Germany and Israel

This article examines the role of Holocaust memory in the diplomatic relations between Israel and West Germany in the 1950s. It discusses the dilemma of using the Holocaust in the diplomatic arena and presents in this regard different views of Israeli leaders and diplomats. In addition, it probes the different reactions of Israeli diplomats and delegates to the reluctance of the West Germans to genuinely confront the Nazi past, to the extensive reinstatement of ex-Nazis in the administration in West Germany, and the reluctance of the legal authorities to prosecute Nazi criminals. Contrary to this trend by the end of the 1950s, Some German prosecutors began to cooperate with the Israeli legal authorities and Yad Vashem in their efforts to prosecute Nazi criminals who lived peacefully in West Germany.

The book is devoted to the analysis of German-Israel relations since the end of WWII till present. The author attempts to identify spe-cific features of the “special relationship” between the states in various fields. The research includes two thematic blocks. The first one is aimed at review of bilateral cooperation in the sphere of politics, econ-omy, defense industry, science, culture and sports. The second focuses on assessing the problems and prospects of multilateral cooperation in the frameworks of international organizations, as well as the possibili-ties of interaction between the parties to solve the problems of the Mid-dle East and Africa. In conclusion, the forecast of the development of German-Israeli relations is presented.
The research dwells upon East Germany’s experience in building relations with Israel. The author refutes the idea widespread in Russian science, according to which there was a unanimous opinion in the GDR regarding the possibility of establishing diplomatic relations with Israel and reparations issue. Israeli fears about German’s unification are also analyzed. More over the author examines the Jerusalem's attempts to normalize relations with the GDR, which could help strengthen East Germany’s positions in the international arena.
The book examines the impact of the division of Germany on the search for twin cities and as well as the peculiarities of perceiving the migration crisis on the territory of former West and East Germany. According to the author the urgency of this issue is increasing due to the activity of the “Alternative for Germany” party. Among key ideas for it are the fight against the migration crisis in Europe, which includes the thesis about the growth of anti-Semitism because of the massive influx of migrants from the East into the country, and the need to over-come the remaining socio-economic differences between the eastern and western Germans.
The author pays great attention to problems of the search for iden-tity of Jews in Germany. Among the factors that influenced this process, a special place is given to the mass influx of “Russian” Jews into the country, which allowed to restore jewish community life in Germany, but in a number of aspects changed its value orientations. The experience of repatriates from Germany in Israel is also studied. The author con-siders their interaction with the other groups of repatriates of various
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aliyah waves, peculiarities of integration of one-and-a-half generation and modern attempts in Israel to preserve the legacy of lost German Jewish communities.
A separate section is devoted to the topic of civil-military relations in Germany and Israel. The author comes to conclusion that the army is one of the key examples demonstrating the evolution of relations, as well as the difference in worldviews in the states under consideration, which was partially a consequence of the outcome of WWII. Based on German sources that have not previously entered in the scientific circu-lation in Russia, the author studies the tragedy at the Olympics in Munich in 1972. The importance of this page of the joint history of Israel and Germany in terms of the evolution of the concept of German re-sponsibility is noted.
The research analyzes the approaches of the German political party foundations (Stiftungen) to the assessment of bilateral relations, including the activity of the recently created Desiderius-Erasmus-Stiftung. The author reveals their concern regarding the revision of Israeli legislation in the field of foreign financing of non-profit organiza-tions. They consider this factor dangerous not for their direct work in the Middle East, but from the point of view of the prospects for complicating cooperation with pro-Palestinian organizations, which often support BDS-movement.
The final chapter addresses to the development of the Middle East and Africa. The author notes the positive impact of the Joint African Initiative on all its participants as well as the opportunity to use gained experience in the Palestinian territories in order to encourage benefi-ciaries of economic assistance to be more accountable. The author reveals common features in the approaches of Israel and Germany in connection with Turkish activity against the Kurds in Syria. Domestic issues are also important for determining the position of Germany in regard to the Middle East. It is no coincidence that many of the initia-tives presented by the AfG are not supported in the Bundestag. At the same time, the pro-Israeli activity of the party is not the basis for its rapprochement with the Israeli government, since the latter sees in the party risks for the basic principles of special German-Israeli relations.

In the history of the complex relationship between Israel and the Federal Republic of Germany, (hereafter, FRG), the end of 1955 and the beginning of 1956 marked a turning point. Until this period Israel had decided to defer the FRG’s repeated proposals, first submitted during the negotiations over reparations in 1952, to establish diplomatic relations between the two countries. The dispute between the two countries at the end of 1955 and the beginning of 1956 forms the core of this article, the aim of which is to analyze the positions of both sides against the background of their respective geopolitical situations and the complex political circumstances of the Cold War in the mid-1950s.

Gershom Scholem (1897–1982) was ostensibly only a scholar of Jewish mysticism, yet he occupies a powerful role in today’s intellectual imagination, having influential contacts with an extraordinary cast of thinkers, including Hans Jonas, Martin Buber, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, and Theodor Adorno. In this first biography of Scholem, Amir Engel shows how Scholem grew from a scholar of an esoteric discipline to a thinker wrestling with problems that reach to the very foundations of the modern human experience. As Engel shows, in his search for the truth of Jewish mysticism Scholem molded the vast literature of Jewish mystical lore into a rich assortment of stories that unveiled new truths about the modern condition. Positioning Scholem’s work and life within early twentieth-century Germany, Palestine, and later the state of Israel, Engel intertwines Scholem’s biography with his historiographical work, which stretches back to the Spanish expulsion of Jews in 1492, through the lives of Rabbi Isaac Luria and Sabbatai Zevi, and up to Hasidism and the dawn of the Zionist movement. Through parallel narratives, Engel touches on a wide array of important topics, including immigration, exile, Zionism, World War I, and the creation of the state of Israel, ultimately telling the story of the realizations—and failures—of a dream for a modern Jewish existence.

German organizations are among the last Palestine solidarity groups in Europe to have embraced the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), launched in
2005. Pro-Israel German groups have been quick to respond with aggressive rhetoric equating a BDS-favorable stance with Nazism. The vilification of the
movement has had the unintended consequence of inserting BDS into German politics, both at federal and local levels. Select case studies show that the BDS
debate in Germany has developed somewhat differently than in other European countries, and that religious discourse is significant in shaping attitudes to Israel
and Palestine. While the Palestine solidarity movement tends to single out the “Anti-Germans”—a pro-Israel formation that grew out of the Left after the reunification of Germany—as the major culprit, it is in fact conservative Christian, mostly Evangelical, organizations that are largely responsible for discouraging BDS activism.

Gershom Scholem (1897–1982) was ostensibly only a scholar of Jewish
mysticism, yet he occupies a powerful role in today’s intellectual imagination, having influential contacts with an extraordinary cast of thinkers, including Hans Jonas, Martin Buber, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, and Theodor Adorno. In this first biography of Scholem, Amir Engel shows how Scholem grew from a scholar of an esoteric discipline to a thinker wrestling with problems that reach to the very foundations of the modern human experience.
As Engel shows, in his search for the truth of Jewish mysticism Scholem molded the vast literature of Jewish mystical lore into a rich assortment of stories that unveiled new truths about the modern condition. Positioning Scholem’s work and life within early twentieth-century Germany, Palestine, and later the state of Israel, Engel intertwines Scholem’s biography with his historiographical work, which stretches back to the Spanish expulsion of Jews in 1492, through the lives of Rabbi Isaac Luria and Sabbatai Zevi, and up to Hasidism and the dawn of the Zionist movement. Through parallel narratives, Engel touches on a wide array of important topics, including immigration, exile, Zionism, World War I, and the creation of the state of Israel, ultimately telling the story of the realizations—and failures—of a dream for a modern Jewish existence.

German organizations are among the last Palestine solidarity groups in Europe to have embraced the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), launched in 2005. Pro-Israel German groups have been quick to respond with aggressive rhetoric equating a BDS-favorable stance with Nazism. The vilification of the movement has had the unintended consequence of inserting BDS into German politics, both at federal and local levels. Select case studies show that the BDS debate in Germany has developed somewhat differently than in other European countries, and that religious discourse is significant in shaping attitudes to Israel and Palestine. While the Palestine solidarity movement tends to single out the “Anti-Germans”—a pro-Israel formation that grew out of the Left after the reunification of Germany—as the major culprit, it is in fact conservative Christian, mostly Evangelical, organizations that are largely responsible for discouraging BDS activism.