War in the Middle East
Steinmeier in Israel: Normality in abnormal times?
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is traveling to Israel today. photo
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
Now visiting Israel? Right now, says Federal President Steinmeier before his trip, which begins this Sunday. His previously published video message shows how unusual this will be.
It seems as if he wanted to send a small sign of normality in these abnormal times. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is not the first high-ranking German politician to come to Israel since the attack by the terrorist organization Hamas on October 7th. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has already been there, and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) has already been there three times. But unlike them, Steinmeier doesn’t engage in crisis diplomacy, doesn’t come rushing in in the morning and fly away again in the evening, but stays overnight and hangs on for a second day. It almost looks like a normal official visit, especially since his wife Elke Büdenbender is also accompanying him.
However, many circumstances show that it will be anything but a normal trip. This includes the fact that, contrary to other customs, the Federal President’s Office did not publish the detailed travel program, which is also due to security reasons. Steinmeier explained the reasons for his trip in the midst of the Gaza war in a video message almost 24 hours before departure, something he never does otherwise. And it is also unusual that the number 1 in the state with the number 2 – Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD) – is coming to Israel.
Ending the war only by releasing “all hostages”
Steinmeier will then discuss the new Middle East conflict and the way out of it on Tuesday in Oman with Sultan Haitham bin Tarik and on Wednesday in Qatar with Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Qatar has close contacts with Hamas and plays an important role as a mediator, for example in the release of the hostages kidnapped to Gaza. Steinmeier said in his video on Saturday that he wanted to talk in Qatar about how the negotiations could continue now. “The way to end the fight will and can only be through the release of the hostages. All of the hostages!”
This is a message with which Steinmeier travels to the Middle East. Another is: Israel of course has the right to self-defense against Hamas, but humanitarian rules must also be observed in this war. “No one can prevent Israel from resolutely combating terror,” Steinmeier said in the video message. But this fight also brings great suffering among unarmed civilians. “Every precaution to get civilians out of the line of fire is necessary. In addition, there is the provision of the most important things to life. This is what international humanitarian law requires, and we Germans also expect it.”
Steinmeier wants to talk about how people could get out of danger zones and relief supplies could get in during the ceasefire. Germany stands ready to help evacuate sick people and children. “For us there is no question: every human life weighs equally. And therefore: No, we cannot differentiate from a humanitarian perspective. Our condolences go out to all the civilian victims of this war.” But politically you have to differentiate. “The terror that struck Israel on October 7th must not be allowed to happen again.”
Steinmeier advocates a two-state solution
However, to achieve lasting peace, Steinmeier points to a path that has been unsuccessfully propagated for a long time: the two-state solution. There must be more security for Israel and more future prospects for the Palestinians. “And if at the end there is to be a peace that has a chance of lasting, it can only mean: two states! The Palestinians must exercise their right to political self-determination and live in dignity, freedom and peace with their neighbors.”
In recent years, the two-state idea has been primarily a story of missed and squandered opportunities, said Steinmeier: “Missed by the international community, also squandered by the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.”
Quiet criticism that the host, President Izchak Herzog, can handle. On the one hand, he also knows it from other partners, and on the other hand, it comes from a good friend. Both presidents are closely linked to each other, as is repeatedly emphasized in Berlin.