Since the Hamas attack, the term that Angela Merkel coined in relation to Israel security has been booming again in Germany. Is he really more than just rhetoric?
It sounds so incredibly obligatory when people talk about the “reason of state” these days, which is supposed to consist of Germany standing up for Israel’s security. Almost like a constitutional principle. “Reason of State” sounds anthemic, you can literally hear the tenor horns. Please rise! “In this hour of testing,” as CDU Chancellor Angela Merkel solemnly put it when she stood at the lectern in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in 2008, these “should not remain empty words.” She just didn’t want to tell anyone exactly what the content of her non-empty words was.