–OpEd–
BERLIN — What was life like as a Jew in Germany before October 7? It seems almost surrealistically far away looking back today.
In the period leading up to Hamas attack a year ago, Holocaust survivors like Charlotte Knobloch had described a feeling of finally being able to unpack their suitcases in Germany. Meanwhile, Germans discovered their love for Israeli food, and the State of Israel developed from a last refuge into a source of Jewish self-confidence — beautiful, smart and capable of defending itself. In conversations about Tel Aviv, German students complained at most about the hotel prices, not about “apartheid” and “genocide”.
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This era of post-Holocaust Jewish life in Germany ended in the early hours of Oct. 7, 2023. On that day, the sense of progress and confidence gave way to a new, age-old fear. There was no longer an Israeli government, no powerful army — only Jewish mothers and fathers huddling in hiding places with their children, only to be discovered and executed.
Germans reacted strangely unemotionally to the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Looking back, it must be said that those were the better days. Then Israel began to defend itself.
Holocaust memorials desecrated
When the United States was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, German society felt included. Few questioned the fact that Germany went to war alongside the Americans against the Taliban.
German students declare that Palestine must be freed from “German guilt”
Now, however, not only does the international situation seems different, but so does the emotional situation. The more defensive the Israelis appear to be, the more unpopular they become, and with them all Jews: according to a survey conducted in North Rhine-Westphalia after Oct. 7, 40% of participants thought that Israeli policy made Jews less likeable in their eyes, while 38% thought that what the Israelis have been doing since Oct. 7 tends to remind them of National Socialism.
There is a new German reality for Jews, in which Holocaust memorials are smeared with the words “Jews commit genocide”. It’s a reality in which German students declare that Palestine must be freed from “German guilt” — and preferably the entire region, “from the river to the sea,” should be freed from Israelis too.
It is an everyday life in which you can listen to the Palestinian ambassador to Austria on Deutschlandfunk radio asking himself, in the spirit of a Holocaust denier, whether Hamas even attacked civilians on Oct. 7.
The ‘flood’ arrives in Berlin
And it is everyday life in which the left-wing, Arab-influenced Migrantifa association organizes a demonstration on the anniversary of the Hamas attack to celebrate the “heroic resistance of the Palestinian people.” The association called for “Berlin’s streets to be flooded,” alluding to “Al-Aqsa flood”, the name that Hamas gave to its Oct. 7 operation.
The meager empathy shown to Israelis and Jews in the weeks following Oct. 7 has clearly run out in view of the war against Hamas and Hezbollah. The anger at the countless Palestinian victims, the horror at the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and Lebanon — all of this is understandable.
The suffering will not diminish just because Hamas is responsible for the outbreak of war. But this anger turns into a dangerous one-sidedness when the image of Israel as a victim is completely suppressed, and only the alleged perpetrator nation remains.
Worst-case scenario
Even when the Israelis eliminated one of the world’s most dangerous terrorists — Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah — there is criticism in Germany. For example from Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who declared that the death of Nasrallah, who has been bombarding northern Israel with rockets for 11 months, is “in no way in Israel’s security interests.” This is as if she had admonished Barack Obama after the killing of Bin Laden for not having considered the consequences.
In the Tagesschau, Nasrallah’s death is described as a “worst-case scenario for the entire Middle East.” It seems almost absurd that at the same time, videos are spreading on social media of jubilant Syrians rejoicing over Nasrallah’s death.
So what do you do when you realize that you find it difficult to feel sympathy for Jews and Israelis? You could ask yourself why you’re moved by Jews only so long as they are helpless. As soon as they show strength, your care and closeness vanish — quietly, almost imperceptibly, like a hand that you slowly withdraw.
