Germany must stand with Israel against Hamas in light of the Holocaust, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during a brief solidarity visit to Israel in which he also pledged to battle antisemitism at home.
“In difficult times, Germany has only one place and that is by Israel’s side,” Scholz during a joint press event with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Germany supports the security of Israel and its citizens,” he said.
His country has had a special relationship with Israel in the aftermath of the Nazi’s final solution during World War II, under whose rubric six million European Jews were killed.
Netanyahu has compared Hamas both to Nazis and ISIS, as comparisons have been made between the Holocaust and Hamas’s October 7th assault on southern Israel. Over 1,400 citizens and soldiers, mostly Jews, were killed in that attack. Another 200 were taken hostage.
"Eighty years ago, our people experienced the worst savagery in the history of humanity with the Nazi crimes against the Jewish people on the soil of Germany and Europe," Netanyahu said.
"Hamas are the new Nazis. Hamas is ISIS and in some instances, worse than ISIS. And just as the world united to defeat the Nazis, just as the world united to defeat ISIS, the world has to stand united behind Israel to defeat Hamas," he emphasized.
Scholz said that he particularly wanted to underscore Germany’s allegiance to Israel at this time.
“It is very important for me to emphasize this here in Israel, German history and the responsibility that we have given the history of the Holocaust mean that it is our task to stand up for Israel’s security,” Scholz said.
“We condemn the cruel and bloody attack of Hamas against Israel,” Scholz said. Hamas terrorized “innocent civilians, [enacted] the killing of innocent people, the murder of babies, the abduction of women, men and children, [and] the humiliation of Holocaust survivors,” Scholz said.
“All of that shocks us deeply,” said Scholz.
German citizens are among those taken hostage, the Chancellor said as he pledged to do everything to ensure their release.
“It is quite clear that Israel has the right to defend itself against this terror under international law, every state has the obligation to protect its citizens,” he explained.
“We feel the awful suffering of all Israelis who have lost parents, children, families in this barbaric attack,” he said, and the angst of those whose loved ones were kidnapped.
Scholz also spoke about the domestic threat against Jews in his country.
“Jewish life in Germany is a gift, Jewish initiations are being protected,” he said.
“Antisemitism has no place in Germany, the celebration and glorification of violence is inhuman and abhorrent, it is proscribed and will be punished,” Scholz added.
In Albania, French President Emmanuel Macron said that “Islamic terrorism,” was rising in Europe.
“All European states are vulnerable,” he emphasized.