{"id":1779,"date":"2026-02-21T17:06:05","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T17:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/?p=1779"},"modified":"2026-02-21T17:06:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T17:06:05","slug":"germany-prostrates-before-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2026\/02\/21\/germany-prostrates-before-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany prostrates before Trump."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Germany grovels to Trump<\/h1>\n
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David Cronin<\/a><\/span>\u00a0Rights and Accountability<\/a><\/span>\u00a028 January 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n

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A German government delegation grovels to Donald Trump. (White House photo)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Germany\u2019s\u00a0pretense<\/a>\u00a0that it upholds one or two principles on the international scene looks increasingly false.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the Berlin government\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that it was sending a \u201chigh-level\u201d police team to assist the US-led Office of the Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The announcement omitted a salient fact: the\u00a0\u201csecurity coordinator\u201d<\/a>\u00a0works closely<\/a>\u00a0with the embassy that the US opened in Jerusalem during Donald Trump\u2019s first presidential term.<\/p>\n

Like\u00a0most<\/a>\u00a0other European Union countries, Germany registered its\u00a0opposition<\/a>\u00a0in 2017 to the US decision recognizing Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

The objections are meaningless today. By teaming up with a \u201csecurity coordinator\u201d in Jerusalem, Germany is accommodating Trump\u2019s neocolonial machinations.<\/p>\n

The plan, it seems, is that Germany will\u00a0train<\/a>\u00a0police operating in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Based on the previous\u00a0experience<\/a>\u00a0of US and EU \u201csecurity\u201d missions for Palestine, we can make an educated guess about how those cops will be expected to behave. Far from advancing the cause of freedom, the police will be required to act in consort with the Israeli occupation.<\/p>\n

Significantly, the new announcement follows reports that Germany is\u00a0stepping up<\/a>\u00a0its cooperation with Yamam, a covert unit in Israel\u2019s highly militarized Border Police. Through such cooperation, Germany is ensuring that Palestinians will be placed under even greater surveillance than they are at the moment.<\/p>\n

The new announcement was\u00a0accompanied<\/a>\u00a0by a German-Israeli cybersecurity accord \u2013 which is almost certainly a topic of conversation at a major technology\u00a0exhibition<\/a>\u00a0taking place this week in Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n

The US and Germany, lest it be forgotten, are the world\u2019s two\u00a0main exporters<\/a>\u00a0of weapons to Israel.<\/p>\n

Warning signs?<\/h2>\n

Germany is a valued client, too, of Israel\u2019s arms industry.<\/p>\n

An agreement\u00a0concluded<\/a>\u00a0in the past few weeks will expand the Arrow 3 \u201cmissile defense\u201d system which Germany has ordered from Israel. Predicted to be worth over $6.5 billion \u2013 considerably\u00a0more<\/a>\u00a0than previously estimated \u2013 the contract is Israel\u2019s largest ever arms export deal.<\/p>\n

The \u201ctrade\u201d between Germany and Israel isn\u2019t limited to physical hardware.<\/p>\n

Germany has shown considerable enthusiasm in helping Israel to weaponize anti-Semitism. Use of the slogan \u201cfrom the river to the sea, Palestine will be free\u201d is even being\u00a0treated<\/a>\u00a0as a\u00a0terrorist offense<\/a>\u00a0in Germany.<\/p>\n

The weaponization has the backing of Ursula von der Leyen, the German politician who is president of the European Commission.<\/p>\n

Two years after first requesting it via freedom of information rules, I have finally obtained speaking notes drawn up for a January 2024 discussion held between von der Leyen and Dani Dayan, who heads Yad Vashem, Israel\u2019s Holocaust museum.<\/p>\n

According to the speaking notes \u2013 see below \u2013 von der Leyen told Dayan that \u201cwe are addressing the explosion of anti-Semitic hate speech and conspiracy myths online.\u201d<\/p>\n

The speaking notes do not cite examples of the \u201chate speech\u201d von der Leyen\u2019s aides had in mind. But a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0from discussions of the EU\u2019s working group on anti-Semitism held that same week \u2013 discussions in which Dayan participated \u2013 is a little more detailed.<\/p>\n

That report refers to \u201cthe explosion of anti-Semitic incidents across the EU, in particular Israel-related anti-Semitism.\u201d Several participants in the discussion, it says, regarded the term \u201cgenocide\u201d as \u201cmisuse to describe the war in Gaza, which is fought in Israel\u2019s self-defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dishonest phrasing betrays the agenda behind the EU\u2019s work on anti-Semitism \u2013 which is undertaken\u00a0in tandem<\/a>\u00a0with Israel and its lobbying network. Rather than protecting Jews from persecution, its overriding objective is to shield Israel from accountability.<\/p>\n

The meeting between von der Leyen and Dani Dayan was held on 24 January 2024. Just two days later, the International Court of Justice\u00a0delivered<\/a>\u00a0an interim ruling which deemed as plausible South Africa\u2019s case that Israel was violating the Genocide Convention.<\/p>\n

The speaking notes make no reference to how Dayan had previously\u00a0led<\/a>\u00a0the Yesha Council, an umbrella group for Israel\u2019s largest settlements in the West Bank. An accompanying biographical note on Dayan has been censored by the EU officials handling my freedom of information request.<\/p>\n

If these speaking notes provide an accurate flavor of the conversation, then it seems that von der Leyen did not raise any complaints about how Dayan had sought to justify Israel\u2019s settlement activities, even though they constitute war crimes.<\/p>\n

As well as heading Yad Vashem, Dayan\u00a0chaired<\/a>\u00a0the club known as the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) last year. That organization has just issued an\u00a0updated guide<\/a>\u00a0called\u00a0IHRA recommendations for teaching and learning about the Holocaust<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The guide lists various questions which educators should address. One question reads: \u201cWhat can learning about the Holocaust tell us about the process of genocide, its warning signs, and possibilities for intervention that might strengthen contemporary efforts to prevent genocide?\u201d<\/p>\n

As Israel is a leading player in the IHRA, it should come as no surprise that the guide only deals with a hypothetical genocide. Nothing is said about the genocide which Israel is actually carrying out in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The warning signs that a genocide was taking place could be seen by anyone who was paying attention.<\/p>\n

On 13 October 2023,\u00a0Jewish Currents<\/em>\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0an article by the Holocaust scholar Raz Segal, in which he called Israel\u2019s violence against Gaza \u201ca textbook case of genocide unfolding in front of our eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

That same day, Ursula von der Leyen paid a visit to Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel\u2019s prime minister. \u201cEurope stands with Israel,\u201d von der Leyen\u00a0assured<\/a>\u00a0him.<\/p>\n

Not only have the warning signs been ignored, Germany and the EU\u2019s most powerful politicians have backed the Gaza genocide. That they have done so while uttering\u00a0solemn inanities<\/a>\u00a0about the Holocaust makes their culpability all the worse.<\/p>\n

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