Germany's zeal for Israeli genocide revives its dangerous exceptionalism

Middle East Eye

a day ago

Germany is open about its uninhibited support for Israel's war of extermination and genocide in Palestine, and wants to make sure the entire world sees it.
Recognition for its Zionist zeal enables Germany to rehabilitate its exceptionalism, or Sonderweg, with catastrophic consequences for Palestinians and international law.
Germany is not uniquely evil among liberal democracies in offering Israel unconditional support in killing starving Palestinians. Chancellor Friedrich Merz is no more morally bereft than British Prime Minister Keir Starmer or French President Emmanuel Macron. But Germany exalts Zionist radical evil to assert its uniqueness.
Germany remains as hungry for national identity as it has ever been, and nothing can stand in its way - least of all Palestinians, who appear in the German consciousness only when establishment forces fail to erase their existence.
Germany's pursuit of greatness has unleashed immense violence and destruction, from genocidal conquests in Africa to two world wars and the extermination of European Jews.
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Its defeat and division after World War Two, and integration into Nato and the EU, seemed to put the German threat to rest.
Yet Germany has bounced back with a vengeance, thanks to economic prowess and global reordering.
While it has championed the rule of law and democracy within the EU like no other, it has not hesitated to set them aside when they conflict with its core interests - whether to impose its economic model and austerity on all member states, pursue energy policy at the expense of European partners (Nord Stream 2), or break fiscal rules it had imposed on the rest.
Zionist repression
Germany has surpassed all European nations, restoring itself as Europe's leading power and wielding that power with little regard for easing fears of domination.
Establishment forces have translated Holocaust remembrance into unconditional support for Israel, with any criticism automatically treated as antisemitism
Its chief worry is how to deal with European partners begging for protection, urging it to assume greater responsibility and boost military spending. Germany is happy to oblige, proclaiming its ambition to become Europe's largest military.
A German Europe, rather than a European Germany, seems like Europe's salvation.
Yet Germany still lacks what every European nation, no matter how insignificant, has: national pride. Germany lost its own with the Holocaust, leaving a void that fuels a divide between revisionists seeking to "normalise" the nation and establishment forces who anchor German identity in Holocaust remembrance.
Establishment forces have translated Holocaust remembrance chiefly as support for Israel, elevating its protection to a German Staatsraison (national interest) coupled with zero tolerance for criticism of Israel, which is automatically treated as antisemitism until proven otherwise.
A vast network of governmental and civil society organisations is mobilised to enforce this draconian policy, which in practice amounts to systemic repression and the criminalisation of solidarity with Palestine.
Even a slaughter livestreamed for over 22 months is beyond reproach, no matter that children are burned alive, buried alive, starved to death or used for target practice.
Gory particularism
The unspeakable horror Israel has unleashed has served as a golden opportunity for Germany to demonstrate fanatical devotion to Israel.
With unwavering support for Zionist genocidaires, Germany overrides humanity's law with much the same zeal that the Nazis once unleashed spectacular cruelty to show disdain for human values.
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The list of German transgressions is horrifyingly long: persistent objection to ceasefire proposals; sabotaging EU efforts to adopt measures to prevent genocide; refusing calls to end a "minutely engineered, closely monitored, precisely designed mass starvation" in Gaza; blocking Palestinian initiatives at the UN; rejecting legal action against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Inernational Criminal Court (ICC); and even proposing to make the deliberate killing of civilians legal, obliterating the premise of international humanitarian law.
Its recent arms embargo for weapons usable in Gaza omits any commitment to past or future compliance. Palestinians appear only as an amorphous "civilian population" suffering from unnamed causes. Whatever principles Germany claims stem solely from its sovereignty and magnanimity, not from universal law.
These are not rogue acts but state policy, revealing a revisionist Germany that places itself above international law and its post-Nazi constitution.
This virulent support for Israel is a form of gory particularism - dedication to one people by sacrificing another. Unlimited support for Israel equals unending contempt for the dignity of Palestinians.
Revisionist Germany cannot serve the interests of Jews. By conflating antisemitism with anti-Zionism, Germany delegitimises the fight against actual antisemitism and silences anti-Zionist Jews, once again presuming the right to decide who the "good" Jews are.
It does not serve Israel either, for backing a country in the grip of genocidal mania is the surest way to hasten its downfall, even as Palestinian lives mean nothing to either side. The proliferation of genocides dilutes Germany's unique responsibility for the Holocaust.
All this when Germany could have leveraged its special relationship with Israel to save Israel from itself, despite inadvertently saving Palestinians.
Racial supremacism
Merz's open support for Israel's war of aggression against Iran, claiming it does "dirty work" for an undefined "us", underscores a racial supremacism that treats Israelis as tools for German aims - willing executioners in service of another's cause.
Masquerading as loyalty, zealotry for Israel, in fact, rehabilitates German supremacy, evoking "Zionism uber alles" to advance "Deutschland uber alles".
In praising Israel's 'dirty work', Merz exposes the orientalist roots of German genocidal Zionism Read More »
Germany has given itself the liberty to wage a vicarious genocide against Palestinians as a macabre demonstration of loyalty to Israel, exploiting Holocaust responsibility to reclaim national pride.
In overriding all ethical and legal norms to show devotion to Israel, it places itself above everyone else. Only Germans, it claims, can reckon with their past atrocities properly - and only they can determine what norms should apply to them or Israel.
This is precisely what German philosopher Jurgen Habermas's "principles of solidarity" rationalise: mobilising atonement to displace scrutiny of Israel's atrocities into the illogical sphere, making accusations of genocidal intent against it unthinkable.
Considering Habermas is heralded as the spiritual guide of post-national Germany, the alternative to neo-Nazi revisionists, we can say both forms of revisionism aim at the same goal - German supremacy - but differ on method.
The radical evil Germany engages in, and the cultivation of tolerance for it, reflect not only establishment power to control the public mind but also society's failure to uphold basic norms.
The grotesque fervour with which even reputable newspapers rationalise Zionist monstrosities and erase Palestinian suffering would be hard to imagine even in Orwell's world.
Dark parallels
We risk failing to see Germany for what it has become because Europe itself is beginning to resemble Germany in its darkest times.
Across the continent, establishment forces shield Israel from accountability for atrocity crimes in exchange for absolution over their collaboration with Nazi Germany.
Fascist forces weaponise support for Israel to mobilise persecution of Muslims and other minorities, gaining power with each election - often aided by democratic leaders who show the same contempt for the rule of law.
Only a radical recommitment to universality can avert another descent into barbarism and protect democracy against creeping authoritarianism in Germany, Europe and beyond
With the obliteration of universalism and the brutalisation of our collective conscience that Sonderweg exemplifies, Europe descends into a dark age where stigmatised populations - migrants and Muslims - fear being next in Germany's atonement list, or France's exceptional measures to disenfranchise its Muslims.
Europe has never been closer to its Nazi era than it is today. With US investment in replacing democratic rule with fascist totalitarianism, we risk fulfilling Hitler's dream of a white supremacist alliance.
Only a radical recommitment to universality can avert another descent into barbarism and protect democracy against creeping authoritarianism in Germany, Europe and beyond.
Full accountability for collaboration with Zionist genocidaires is the first step in restoring a universal principle where all are included - without which, no one is safe.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.