Questions were raised by an article by the German newspaper Bild about a fight between the German foreign minister Analena Burbok and to the Prime Minister of Israel BEyamin Netanyahu.
As Deutsche Welle writes, it all started shortly before midnight on Thursday to Friday. The always well-informed newspaper Bild published a report on its social networking platform X, entitled “Huge scandal behind closed doors”. The text spoke of a serious disagreement between Analena Burbok and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when the German Foreign Minister visited him last Tuesday together with her British counterpart David Cameron.
The two ministers were trying to convince Netanyahu that any retaliation by Iran could lead to a wider conflagration in the region. Burbok asked him for “the utmost restraint” and clarified that “I’m not talking about retreat, I’m talking about prudent restraint, which is nothing less than strength.”
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Netanyahu reportedly showed pictures to Analena Berbock from Gaza that showed markets overflowing with food and videos of Palestinians bathing on the beach near Deir al-Balah. The German foreign minister pointed out that Palestinian civilians are starving and offered to show Netanyahu pictures of starving children on her cellphone.
Netanyahu reportedly insisted there is no hunger. According to the report Burbok also advised him not to show the photos, because they did not correspond to reality. At this point, always during the report as written by Deutsche Welle, the Israeli prime minister responded in a strong tone that the photos were real.
“We are not like the Nazis,” Netanyahu reportedly said, apparently recalling that in 1942 the Nazis had a film crew make a propaganda film of staged scenes of everyday life in the Warsaw ghetto. Any comparison with the Nazi past is something that puts every German politician in a difficult position, notes Deutsche Welle.
Burbok was reportedly undeterred and asked Netanyahu if he meant to say that the doctors in the Gaza Strip and the international media were not telling the truth. What happened next is not mentioned in the Israeli journalist’s post. However, after the meeting, Netanyahu made the following statement to the cabinet: “I am now coming from meetings with the foreign ministers of Britain and Germany.
I spoke to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last night and will soon speak to other leaders. I thank our friends for their support in the defense of Israel. And I say this, both support in words and support in actions. They also have all kinds of suggestions and tips. I appreciate that, but I want to make it clear: We will make our own decisions and the State of Israel will do whatever is necessary to defend itself.”
The last words of the German minister on Israeli soil were another call for restraint. This is how her 7th visit to Israel ended. While in the first weeks after the Hamas attacks Burbok’s visits focused mainly on showing solidarity and her concern for the hostages, some of whom also have German citizenship, more recently the humanitarian aspect and the supply of the civilian population in Gaza are increasingly at the center of public attention, writes Deutsche Welle.
Her calls to the Israeli side to allow more aid to Gaza grew louder. For a time, Burbok appeared to be losing patience with Netanyahu and parts of the Israeli government. And this time she wanted to tell him in a small circle of delegations and behind closed doors, as at least some sources claim. Officially, however, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the performance of the specific dialogue as “misleading”.
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The German side
“Key points of the one-hour meeting were incorrect and misleading,” the ministry wrote on Platform X on Friday. The German side is particularly annoyed because the description of the dialogues was rendered briefly. If you ask various sources, they do not deny that Netanyahu’s side may have raised the tone.
The minister herself was at an informal dinner with her six other G7 counterparts at the Il Geranio restaurant in Capri, Italy, when she was asked to comment on the report. He didn’t really answer.
“We do not refer to confidential discussions”, he emphasized, emphasizing “we”. He added: “We have been told that they regret the report, the source of which is unclear, and we have nothing more to add.”
