning from Israel that enemies are defeated or deterred through strength, not through withdrawals and concessions.
