{"id":489457,"date":"2026-06-12T15:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/489457\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T15:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:25:10","slug":"steffen-seibert-gaza-wont-sever-special-germany-israel-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/489457\/","title":{"rendered":"Steffen Seibert: Gaza won\u2019t sever special Germany-Israel ties"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to The Times of Israel\u2019s Lazar Focus<\/a>. Each Friday, join host\u00a0diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman<\/a> for a deep dive into what\u2019s behind the news that spins the globe.\n<\/p>\n

Last week, Germany failed to secure a temporary seat on the powerful United Nations Security Council. There were several theories about the reason for Berlin\u2019s failure, but Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul offered a striking one \u2014 that it could be that Germany\u2019s support for Israel cost it the coveted seat.\n<\/p>\n

WATCH the full episode here:<\/p>\n

Germany is indeed one of Israel\u2019s closest allies in the world, and has been for decades.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the special relationship Israel enjoys with Berlin \u2014 like its ties with other key allies \u2014 has come under strain in the wars it has pursued in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks. In August 2025, Germany announced a partial arms embargo on Israel over its decision to conquer Gaza City.<\/p>\n

To discuss the roots and the state of the Germany-Israel relationship, German Ambassador Steffen Seibert joined the podcast, weeks before he wraps up his four-year tenure and returns to Berlin.<\/p>\n

He rejects the idea that Germany\u2019s approach to Israel is guided by \u201cHolocaust guilt.\u201d Instead, he says that the Shoah is a compass for Germany, which has the responsibility to learn the appropriate lessons from that dark period and let them guide its foreign policy.<\/p>\n

Seibert stresses that the Germany-Israel relationship is also rooted in shared democratic values and common interests.<\/p>\n

At the same time, he emphasizes that the special relationship exists within the pre-1967 borders, and that it sees Israel\u2019s presence in the West Bank as a violation of international law.<\/p>\n

On the war in Gaza, Seibert calls Israel\u2019s military response \u201cinevitable and logical.\u201d Still, he says, there are questions over \u201chow it was fought, how long it was fought.\u201d Still, he says that Hamas bears the main responsibility for the plight of Gazans.<\/p>\n

Seibert explains that Germany\u2019s decision not to intervene on Israel\u2019s behalf in the ICJ genocide case against Israel is a tactical move, as Berlin faces its own charges over its support for Israel: \u201cIt changes the assessment that we took at the beginning of the conflict. It\u2019s to do with the court case that we find ourselves in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turning to the Iran war, Seibert says the Israeli-US campaign was \u201cdefinitely understandable,\u201d but that continued fighting won\u2019t achieve much, and that it is now time to turn military gains into a political arrangement.<\/p>\n

Seibert, who learned Hebrew during his tenure, says that he is not sure what he will do next, but intends to continue spending time in Israel while he works to \u201creinvent\u201d himself in the next phase of his career.<\/p>\n

Lazar Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by Gabriella Jacobs and video edited by Ari Schlacht.<\/p>\n

Check out last week\u2019s Lazar Focus:<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\tWe can’t do this work alone.\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident \u2013 ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded \u2013 I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.<\/p>\n

There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.<\/p>\n

As a Times of Israel reporter, I\u2019m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit\u2019s. But my colleagues and I can’t do this alone. If you value work like this, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Stav Levaton, military reporter<\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tYes, I’ll join\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tYes, I’ll join\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to The Times of Israel\u2019s Lazar Focus. Each Friday, join host\u00a0diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[191279,190507,85,46,202385,43,965,202386],"class_list":["post-489457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-2023-2025-israel-hamas-war","tag-2026-us-israel-war-with-iran","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-lazar-focus","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-times-of-israel-podcasts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}