Israel war on "Tough but fair": "Israel is breaking international law"

Last updated: 12.12.2023, 04:09 a.m.

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Talk show "Hart aber fair" on Das Erste. © Screenshot ARD

Louis Klamroth and his guests are trying to get the best out of 2023. And come to the conclusion that it can get worse.

Berlin – Before ZDF launches six annual reviews in the next few days – also a form of masochism – Louis Klamroth presented on ARD: "2023 - a year that teaches us to fear" was the topic. And, of course, Hamas' attack on Israel was at the top of the list.

"The extent of the violence, especially against women and children, cannot be put into words," said war correspondent Katrin Eigendorf, special correspondent for ZDF. There would be images that you couldn't look at, that would traumatize normal people. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chairwoman of the defense committee and member of the executive committee of the FDP parliamentary group, also pointed out the particular cruelty that emanated from Hamas.

War in Israel: Failure of the Security Forces

But how could it have come to this in the first place? According to security expert Carlo Masala, a professor of international politics at the University of the German Armed Forces, it was a "classic failure of the Israeli security forces, a negation of the threat posed by Hamas." Israel had relied too much on Hamas to be interested in negotiations, had withdrawn security forces from the border with Gaza and moved them to the West Bank, where they were supposed to protect radical settlers.

Solidarity with Israel was great in large parts of German society. Markus Feldenkirchen, editor in the Berlin bureau of Der Spiegel, also admitted that Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is otherwise often criticized, had credibly emphasized Germany's raison d'être, solidarity with Israel. However, the big question remains what exactly this means, how it would play out in the event of a specific request from Israel and, above all, how this could be reconciled with the future of the Middle East.

Israel has not expressed any political goal

The destruction of Hamas is Israel's immediate goal, but then what? "Israel has expressed a military goal, but not yet a political one," Masala said, leading the Oct. 7 discussion into the context of a conflict that some have come to call genocide. Whether this is justified will be discussed by experts in international law in the coming months and years. As for whether the Israeli counterattack is still proportionate, Markus Feldenkirchen said: "The longer it lasts, the more people tend to say that it is no longer proportionate." And Katrin Eigendorf went even further: "Israel is breaking international law," said the journalist, who was also on the ground in the Gaza Strip and was able to get an idea of the destruction.

Talk show "Hart aber fair" on Das Erste. © Screenshot ARD

Gerhart Baum, former Federal Minister of the Interior of the FDP, frowned at such humanism and emphasized Israel's far-reaching right to self-defense, which in extreme cases goes beyond the protection of the civilian population. Astonishingly, it was his party colleague Strack-Zimmermann who often expresses herself radically, but in a differentiated way with regard to the Middle East conflict. Israel's neighbours also have no interest in additional Palestinian refugees, but also not in Hamas' survival.

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War in Ukraine: Counteroffensive has fizzled out

In addition, there is the role of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is considered in Israel to be largely responsible for the Hamas attack, but who, according to Masala, faces dilemmas that can hardly be solved: "Netanyahu has leaned so far out of the window with the goal of destroying Hamas that there is no turning back." But this means that Israel is waging a war that looks like a war of annihilation, according to Eigendorf.

The other war of our time has long since developed into a war of position, the much-heralded counteroffensive in the Ukraine war fizzled out, the Russian positions held firm. Meanwhile, criticism of Ukrainian President Zelensky, who has not only been described as unworldly by his supreme general, but also criticized by Wladimir Klitschko, the mayor of Kiev, is growing louder. According to his own statements, he has no contact with Zelensky, even though the two offices in the capital are only a few hundred meters apart.

On the subject of Ukraine and Russia, the cold warrior Strack-Zimmermann showed her old toughness on "Hart aber fair" and also called for the delivery of offensive weapons that would enable Ukraine to win. But what should this victory look like? "Putin is counting on the fatigue effect of the West," said Markus Feldenkrichen, and is just waiting for arms deliveries to decrease, then he will conquer the country. "Something is also falling apart in Ukraine. The country is no longer united together and behind its president," Katrin Eigendorf tried to describe the situation in Ukraine, accusations of isolation, also of corruption are getting louder, now winter is coming.

2024: The Year of Elections

And next year there will be landmark elections. In Thuringia, where the AfD could come to power if the democratic parties are not careful. But especially in the USA. And if Donald Trump wins there, which certainly does not seem impossible, then the attempt to somehow achieve peace in Ukraine will become much more difficult.

All the sanctions so far do not seem to harm Putin, he is more firmly in the saddle than at the beginning of the war, all the guests on "Hart aber fair" agreed. In view of these global crises, the German budget hole seemed like a trifle, even if the traffic light coalition apparently does not manage to present a correct budget this year, before Christmas. The state is nevertheless fully capable of acting, Finance Minister Christian Lindner emphasized today, which should reassure and perhaps also make the eternal grumblers, skeptics and grumblers in this country realize that this country is doing very, very well in spite of everything. (Michael Meyns)