Merkel’s murky mindset

WJC President Ronald Lauder’s attempt (“Angela Merkel deserved the WJC award and here’s why,” November 3) to justify his giving the Theodor Herzl award to German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her efforts to combat antisemitism was pitiful.

Lauder did not mention a single concrete achievement of Merkel in this regard. He twice referred to her public statements against antisemitism, but this is precisely the point of the critics. Merkel is great at making statements, but that is where it ends.

Her policies, on the other hand, embolden antisemites. Germany is at the forefront of trade deals with Iran worth billions of euros annually. German commerce officials sponsor numerous Iranian trade fairs in Germany. Merkel continues to uphold the Iran nuclear deal. She advocates efforts to circumvent US sanctions on Iranian trade designed to restrict Iran’s nuclear ambitions – all this despite almost weekly genocidal threats of annihilation of Israel by Iranian government officials.

Germany has steadfastly refused to declare Iran’s militant proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, a terrorist organization, clearly fearing Iranian trade reprisals if it dared to make a moral decision, rather than a commercially beneficial one. Hezbollah has not only struck at Israel, but at Jewish targets in Europe (Burgas, Bulgaria, for example) and, according to German intelligence reports, currently monitors Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe. It has 150,000 rockets, including GPS-guided ones, at our northern border waiting for the signal from Tehran.

Iran sponsors terror. It sponsors Holocaust denial. Its terrorist proxies Hezbollah and Hamas disseminate vile antisemitic propaganda reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

Yet German government officials even congratulated Iran on the 40th anniversary of the Islamist revolution under Ayatollah Khomeini in a bald-faced attempt to ingratiate themselves with the radical mullah-run regime. Never mind areas of concern such as human rights, specifically women’s rights and minority rights, which were curtailed as a result of the revolution.

Moreover, Germany has no problem condemning Israel 16 out of 21 times at the UN in 2018 alone. Or rallying European opposition to US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital or the Golan Heights as sovereign Israeli territory.

Lauder has forgotten a key Jewish value voiced by our sage Shammai 2,000 years ago: “Say little, do much.” We’ve heard words from Merkel, but her actions enable antisemitism of the most extreme type – genocidal – globally. Lauder’s own shocking statistical evidence reveals how little effect Merkel’s “efforts” have had even on German society.

This honor for Merkel was a great disservice to the battle against antisemitism.

GABE GOLDBERG

Jerusalem