Four months into his term, German leader Friedrich Merz has earned the label “foreign policy chancellor” for his energetic embrace of Nato security concerns and transatlantic trade challenges.
But the 69-year-old’s absence at the UN General Assembly this week is as conspicuous as his stated reason for staying in Berlin: a Bundestag debate and a vote.
Critics suggest that staying at home allows Merz to avoid awkward questions about Germany’s stance on Israel-Gaza and its hold-out on recognising Palestine statehood.
Berlin insists this can come only at the end of a wider peace process between Israelis and Palestinians.
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“But such a process must begin now,” said foreign minister Johann Wadephul before departing for New York as Germany’s representative, criticising the move by Britain, France, Belgium and others in recent days as “the completely wrong approach”.
The German foreign minister said he will use his UN speeches and backroom diplomacy in New York to advocate an immediate ceasefire, more Gaza aid and the immediate and unconditional release of all remaining Israeli hostages.
Wadephul also pushed back against Israeli plans for further settlements in the occupied West Bank: “Any steps towards an annexation of occupied territories that violates international law also undermine the opportunity to resolve the conflict sustainably.”
Since taking office, Merz has insisted that preconditions for recognising a Palestinian state had not been met “even in the smallest way”.
[ Germany conflicted as public sympathy for Israel begins to shiftOpens in new window ]
Berlin watchers have pointed out how the same Bundestag debates and votes that have kept Merz in Berlin will see Wadephul fly across the Atlantic four times this week.
Germany’s stance on the Gaza conflict, in particular its approach to the Netanayahu government, has attracted considerable criticism abroad and, increasingly, at home.
Weeks after imposing limits on arms exports, debate in Germany has shifted of late to concerns that Berlin is trapped in a dead-end with an Israeli government dominated by political extremists.
Even politicians wary of recognising a Palestinian state suggest that Merz, by staying away from New York, is playing a double game.
“Merz emphasises over and over again that Israel’s security is important to him and in New York he could have shown that he takes that seriously,” said Green Party co-leader Franziska Brantner to the Süddeutsche Zeitung daily.
Even without Merz, Germany will be well-represented at the UN, given ex-Green foreign minister Annalena Baerbock is new president of the General Assembly.
[ Merz and Macron anxious to speak the same political languageOpens in new window ]
She has called this week’s high-level gathering “a chance to address the reality that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be resolved by endless war, continued occupation and terror”.
But those tensions, officials of her Berlin successor Wadephul concede, will complicate German diplomacy this week in New York – and lobbying for a rotating seat at the Security Council.
