Participation of German soldiers in a possible protective force is conceivable

Foreign Minister Baerbock emphasizes Germany’s role as a trustworthy partner for Israel. She does not rule out the participation of German soldiers in a force in the Gaza Strip.

With a view to a possible future peace order in the Middle East, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock does not rule out the participation of German soldiers in a possible international protection force for the Gaza Strip. “Peace needs international security guarantees that terror against Israel will never come from Gaza again. And that the Palestinians can live safely in their own state,” the Green politician told the magazine “Stern”.

She reiterated what she had said at a security conference in Israel in early summer: Germany should make its contribution to such an international security guarantee – “as one of the closest friends that Israel can absolutely trust, like the Americans and the British.”

She referred to the role of the Allies in Germany after the Second World War and saw this as a model for possible peace efforts in the Middle East. “Through their presence, they have guaranteed our neighbors the security that war will never again come from German soil. And in doing so, they have laid the foundation for us to have lived in peace with our neighbors for decades.”

Baerbock described the liberation of a German-Israeli family from being held hostage by Hamas as “one of the best news of my time as Foreign Minister.” Baerbock met the father of the family, Yoni Ascher, on her first visit to Israel after the Hamas attacks. “He showed me a video on his cell phone, his wife and the two girls crammed into a truck, in the hands of terrorists,” said Baerbock in the interview: “I swore to myself: I will do everything in my power to stop Yoni Ascher can hug his family again and the other relatives of the more than 200 hostages.” In November, in the middle of the Green Party conference, she received the news that the woman and children had been released.”

The Foreign Minister also commented on the political situation in Germany in the interview. After the Greens’ poor performance in the state elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg, she criticized her own party. “In these times of crisis, social and economic changes are perceived as uncertainty – and not as progress,” Baerbock told “Stern”. Beyond climate protection, the Greens “obviously failed to make it clear that the Greens also stand for security in other areas: for social but also for internal security.”

This applies in particular to one area. “We did not address the issue of flight and migration openly enough in the last election campaigns, although exactly the same applies here: internal security and a modern immigration country are not opposites, but two sides of the same coin,” said Baerbock: “Humanity needs order. ” Baerbock demanded that people who are not entitled to protection must be returned quickly and, if possible, to the European external border: “At the same time, those who need protection or come as skilled workers must be integrated much more quickly.”

The Foreign Minister sees Sahra Wagenknecht’s alliance as a security risk for Germany. The fact that the BSW scored points in the recent state elections with populist peace slogans shows “how entangled Russian propaganda is.” “If parties that are closer to autocratic thinking than to our German Basic Law also win, then that risks the security of our country.” The “flat slogan that the war would be over without military aid to Ukraine” was “as naive as it was wrong,” criticized Baerbock: “If Ukraine stops defending itself, then Ukraine is at the end and Putin’s soldiers are at the helm Polish border. If Putin stops attacking, the war will be over.”

Baerbock appealed to the Russian President to return to the negotiating table. “It’s not our fault or even Ukraine’s fault that there are no peace negotiations,” said the minister: “The whole world would breathe a sigh of relief if Putin finally stopped bombing and was ready to take a seat at the negotiating table. The invitation is there. ” Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) also recently called on Putin to take part in peace negotiations.