German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is set to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Sunday.
The meeting is scheduled for 11 a.m., followed by a joint press conference at 12:30 p.m., Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday.
Hours before taking off to Israel, Merz spoke by phone on Saturday with Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas and urged him to implement “urgently necessary reforms” in the P.A., AFP reported.
The P.A. could “play a constructive role in a post-war order,” German government spokesman Stefan Kornelius was cited as saying.
Merz expressed support for the Trump administration’s peace plan for the Mideast, welcoming what the German leader called the P.A.’s “cooperative attitude,” AFP reported.
The chancellor added that Berlin still views a two-state solution as the ultimate path toward peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike, the government spokesperson said.
Merz, who leads Germany’s Christian Democratic Union, spoke with Netanyahu on Nov. 16, shortly after declaring in a speech that Berlin must “stand with Israel” as part of a renewed “Western alliance.”
A day earlier, Merz referenced Israel in a speech to the Junge Union Deutschlands—the youth wing of his Christian Democratic Union party—in Rust, near Stuttgart in western Germany.
“The position of the Federal Republic of Germany must be clear, where we stand. In the Western alliance,” Merz said, before pausing. He then added, “At Israel’s side, dear friends. I have not forgotten that,” as thunderous applause resounded.
Successive German governments have described a commitment to Israel’s security as a core principle of their foreign policy, rooted in the legacy of the Nazi regime’s near annihilation of European Jewry. At the same time, Berlin has funneled millions of dollars to Palestinian and other organizations that work to undermine Israel’s legitimacy and oppose Jewish statehood.
Germany’s government has adopted a friendlier posture toward Israel than many other European countries since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.
However, there have been tensions as exemplified by Merz announcing a ban on exporting “offensive” weapons to the Jewish state on Aug. 8, hours after Netanyahu’s Cabinet voted to expand the Israel Defense Forces’ operations against the Hamas terror group.
On Wednesday, Israel Defense Ministry officials handed over the first operational Arrow 3 system to the German Army at a ceremony at a German Air Force base near Berlin.
The development “marks a significant step in implementing the defense export contract signed between the two nations approximately two years ago, and is considered the largest defense export deal in Israel’s history,” according to an Israeli Ministry of Defense statement.
The Arrow 3 air-defense system, which is designed to intercept ballistic missiles outside the Earth’s atmosphere with exceptional long-range interception capabilities, has made hundreds of successful interceptions since the outbreak of war between Israel, Hezbollah and Iran.
