October 11, 2024 | Flash Brief
Germany to Send More Weapons to Israel
October 11, 2024 | Flash Brief
Germany to Send More Weapons to Israel
Latest Developments
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed on October 9 that Germany will continue to supply Israel with weapons. “We have delivered arms and we will deliver arms,” Scholz stated at a special parliamentary session to commemorate the first anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack, adding that Berlin had made decisions “which also ensure that there will be further deliveries in the near future.”
Between January and August 2024, Germany approved $16 million in arms exports to Israel, compared to $356 million in 2023. The precipitous drop in weapons shipments prompted accusations from Germany’s conservative opposition that the federal government was deliberately withholding arms from Israel.
Speaking at the parliamentary session on October 9, opposition leader Friedrich Merz claimed that “for weeks and months, the federal government has refused to grant export permits for ammunition and even spare parts for tanks,” adding that “we are aware of several specific cases where the government has withheld approval for equipment and material that Israel urgently needs to defend itself.”
For most of the post-World War II period, Germany has described its special responsibility toward Israel’s security as a “Staatsräson” — a reason of state arising from the crimes of the Nazi Holocaust. Berlin is Israel’s second-largest arms supplier after the United States. According to SIPRI, a research institute, 30 percent of Israel’s major arms imports came from Germany between 2019 and 2023.
A spokesperson for the German government maintained in September that “there is no moratorium on arms exports to Israel, and there will be no moratorium,” clarifying that the “federal government decides on the granting of authorizations for arms exports on a case-by-case basis, considering the current situation and taking into account foreign and security policy considerations in accordance with legal and political requirements.”
Expert Analysis
“As Israel fights a multi-front war against enemies determined to exterminate the Jewish state, assurances from Chancellor Scholz that Germany will send more weapons to Israel are positive, but the actual delivery of weapons is what matters. The world will be watching closely to see if Berlin walks its talk. Germany obviously has a unique responsibility to help Israel defend itself against Tehran and its terror proxies, which are attempting to eliminate a state finally re-established after the Holocaust as a place of safety for Jews in a location they first called home more than three millennia ago.” — Bradley Bowman, Senior Director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power
“The exchange in the German parliament was an important reminder that the federal republic’s historic postwar commitment to Israel’s security and well-being remains alive on all sides of the Bundestag. Chancellor Scholz now needs to follow through on that commitment with urgency given that the multi-front war which Israel has been dragged into is only escalating.” — Ben Cohen, FDD Senior Analyst and Rapid Response Manager
Related Analysis
“Germany Stands by Israel,” by Jonathan Schanzer
“How to Ensure Israel Has the Weapons It Needs,” by Bradley Bowman and Richard Goldberg
“Israel, Iran, and Lebanon: What’s Next?,” FDD Media Call
“Germany Rejects Nicaragua’s ‘Biased’ ICJ Case,” FDD Flash Brief