German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel will be arriving in Israel on Monday, 24 Adar I 5774 along with most of her cabinet. Merkel will be a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Distinction by President Shimon Peres.
When she asked cabinet members to join her on the trip, 17 of her 18 cabinet ministers were pleased to take part in the event. This Merkel states is part of her country’s steadfast support for the State of Israel.
Commenting on the chancellor’s imminent arrival, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu added the following at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, 23 Adar.
“German Chancellor Angela Merkel will arrive in Israel tomorrow. She comes as a friend of Israel with a considerable entourage. We will talk with them in order to deepen bilateral cooperation. Of course, I will discuss with her two diplomatic issues of the highest order. Regarding our negotiations with the Palestinians, I will make it clear that the infrastructure of peace between us and the Palestinians will be based on the mutual recognition of two national states, i.e. the necessity of Palestinian recognition of the Jewish state, the national state of the Jewish People.
“I will also discuss with her about the nuclear talks. Since Germany is part of the P5+1, I view with concern that fact that Iran believes that it will realize its plan to be a nuclear threshold state, with an enrichment capacity that it thinks cannot be touched, with the ability to develop both nuclear weapons and inter-continental missiles, which it is continuing to work on unhindered. This combination of enrichment, weapons and launch capabilities, says that Iran is, in effect, receiving everything and giving almost nothing. This is the current situation. The permanent agreement cannot render this situation permanent. It must dismantle the Iranian ability to either produce or launch nuclear weapons, and this has yet to be achieved, and without the insistence of the major powers it will not be achieved. I hope that Germany and the other P5+1 countries will insist on the genuine demands to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear threshold state.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
Menachem Begin could hardly look at these people let alone honor them
What exactly has Merkel done to distinguish herself so much as to deserve a medal of distinction? I’m asking this half honestly? Other than blocking a few votes in the EU on our behalf or building us a few submarines (I think half of them we have to pay for anyway) all of which is pretty obviously just trying to buy themselves a get out of jail free card on holocaust guilt, what exactly has Germany done that makes them such a great friend?
Especially considering as how several big German firms are quite integral in the information systems that Iran uses to design their nuclear bombs.