Staatsräson Monitor Newsletter #1 - 18.6.2025

German-Israeli relations - From Insomnia to Insight. Story tips here: srmonitornl@gmail.com

In this inaugural edition of SRM, we examine Germany’s evolving position on arms exports to Israel. While officials criticized the policy, it has remained in place despite 77% of the Geraman public supporting a suspension.

We also cover how, while the focus has shifted to the strike on Iran, civilians in Gaza continue to be killed with impunity, Israel-aligned lobby groups’ intensifying campaigns to defund UNRWA, and a PR effort to “Reclaim Zionism”. All while INSS, an Israeli security establishment think-tank, warns that Israel’s actions in Gaza “may fall under the definition of genocide”.

Finally, the rising death toll in Gaza, the announcement of 22 new settlements in the West Bank, amid Israel’s attack on Iran and its heavy toll on civilians, and conflicting data on antisemitism in the education sector.

Below the newsletter are some general explanations: Who’s behind SRM? Monitoring what?! And why this newsletter?!?

…but let’s start Staatsräson Monitor #1 with a short guide

Behind the Scenes
A closer look at the influence of think-tanks, advocacy groups, and lobbying efforts shaping German-Israeli politics.

In Full View
Tracking the decisions and debates unfolding in political arenas - from the Israeli Knesset to the German state, federal, and EU parliaments.

Mouthful
We unpack media narratives, public discourse, and the language that shapes what is being said.

On the Ground
We report on human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel, examining how power impacts daily lives.

State of Reason
Opinion and analysis - from our team or guest contributors - that scrutinize the headlines, challenge prevailing narratives, and bring sharper, more grounded fact-based perspectives to the debate.

---

Behind the Scenes -

An SRM Exclusive: Sources, confirmed by documents, revealed to Staatsräson Monitor (SRM) that NAFFO held a working lunch event on June 6th, one week before Israel’s attack on Iran, titled “What next for the Iranian nuclear program?”, under the patronage of Markus Koob MdB (CDU).

An SRM Exclusive: ELNET, an Israel-aligned advocacy group, had postponed a delegation to Israel from June to July due to the attack on Iran. According to sources, confirmed by documents, the 5-day delegation, which was scheduled to depart in mid-June, was composed of cross-party members, including SPD, Grüne,CDU, CSU, and die Linke. This timing raises serious concerns over the normalization and deepening of German-Israeli military cooperation amidst Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, against the aforementioned German public support for halting weapon deliveries.

The itinerary juxtaposes October 7th massacre sites, and Military facilities hosting Sa’ar 6 Navy ships and Dolphin submarines—both subsidized by the German state—as well as a visit to the Tel Nof Air Force Base to observe joint drone operations of the German-Israeli "Red Baron" drones unit. The delegation serves to reinforce weapons deals and legitimize a militarized narrative of security, with no scheduled encounters with Palestinian civil society or independent humanitarian observers.

Werte Initiative, an Israel-aligned advocacy group, published a revisionist history of the Nakba in a PR project called “Reclaim Zionism”. Emphasizing how many Palestinians stayed in Israel after the 1948 war, rather than how many left. What is more baffling is that the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) supported this project, which cites heavilly biased, nonacademic sources, such as MENA-watch, to rewrite the history of the 1948 war.

Two Israeli-aligned advocacy groups, NAFFO and NGO Monitor, are cooperating to lobby for withholding German funds from UNWRA and call the UN agency “One of the greatest obstacles on the path to effective and neutral humanitarian aid and Palestinian self-reliance”.

CDU MdB Johannes Volkmann echoed similar messages: “I understand the Israelis' mistrust of UNRWA”, on WELT

INSS, Israel’s leading security think tank, with ties to the Israeli military, is warning against war crimes. A report released by one of the INSS's senior writers, Col. (Ret.) Adv. Pnina Sharvit Baruch, along with Dr. Adv. Tammy Caner notes, regarding the current war plans for Operation “Gideon’s Chariots” which began in May: “Widespread and planned forced displacement may fall under the definition of ethnic cleansing, which is a crime against humanity, and may potentially be interpreted by critics as the deliberate infliction of conditions calculated to bring about physical destruction, which falls under the definition of genocide - even though Israel is not committing genocide.” The authors later warn that “Concern for democracy often focuses on internal threats, but immoral and illegal conduct toward Palestinians in Gaza is no less corrosive to Israel’s democratic and Jewish essence”.

Meanwhile, in Israel, a new Haaretz investigation reveals that the secretive U.S.-based Central Fund of Israel (CFI) has become a major financial engine for Israel’s far-right. Over the past decade, CFI funneled more than $500 million—nearly triple the budget of the liberal New Israel Fund—into extremist groups, including those backing illegal settlements, Jewish terrorists, annexation, anti-LGBT campaigns, and calls to destroy Gaza. Despite its vast impact, CFI remains little-known in Israel, intransparent, protected by donor secrecy and limited oversight.

---

In Full View

Israel’s strike on Iran hasn’t moved public opinion, but it has noticeably altered Chancellor Merz’s tone on Israel. Merz described Israel’s attack on ZDF, as one that “does dirty work for all of us”.

With 24 Israelis and 224 Iranians dead, SRM asks: who’s paying the price? Merz also backed the view that only U.S. “special bombs” or negotiations can neutralize Iran’s threat. But history warns us: Iraq’s regime change bred ISIS. Strategic alliances don’t erase the risks of blowback.

The CDU-led condemnations feel like ancient history. Still, it won’t be easily forgotten, along with the weapon delivery flip-flop: Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar, visited Berlin on June 5th, after a week of public critical statements by Chancellor Merz, and a recent flip by Foreign Minister Wadephul, who initially stated in SZ that a review of the weapons export is needed, but then backtracked during a questioning session of the German government in the Bundestag stating that “Germany will continue to support the State of Israel, including with arms deliveries" (Spiegel). What changed? Was there pressure from within the Union party, including Minister Dorbrindt and regional group leader Alexander Hoffmann(CSU), or was there a visit by Sa’ar?

77% of Germans support a temporary suspension of arms deliveries to Israel due to the war in Gaza, according to a June 6th ZDF poll, alongside several human rights groups, SPD, and Linke members of parliament.

Wadephul criticized Israel’s approval of 22 new settlements in the West Bank. “Even as friends, we cannot ignore this,” Wadephul said alongside his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Sa'ar, in Berlin on Thursday, as reported by Politico. “We reject this, because the settlement policy in this form is contrary to international law. It literally obstructs the two-state solution — and that is the solution that we as the German government continue to stand for.”

---

Mouthful

The Israeli Government Advertising Agency published several German-speaking video ads through Google. Despite global consensus on Israel’s withholding of aid to Gaza, some of the ads claim that trucks enter daily.

In the TAZ, Nicolas Potter summarizes the RIAS report, which documented, according to its controversial methods, more than 8,600 incidents in 2024, a new record. They recorded a tripling of incidents at educational institutions in 2024. Interestingly, a BMBF-sponsored research, covering the same period, it too with conspicuously broad definitions of antisemitism incidents, reported no rise in antisemitic activity in higher education facilities and former Minister Cem Özdemir, who released the report on the day of the election results, himself stated: "The study published today shows that antisemitic attitudes have not increased among students and are still less pronounced than in the general population.”

Israeli Channel 14, described by the Guardian as “ultranationalist”, systematically airs racist and genocidal statements, was appealed to court by liberal think tank Zulat, headed by former Meretz party leader Zehava Galon, and was featured in a report from Prem Thakker at Zeteo.

The president of the Israeli-alinged German-Israeli Society (DIG), Volker Beck, criticized the right-wing extremist members of Israel's government on Israeli Channel Kan 11: "When ministers call for starving the population in Gaza or 'sending them abroad,' which is nothing less than ethnic cleansing, that makes our task very difficult". Notably, Beck framed the challenge primarily in terms of the damage such rhetoric does to Israel-aligned advocacy efforts in Germany, rather than directly confronting the substance of Israel’s escalating policies on the ground.

Earlier that very same day, Beck was criticized by his predecessor, Ex-DIG-President Reinhold Robbe, in Tagesspiegel as “a mouthpiece of the right-wing extremist Israeli government."

The ongoing debate over Germany's Staatsräson (Reason of State) has taken an intriguing turn, extending beyond figures like Chancellor Friederich Merz, Minister of Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul, and Volker Beck and even Felix Klein, Federal Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight Against Antisemitism told WDR, that "it’s high time that a debate on this matter took place in Germany," signaling a shift in the national conversation about the country's foreign policy stance.

---

On The Ground

In total, 24 people in Israel have been killed so far in the Iranian missile attacks, all of them civilians. The death toll in Iran has reached at least 224, with civilians accounting for 90% of the casualties, an Iranian health ministry spokesperson said to Reuters.

Israeli use of human shields in Gaza was systematic, soldiers and former detainees tell the AP. This procedure, described by Nadav Weiman, CEO of the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence, and nicknamed Mosquito, was also eariler investigated, in August 2024, on Haaretz.

More recently, the UN has called for investigations into the killing and injury of Palestinians trying to access food through the new militarized distribution hubs in Gaza.

More than 2,700 children under five years of age were diagnosed with acute malnutrition in the second half of May, reflecting a sharp deterioration, according to the Nutrition Cluster. Restrictions, hurdles, and hostilities have made humanitarian aid deliveries into and across Gaza grossly insufficient, unsafe, unpredictable, and inefficient, says OCHA.

In the West Bank, Israeli settler violence is on the rise: so far in 2025, settlers have injured over 220 Palestinians – 44 per month – the highest rate in at least 20 years. The entire Palestinian Bedouin community of Maghayer ad Deir, in the Ramallah district – about 120 people – was forcibly displaced following the establishment of a fourth settlement outpost near their homes.

Israeli-imposed movement restrictions across the Salfit governorate disrupt the access of nearly 90,000 people to health care, education, and livelihoods according to OCHA. Punitive demolitions by Israeli authorities have displaced about 80 people since the beginning of 2025. Over 33,000 Palestinians remain displaced and unable to return to Jenin, Nur Shams, and Tulkarm camps, UNRWA estimates.

1,886 Israelis have been killed since October 7th, 2023. 866 of those were IDF soldiers, according to the live INSS database. 56 Hostages are still in Hamas custody, of whom Israel believes 33 are dead, according to AP.

According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza and as cited by OCHA, between 5 and 11 June, 497 Palestinians were killed, and 2,053 were injured. Between 7 October 2023 and 11 June 2025, the MoH in Gaza reported that at least 55,104 Palestinians were killed and 127,394 Palestinians were injured.

The environment is not spared during the war, as the carbon footprint of Israel’s war on Gaza exceeds that of many entire countries, says the Guardian.

---

State of Reason

Germany cannot square the circle. Germany’s postwar foreign policy rests on two core commitments: the defense of international law and a special relationship with Israel. Yet as the situation in Gaza intensifies and international legal concerns mount, these pillars are increasingly difficult to hold in balance.

As political analyst Daniel Marwecki has argued in his aptly titled book Absolution, Germany’s historical support for Israel—originally grounded in a quest for moral rehabilitation—has over time become a structural principle. But what once served to re-legitimize Germany on the world stage now risks undermining its credibility, particularly when unconditional support appears to conflict with international legal norms.

This tension is mirrored in domestic discourse. The continued reliance on expansive definitions of antisemitism, like IHRA, often conflating criticism of Israeli policy with antisemitic intent, is a tool for further narrowing the space for legitimate debate. Alternative frameworks, such as the Nexus Document or the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, offer more differentiated approaches. Ignoring them carries already visible consequences: self-censorship, reduced pluralism, and growing frustration across sectors of German civil society.

Germany’s deepening defense cooperation with Israel—exemplified by systems like Arrow 3 and “kamikaze” drones—adds a layer of complexity to its foreign policy. While these partnerships may align with certain strategic goals, continuing them without transparent legal and ethical review risks entangling Germany in actions that are under increasing international scrutiny, including settlement expansion and military conduct in the occupied territories. Such entanglements can prove difficult to disengage from—legally, diplomatically, and politically.

To safeguard both credibility and compliance with international law, Germany should initiate a formal review of its arms agreements with Israel. This includes reassessing its stance on EU-Israel trade preferences, as several other EU member states have begun to do when calling to suspend it, or parts of it.

Reconciling historical responsibility with contemporary accountability is no simple task. But precisely because of this complexity, a more open, principled, and forward-looking debate is needed—one that reinforces Germany’s democratic values and strengthens its role as a credible actor on the world stage. Ultimately, a rights-based approach benefits not only Germany’s standing but also the prospects for a more just and democratic future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

Don't let the dramatic strike on Iran distract you—keep your focus on Gaza and on Netanyahu’s corrupt decision-making and agenda-setting. Commentator Shlomi Eldar put it right in Haaretz when he questioned, along many experts, the purity of the decision to attack: “Can we really trust the Chief of Staff that the decision to launch this historic war—or at least its timing—was free of improper considerations?”

Even former Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, wrote on his X account and on Haaretz, that while the operation is impressive “There is no way to significantly delay Iran's nuclear ambitions. It may even accelerate the process if the regime does not fall.” And that “As long as the transformation of Israel into a de facto dictatorship continues under the auspices of war, it is essential to continue working to replace the government and its leader. Yes, even during the war.”

Therefore, Germany must not allow the tactical achievements of Israel's security forces to blind it from Netanyahu’s corrupt goals.

Who’s behind SRM?

Alon Sahar is an award-winning independent researcher, strategist, and filmmaker. His commentary has been featured in media outlets including ZDF, Der Spiegel, RBB, Mediapart, Der Freitag, Telerama, and The Jerusalem Post. He conducted research for leading human rights groups, Breaking the Silence and B’Tselem. Sahar’s films have premiered in leading film festivals, including Locarno and Clermont-Ferrand.

Monitoring What?!

SRM monitors German-Israeli relations from a critical, human-rights-oriented perspective. Each edition will include bullet briefings about securitized Israeli-aligned advocacy activity in Europe and Germany in particular, policy and decision-makers in both the Knesset and Bundestag, human rights violations in Palestine, Israel, and Germany, and discourse and media-related issues of the German-Israeli relationship from a critical standpoint.

We are evolving as we go along, so please send us your feedback, including questions and suggestions.

Why this newsletter?

The Staatsräson Monitor (SRM) launches at a time when Germany’s declared “reason of state” — unconditional support for Israel - is shaping foreign policy, media narratives, and public discourse in increasingly rigid ways. As political language hardens and critical voices are pushed to the margins, there is a growing need to track how Staatsräson operates in practice: in diplomatic alignments, funding decisions, censorship patterns, and rhetorical strategies. This newsletter will monitor these developments with a critical eye, offering regular monitoring of issues like the operations of Israeli military control over Palestinians, weapons and other material exchanges deepening interests between the countries, and the instrumentalization of Antisemitism. We do this in the hope of opening a crack in the rigid debate in Germany.

We are committed to transparency. We do not shy away from historical responsibility, but we aim for a more constitutional, international law-oriented policy in the present.

If you have story tips or want to throw some emoji tomatoes at us, please send us an email at:

srmonitornl@gmail.com

---