While I’ve had a problem from the start with the nations of the world that have pressured Israel regarding their response to October 7th, I have, for the most part, kept quiet. However, as someone who has committed, and intends to continue committing, much of my life to telling the story of the Holocaust, I must address the following. Everything I do—everything I believe in as a Jew and the son of Holocaust survivors—is put to the test when a German government has the unmitigated gall to take a stand against the Jewish state.
I will share two important points with you, not because I am being apologetic, but merely because they are part of the calculus that brought me to think as I do today. My first point is that while there should never, ever be forgiveness for what the German Nazi Party did to the Jewish people, until recently I at least tepidly gave post-war Germany some credit. Nothing can make up for what was done, and nothing can ever truly be enough to make amends for atrocities so recent that there are still Jews alive today who lived through that horrific time. But where I took a somewhat moderate approach was in recognizing that German laws and actions since 1945 did not ignore accountability and responsibility for the actions of the country. Simply put, I felt there was little more a people and its government could have done to express remorse and apply preventative laws against this ever happening again.
My second point is that many of these countries taking a stance against Israel are doing so because they are frightened by the dynamics created by certain elements within the Muslim populations in their own country. Their policies are rooted in neither common sense nor decency. They are rooted in a cowardice that overshadows any moral clarity. To go after every country guilty of this would be a futile waste of anyone’s time.
But Germany is a different story. Germany, of all countries, should not get away with its recent actions. This is more than a matter of taking a hardline approach toward the war in Gaza. This is about the timing and the message it sends. Above you see two pictures: one is taken from a bunker in the concentration camp Buchenwald, showing the conditions of the prisoners; the second is a recent picture of Israeli hostage Evyatar David, taken on October 7th, looking hauntingly similar to the prisoners in Buchenwald.
In response to numerous attempts to have a ceasefire contingent mainly on the release of all hostages, Hamas has repeatedly put roadblocks in the path of peace—not surprising when you understand that they do not want peace; they want the death of every Jew on the planet. After the release of the video and the continuing collapse of peace talks, Israel’s government declared its intention to occupy Gaza.
Backing up momentarily, I do not live in Israel, and although much of my heart is there, I do not have to live with the actual consequences of the ongoing war. Therefore, I do not believe I have the right—certainly not publicly—to express criticism toward those protesting against the government, demanding an end to the war and the return of the hostages. If anything, it breaks my heart. I do not disagree with either of those demands. But perhaps being on the outside allows me to see that the sad part is that everything happening today is exactly what Hamas hoped for when they started this on October 7th: the anti-Israel sentiment, the rise in global antisemitism, and any internal strife in Israel are all things they see as a victory.
Hamas knows that if they released the hostages, the war would end. But that does not align with their ultimate goal. Israel’s statement about occupying Gaza has been called a serious escalation by much of the world, while those same voices stayed mostly quiet after the release of a video designed to entice escalation. It was after Israel’s recent declaration that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced a halt to German military equipment that could be used in an occupation of Gaza. Barely a week after the release of a video showing a Jewish hostage in Gaza looking like a prisoner in one of the many concentration camps that killed millions of Jews, rather than seeing the picture and acknowledging the historical irony, the reaction of Merz and his government, in many ways, rewards Hamas for its continuous evil actions. How dare you, Germany!
Tolerance does not exist in a vacuum. It is measured against the views of others. But here’s the deal: if I seem intolerant right now toward a country that committed atrocities against millions of Jews so recently that they are the reason I never knew a grandparent, so be it. Jews have shown tolerance for centuries, and we find ourselves made out to be the aggressor just because we were the victim. Makes no sense? That is because everything taking place in Israel regarding wars and terrorist attacks—and every display of anti-Israel or antisemitic sentiment around the globe—is not rooted in anything that makes sense. It is all about one thing: Jew hatred. This time, more than at any other time, the country responsible for translating Jew hatred into action more successfully than any other country in history has a moral obligation to show support. Instead, it is holding its tools for Israel’s self-defense hostage.
How dare you, Germany!
Am Yisrael Chai
Never Again is Now!
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