She practically rushes from front to front. Annalena Baerbock has just familiarized herself with the Ukrainian-Russian battle line when she descends into the depths of the Middle East conflict with a trip to Jerusalem and Ramallah. But while the saber-rattling around Ukraine is keeping almost the whole world in suspense, this quarrel has once again taken a backseat. This is promoted by a mixture of helplessness and frustration. In the Middle East, according to the general opinion, you can’t do anything anyway – and certainly not in Germany.
The fact that the German side sees it that way also has something to do with Baerbock’s predecessor, Heiko Maas. The only thing that will be remembered is a PR-appropriately staged picture of his last appearance in the region: Maas is standing there in a slim-fit dress in the rubble of an Israeli house during the Gaza war in May 2021. In other respects, too, he has made himself rather thin in this conflict and left Israeli civil society and the Palestinians aside in favor of a smooth relationship with the right-wing government in Jerusalem.
So Baerbock has an entry bonus: she can almost only do better. There were certainly foreign ministers on the German side who played a role in the efforts to resolve the conflict. This applies, for example, to Baerbock’s green ancestor Joschka Fischer. During his years in office from 1998 to 2005, he sometimes gave the Prince of Peace a little too self-righteously. But he managed to be recognized on both sides of the conflict line and thus to some extent influential.
Your itinerary doesn’t begin with government appointments
That is at least a guide for the new foreign minister. Her schedule now starts with meetings with representatives of private Israeli organizations before meeting Foreign Minister Jair Lapid and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. From Jerusalem she then travels to Ramallah to visit Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Foreign Minister Riad Malki.
That seems balanced. In order to be an honest broker in this conflict, you don’t need equidistance at all. Everyone knows about Germany’s historic responsibility towards Israel, and Baerbock rightly adopted Merkel’s dictum that “Israel’s security is part of Germany’s reason of state.” But the Palestinians’ right to their own state shouldn’t just be a rhetorical accompaniment – especially when, like von Baerbock, a “value-based foreign policy” is being propagated.
In the conflict area in the Middle East, it will be easy to observe how far this claim is compatible with reality. He will have to be at least flexible when it comes to supplying arms to crisis areas, for example. The Ukraine may be fobbed off with protective helmets. Israel expects a lot more from Germany: submarines, for example, that can be equipped with nuclear weapons. But on other issues – the occupation of the Palestinian territories and the construction of settlements – the international law expert Baerbock will have to find clear words if she wants to remain credible. Others have shown that such criticism among friends is possible, even necessary.