His inaugural visit to Israel was so important to Chancellor Scholz that he did not want to go without it, despite the war in Ukraine. The topic that keeps the world in suspense should determine the visit.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz will meet Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial on Wednesday during his inaugural visit to Israel.
Talks with Foreign Minister Jair Lapid and a visit to the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, are also on the German head of government’s agenda.
foreign visits
Planning for the trip had begun long before the war in Ukraine began. Because of the dramatic situation there, it was unclear until the end whether it would even start. It is now reduced to a few hours. Scholz will not visit the Palestinian territories.
Since taking office almost three months ago, the Chancellor has been on foreign visits to Paris, Brussels, Warsaw, Rome, Madrid, Washington, Kyiv and Moscow. Israel is always one of the countries that new chancellors and foreign ministers visit very early. Against the background of the murder of six million Jews across Europe by the Nazis, the two countries developed special ties. Germany sees itself as having a special responsibility for Israel’s right to exist and its security.
Scholz will visit the Yad Vashem memorial together with Bennett and lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance. The subsequent conversation with Bennett will deal with the deadlocked conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and with Iran. The negotiations on a revival of the agreement to prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb, in which Germany is involved, are in a decisive phase.
war against Ukraine
However, the Ukraine conflict is likely to have a major impact on the Chancellor’s visit. The country is in a quandary after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Jewish state maintains good relations with both countries. Israel also does not want to upset its most important ally, the United States, but is dependent on Moscow’s goodwill for strategic reasons, including in the conflicts with Syria and Iran.
Along with Iran, Russia is the Syrian government’s most important ally in Israel’s hostile neighbor. Israel’s air force regularly bombs targets there to prevent its nemesis Iran and militias allied with it from expanding their military influence in Syria. Russia largely tolerates the Israeli attacks.
In Israel there are large Russian-born and Ukrainian-born communities. After the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, around a million immigrants from the former Soviet Union came to Israel in the 1990s. In recent years, Ukraine alone has always been one of the countries from which most immigrants came to Israel – sometimes more than 7,000 people a year.
Israel has not yet commented on media reports that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked Israeli Prime Minister Bennett to host negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Israel. After a conversation between Bennett and Putin on Sunday, the Kremlin reported that Bennett offered to mediate in the conflict. According to media reports, Israel is also said to have rejected a request from Kiev for arms deliveries.
Source: Stern
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