analysis
Nazi comparison
Baerbock’s Zoff with Bibi – Clash with announcement
Seeing each other again is no joy: There is said to have been a heated argument at the meeting between Benjamin Netanyahu and Annalena Baerbock.
© Thomas Köhler / Imago Images
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to have duped the German Foreign Minister with a Nazi comparison. What happened in the Prime Minister’s office?
Godwin’s Law comes from the good old early days of the Internet. This law, named after an American author, states that the longer a discussion goes on, the more likely it is that someone will make a Nazi comparison, it approaches 100 percent. Apparently this law can also be traced back to a dispute with the Israeli Prime Minister Apply Benjamin Netanyahu.
What is it about? This week Annalena Baerbock visited Israel. It was her seventh trip to the region since the Hamas attack six months ago. Two days after the meeting with the prime minister, a journalist from the Israeli TV station Channel 13 published the alleged text of a dialogue between the two politicians, which is supposed to document a heated argument.
Did Baerbock accuse Bibi of fake photos?
In short, Netanyahu presented the Germans with photos from Gaza that contradicted the common narrative of the suffering of the Palestinians: people bathing exuberantly on the beach in Gaza; Market stalls loaded with fresh fruits and vegetables. Baerbock is said to have doubted the authenticity, whereupon Netanyahu reproached her: “We are not like Nazis,” who at the time were spreading fake photos of the supposedly peaceful life in German concentration camps.
Zack, Godwin’s Law strikes – if that’s what it was.
The Foreign Office denies this: parts of the report are false and misleading. Baerbock himself is extremely upset. “The German ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, was in contact with the Prime Minister’s staff and made it clear what we think about such distorting publications,” the Green Party said on Friday after a meeting of G7 counterparts on the Italian island of Capri. And further: “We do not report from confidential meetings.”
According to diplomatic circles, she herself did not make any accusations of faking in the dispute with Natanyahu. She did not doubt the authenticity of the bathing pictures, but only wanted to point out that there are also such photos from other parts of Gaza showed a different reality of the humanitarian situation of the people. But that’s the nature of a Nazi comparison: Wherever it hits, the grass no longer grows and all discourse dies.
Why the clash was avoidable
If you consider the initial situation of the meeting, one thing can hardly be denied: the clash was more than foreseeable, in fact it was inevitable.
Baerbock came to Jerusalem with two clear goals: to dissuade Netanyahu from retaliating against Iran and instead persuade him to exercise “maximum restraint” in order to prevent the entire Middle East from exploding. And secondly, to promote easier access for humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip, which the Germans are now also taking part in.
The Foreign Minister now felt forced to act. The accusations against Germany of being too uncritical of Israel’s government had become increasingly louder. Unconditional German solidarity began to destroy foreign policy capital, in the Arab world, in the global south – and at home.
Baerbock, initially the most ardent of Israel supporters, was among the first to adopt a more critical tone towards Netanyahu’s conduct of the war. Who chose more urgent words with each passing week of the war. Because recently it has become increasingly difficult not only to speak to the Israeli Prime Minister, but also to reach him – politicians from half the world can report this, from UN Secretary General António Guterres to US President Joe Biden.
Tired of all the advice
This in turn has a lot to do with Netanyahu’s own view of the situation. The Prime Minister is tired of all the wise advice coming his way from all over the world. Delivered by politicians whose capitals are not currently being attacked by Iranian drones. Whose residents are not driven into bunkers by regular air raid alarms. Who don’t have to fear Hamas rockets or Hezbollah bullets.
Netanyahu has no regard for the situation of civilians in Gaza; his entire attention is focused on the remaining Hamas brigades that are holed up in Rafah. Nothing and no one, and certainly no German foreign minister, should now stop him from ending the issue once and for all.
That’s why the meeting between Baerbock and Netanyahu ended as a clash with a Nazi comparison. And if Godwin’s Law applies not only online but also in the real world, it can’t be long before the first Hitler comparison.