Iran Shadow Looms over Merkel Visit to Israel
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JERUSALEM, Israel – German Chancellor Angela Merkel, accompanied by a delegation of businesspeople, arrives in Israel Wednesday evening for a two-day visit focusing on the economy, technology and innovation. The two nations' polar-opposite views on Iran will no doubt factor heavily into their discussions.
During her visit, Merkel will hold closed-door meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin. She will visit Jerusalem's Yad VaShem Holocaust Memorial, tour an innovation exhibit at the Israel Museum where she'll meet with students, and receive an honorary doctorate from Haifa University.
Merkel arrives under a cloud of disagreements with Israel, including her efforts to circumvent US sanctions on Iran and salvage the Iranian nuclear deal. Germany has maintained strong economic ties with Iran for years, despite the Islamic regime's ongoing threats against Israel and the US. Merkel also countered the US administration's decision to defund UNRWA by increasing German support.
On Tuesday, one of Germany's leading newspapers urged the government to sever all ties with Iran, Israel Hayom reported. According to the report, the Bild averages 12 million readers every day.
The paper's foreign news editor, Julian Roepcke, said Iran's latest missile attacks in Syria "were not fired against [the] Islamic State, but rather against those who stand in the way of the corrupt regime in Tehran, against those who do not want to stand idly by as Iran's leaders, again and again, call for the 'extermination' of Israel."
Citing inscriptions on the missiles reading for "Death to Israel" and "Death to the USA," Roepcke argued that Iran should not be treated as an ally or a trade partner.
"By the mullah's crazy logic, ISIS is also the creation of the heinous West, the US and Israel," he wrote. "Iran cannot be an ally at this time, neither in the fight against terrorism or as an oil supplier or trade partner."
It's one of the topics the two leaders "agreed to disagree" on during Netanyahu's visit to Berlin last June.
Meanwhile, Merkel cited the "unique relationship" her country has with Israel in her weekly video statement last Friday, the Times of Israel reported.
"Germany and Israel are connected with a unique relationship," the Times quoted her. "Out of the heritage of our history, out of the break of civilization that was the Holocaust, we Germans have a special responsibility for the relationship with Israel," she said, adding "we can be very thankful that today we are close partners and friends."
Merkel and her delegation depart late Thursday afternoon.
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