Published date: 9 May 2026 10:11 BST | Last update:1 day 23 hours ago
With its emphasis on weasel words, Germany has given Israel a free hand and backing for its barbaric campaigns of extermination
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul pictured during a flight to Tel Aviv, Israel, 10 March 2026 (Felix Zahn/AA/Israeli Foreign Office supplied)
It was to be expected.
On 21 April, Germany, together with Italy, blocked a motion by Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia to suspend the EU-Israel trade agreement due to Israel’s human rights violations, its genocidal war against Gaza, and settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
Although this step would not have changed much – if anything- as the Zionist entity would have retained its privileged access to the European market, in another shameful, unmasking reaction, Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul declared the three countries’ move to be “inappropriate“, saying: “We have to talk with Israel about the critical issues… that has to be done in a critical, constructive dialogue with Israel.”
“Inappropriate!”
After two and a half years of genocide in Gaza and the blockade of all aid? In light of the unprecedented brutality in the West Bank, committed by the “scum of Zionist settlers” who, with the help of Israeli occupation forces, are perpetrating a “second Nakba”? After months of slaughtering civilians in Lebanon, destroying all infrastructure just as the inhuman settler colonial fanatics of a Greater Israel did in Gaza, and bombing the Iranian population?
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Instead of finally taking action against all these repulsive massacres, Wadephul offers nothing but empty talk about Germany’s supposed historical responsibility for the Zionist mass murderers and the mantra-like repetition of a “constructive dialogue” with them being necessary.
In 19 months, this “constructive dialogue” has yielded no results for the victims of the Zionists, but as Wadephul insists on continuing it, it is high time to take a closer look at what this kind of dialogue actually entails.
Constructive dialogue
“Constructive dialogue is a form of conversation where people with different perspectives seek to understand one another – without abandoning their own beliefs – in order to live, learn, and work together. It is especially well-suited for grappling with important, complex issues that often divide people.”
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If this is a definition provided by experts, such a dialogue between Germany and Israel is completely unnecessary.
When it comes to genocide, settler violence, the decades-long ongoing Nakba, the destruction of southern Lebanon and the bombing of Lebanese and Iranian residential neighbourhoods, Berlin and the Zionists do not have a single “different perspective” that needs to be clarified. They “understand each other”; they do not even have to “abandon their own beliefs”, and none of these crimes would “divide” them.
We learn even more: “At its core, constructive dialogue prioritises mutual understanding: the shared effort to understand others’ views while knowing that others are making the same effort toward yours. Through this process, participants may enrich their own perspectives, clarify differences, uncover common ground, or even create opportunities for future collaboration that once seemed out of reach.”
This helps us understand why such a dialogue is actually pointless.
In light of all the crimes against humanity that the Zionists continue to commit, there already exists “mutual understanding” between them and Germany. And it goes without saying that for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whatever his best friends have announced to do, have done and continue to do in Gaza and beyond is anything but a genocide.
In a “constructive dialogue”, Berlin and the Zionist entity cannot “enrich” their perspectives or “clarify differences”, since they are in complete agreement on everything the Zionists do.
They cannot “uncover common ground”, for they are brothers in arms and allies in genocide. And they cannot even “create opportunities for future cooperation” because, as much as the murderous genocide project of the Palestinian people is a joint one, so was the following annihilation of the Lebanese and Iranians. None of them has ever “seemed out of reach”.
Throwing smoke bombs
Wadephul, who came under pressure from the three EU member states, responded by resorting to a tried-and-true tactic that is nothing more than a large-scale deception, as another look into what “constructive dialogue” does not mean.
“Constructive dialogue is not about persuading others or winning an argument, and it is not about proving the other side wrong. While these may be reasonable goals for other forms of conversation, these are not the aims of constructive dialogue.”
And that is why Germany wants to continue the “constructive dialogue”. By definition, it rules out everything that actually needs to be done.
This hypocritical “constructive dialogue” is intended to prevent the German foreign minister from doing what he actually ought to do: convincing the Zionists to stop their heinous crimes and putting pressure on them. He would have to do everything in his power to stand up to the killing machine known as Israel, to save the lives of those it slaughters.
Actions rather than empty words would simply be the duty – and indeed, the historical responsibility – of a German foreign minister. How constructive would that be? It would directly serve the cause of life, not Zionist necropolitics.
Yet can one imagine a German foreign minister not only delivering empty “constructive” talk without consequences? Who would even dare to impose sanctions on the Zionist regime that commits an almost infinite list of barbaric crimes on a daily basis?
‘Israel First’
Certainly not, but there is much to be learned from Wadephul’s call for a “constructive dialogue”.
To call for such a “constructive dialogue” now – after Germany has unreservedly supported and encouraged the genocide for two and a half years, as well as the ongoing wars of aggression against Lebanon, Syria, and Iran – is in fact putting “Israel First”.
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Another “constructive dialogue” will lead nowhere, because it is not meant to and must not lead anywhere. Nothing is supposed to change. The eradication of the Palestinian and other Arab peoples is to continue. It is an expression of the barely concealed contempt, rooted in white supremacy, that both Germany and the Zionists harbour towards Arab and Persian civilisation.
Germany, on the other hand, honours Zionism’s contribution to western civilisation, which essentially amounts to developing some of the most advanced military technologies and the most sophisticated surveillance technologies for the purpose of killing and controlling people. Both are expressions of the Zionist cult of death, which Germany supports and seeks to profit from.
“Israel First” – that is a very German doctrine and has been for decades.
Today, we see the consequences: while the German government, even in the face of genocide, attempts to appease and deceive its own people and the world by calling for a “creative dialogue”, it is simultaneously paving the way for the messianic-Zionist horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Deliberately killing and mutilating children, women and men, erasing whole families, massacring journalists, aid workers, and medics, destroying hospitals, schools, villages, residential complexes and entire neighbourhoods – this is what “the most degenerate military in the world” is doing with the help of Germany.
The “constructive dialogue” that Wadephul suggests is nothing more than another coffee-table chat in which Germany, in a thoroughly constructive manner, assures the Zionists of a free hand and support for the continuation of their barbaric campaigns of extermination.
As there will never be any consequences, such talks, to borrow Wadephul’s phrase, are utterly “inappropriate”.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Jurgen Mackert is Professor of Sociology at the University of Potsdam, Germany. He was a temporary Professor for the Structure of modern societies at the University of Erfurt, Germany and a visiting professor for Political Sociology at Humboldt University Berlin. His latest books include On Social Closure. Theorizing Exclusion, Exploitation, and Elimination (Oxford University Press 2024). Siedlerkolonialismus. Grundlagentexte und aktuelle Analysen (edited with Ilan Pappe; Nomos 2024).
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