Daniel Barenboim, Träger des in Münster verliehenen Westfälischen Friedenspreises fordert, dass Deutschland gegenüber Israel Druck ausübt, damit es endlich zu einer Zwei-Staaten-Lösung kommt. Er hat Recht. ... Germany’s approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a diminutive one. It does not want to inflame sensibilities over its relations with Israel. However, if there is to be a solution to the conflict, Germany must play some role and exert some form of influence on Israeli policy. Germany can and should put political pressure on Israel. After all, we are talking here about the intellectual and political future of the state of Israel. The logic is simple: Germany is committed to the ongoing security of the state of Israel, but this is only possible in the long term if the future of the Palestinian people, too, is secured in its own sovereign state. If this does not happen, the wars and history of that region will be constantly repeated and the unbearable stalemate will continue. One man was under no illusion of this – the Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin: “I was a soldier and I know that Israel can win wars with Syria, Lebanon and Egypt and maybe even beat them all at the same time. But Israel cannot win a war against the Palestinian people. My first duty is to protect the security of the Israeli people and I can only meet this obligation if we make peace with the Palestinians.” It was this publicly expressed opinion that sadly cost Rabin his life. Germany’s task, as a leading country of the world, is to make precisely this fact plain to the government of Israel – that Israel’s lasting future depends on its government’s willingness to enter into a genuine peace agreement with the Palestinians. That this also goes for the Palestinians grouped around Hamas hardly needs to be stressed. Both sides have to understand that they must live together for better or worse and that hatred, terror and territorial, ethnic and religious exclusion have never produced peace, but rather have led to killing and more killing. That, too, is a lesson that Germany, more than many other countries, has learned by bitter experience. It is a lesson that can and should inform the foreign policy of the Federal Republic. theguardian/commentisfree/2014/nov/09/germany-israel-history-peace-daniel-barenboim/print
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 21:25:42 +0000
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