German Foreign Minister unironically calls for ‘solution to the Jerusalem problem’

Via Free Beacon (Matthew Continetti):

German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel does not support President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, according to the Washington Post. "We all know the far-reaching impact this move would have," he said in an interview.  

"Germany's position on this issue remains unchanged: A solution to the Jerusalem problem can only be found through direct negotiations between both parties. Everything which worsens the crisis is counterproductive." 

Leaving aside Gabriel's conventional pro-Palestinian policy analysis, maybe he could have chosen his words more carefully? 

And maybe European governments might want to sit this one out? The Washington Post goes on to say that word of President Trump's announcement "dominated European news coverage Wednesday, especially in countries such as Germany, France, and Britain where anti-Semitic incidents have been on the rise in recent years—partially due to an escalation of tensions between Israel and Palestinians." 

That's one way of looking at it, we suppose. Reporters never waste an opportunity to blame Israel for Europe's troubles. Another way of looking at it is that rising European anti-Semitism has coincided with rising European Islamism, rising European secularism hostile to Jewish particularity and ritual, and rising European nationalism of the kind that led to the murder of six million European Jews less than a century ago. The Boycott Divest Sanctions movement, the spearhead of global efforts to delegitimize the state of Israel, is also strong on the continent, where goods made in Jewish communities in the West Bank are required to carry a warning label. Little surprise that Jews are leaving places like France in record numbers.

Jewish migration from Germany is relatively stable, but that may be because there are so few Jews left in Germany to begin with. Still, Josef Schuster, president of Germany's Central Council of Jews, told Bild last July that "In some districts in major cities, I'd advise people not to identify themselves as Jews."

read more