Despite the good diplomatic relations between Berlin and Jerusalem, when it comes to Israel building new homes in its capital, Germany stands firmly opposed, along with most of the international community. While Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu denied a diplomatic fallout existed between the countries over the construction issue, it appears relations at present are strained at best.
When Israel recently announced plans to build 1,100 housing units in the Gilo neighborhood of the capital, the news was met with a round of condemnations, including Israel’s strongest allies, the United States and Germany among those allies.
It appears that Germany however is unwilling to accept the construction decision as a fait accompli, with Berlin flexing it military armor muscle, now stating that if Israel does not back down from its decision, Germany may have to reconsider an order for another nuclear submarine, which would be the sixth received by the Israel Navy from Germany.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
‘another nuclear submarine’
Since when are ANY of Israel’s submarines ‘nuclear’?? All of the subs Germany’s sold to Israel so far are diesel/electric, and I certainly don’t think this 6th one was going to be any different
The Germans? I don’t think they get a “say”. Not for another six million years or so.
I sure hope Netanyahu is not going to let himself be blackmailed by GERMANY of all horrible places! Neither the US president nor Germany have the right to tell a sovereign country where and how many houses they may build, and it is high time Israel told that to the world!
Israel doesn’t admit to having any nuclear submarines, and if they had one, they would have had to make it themselves secretly (and it isn’t all that easy to hide a shipyard).
If Israel is paying for the submarine, they should either learn to build them in Israel (which would have a long term economic benefit) or buy them from someone else.
Israel’s newest boats, Dolphin Class Submarines are modified Type 209 U-Boats…and are diesel electric, as were all earlier classes of Israeli submarines…the photo provided by YWN is of a Yankee II Class, Soviet era nuclear powered ballistic missile sub.