The Israeli ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, has praised Berlin’s support for Israel in the fight against Hamas, but at the same time sharply criticized Germany’s abstention in the UN vote on the Gaza war resolution.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz “clearly stood by Israel’s side immediately after the Hamas terror attack. And that is where he stands to this day,” Prosor told dpa.
However, he said, Germany’s voting behaviour in the UN General Assembly “has already been disturbing for years and in this last case even more than disappointing.”
The resolution passed last Friday did not condemn Hamas’s terrorist attack, nor did it include Israel’s right to self-defence or a call to free the hostages, Prosor said.
The resolution, which calls for an “immediate permanent and sustainable humanitarian ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, was approved by 120 countries.
Germany was among the 45 countries that abstained. The US and 13 other countries voted against it.
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Scholz defended Germany’s abstention at the weekend, saying his country had “worked hard to get a decision of the United Nations assembly which is realistic to the situation.”
“As we were not succeeding, we abstained,” he said.
Prosor nevertheless paid tribute to German solidarity.
“We very much appreciate Germany’s support since the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7,” he said.
“The chancellor has called a spade a spade from the beginning,” Prosor said. “He speaks of the inhuman brutality of the Hamas terrorist organization and repeatedly emphasises that Israel’s security is Germany’s reason of state.”
“Reason of state” is an expression coined by Niccolo Machiavelli in his work “The Prince,” to mean a disregard for legal, moral, and religious considerations when convenient or necessary for the interests of the state.
Source:dpa
