Merz’s blurred division between reasoning and questioning

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz spouted several contradictions in his speech on Tuesday to the Bundestag, ahead of the NATO summit which was held at The Hague this week. Germany’s “reason of state,” he said, “is to defend the state of Israel in its existence.” But, he added, “the moment has come to conclude a ceasefire in Gaza.” 

Germany, Merz said, will “critically question what goal Israel wants to achieve in the Gaza Strip.”

If Germany’s “reason of state” is to support Israel, then Germany is supporting Israel as a settler-colonial, genocidal enterprise. Israel’s entire existence is founded upon ethnic cleansing, dispossession, and replacing the indigenous Palestinians with an international settler population. Like all other countries supporting Israel, Germany is supporting serious international law violations and war crimes. 

With that clearly defined, how will Germany critically question what Israel wants to achieve in Gaza? If Merz only considers the Israeli narrative, it is clear that the end goal is to eliminate all Palestinians from Gaza. Several Israeli officials have confirmed this, as well as the earlier leaked plans for the forced transfer of Palestinians under the guise – allegedly humanitarian – of voluntary migration. Merz’s support of Israel does not rest on critical thinking. One cannot support Israel without supporting settler-colonialism. 

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Western leaders have long kept up the pretence of supporting Israel within parameters that allow them to play the humanitarian card. Israel’s genocide in Gaza has exposed the failure of the humanitarian paradigm, which is not even formidable enough to deal with the humanitarian disaster. It only serves the interests of governments supporting Israel’s colonialism and genocide, because the international community has long coerced Palestinians into the humanitarian narrative for diplomatic purposes. Hence the reason governments have not intervened since Israel banned UNRWA from operating in the occupied Palestinian territories. Now the world is witnessing aid distribution hubs turned into massacre sites, but Merz still deems it fit to state that Germany will support Israel’s existence.

If Merz supports Israel, what is the logic of “concluding a ceasefire in Gaza”? Is it qualified by “the time has come”, as if there has been no other better moment to bring about a ceasefire for the Palestinian people? Is it because diplomats feel that the politics of not concluding a ceasefire might no longer work in their interests? 

Merz is certainly not the only head of state to embark on such contradictions, but the audience for this kind of political hypocrisy is becoming narrower. The people are calling for an end to genocide, while governments are still debating humanitarian aid which is of course necessary, but not the means to end Israel’s genocide. 

Like other world leaders, Merz’s statement implies that Palestinians should only be viewed through the lens of humanitarian aid and ceasefires, not as people legitimately resisting a colonial entity that stole their land and continues to displace and kill them. Is Germany questioning genocide? The massacres at distribution sites? Is Merz questioning his own statement – to critically question what Israel wants to achieve in Gaza? If he did and the answer is elimination of the Palestinian population by genocide, how does Germany now define itself? 

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