Are Germany and Israel Truly Friends?

Are Germany and Israel Truly Friends?
Germany’s chancellor is grateful that Israel struck Iran’s nuclear program. “This is the dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us,” Friedrich Merz told zdf on June 17. “This mullah regime has brought death and destruction to the world.”
“I can only say that I have the utmost respect for the Israeli Army for having the courage to do this, and for the Israeli leadership for having the courage to do this,” Merz stated. If Israel hadn’t acted, “[w]e might have seen months and years of continued terror from this regime, and then possibly with a nuclear weapon in its hands.”
When the United States joined in the attack on June 21, Merz added that “there is also no reason to criticize what America did.”
Few have been so outspokenly supportive of Israel’s actions. But Germany, because of its history in perpetrating the Holocaust in World War ii, has been uniquely supportive of the Jewish state. Next to the United States, it is Israel’s largest weapons supplier, accounting for roughly a third of Israel’s arms imports.
Chancellor Merz recognizes a fact that few others admit: Events in the Middle East directly affect Europe. Iran-sponsored terrorism has killed dozens of Europeans and sent waves of refugees to European shores. Iran’s threat to block the Strait of Hormuz endangers Europe’s economy. Its desire to violently seize Jerusalem would be fatal, not only for the Jewish population but also for sacred Catholic sites.
Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has long warned that a combination of the above factors will likely define the prophesied push of Daniel 11:40: “And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.”
For decades, Mr. Flurry has identified Iran as the prophesied king of the south and Germany, leading a European empire, as the prophesied king of the north. The Bible says explicitly that these two powers will clash, signaling the final chapter of the present evil world. Europe’s success against Iran will likely further endear Germany to Israel. However, as the next few verses and numerous other prophecies show, soon after that clash, Germany will betray Israel.
This may seem unbelievable—but it shouldn’t. The warning signs are all around us.
Lessons From the Holocaust?
In a January interview, Der Spiegel asked Israeli-American historian Omer Bartov, “Doesn’t the Holocaust serve as a lesson in humanity for Israelis?”
The question implies that Israel is acting inhumanly in its war against terror. Consider what a grotesque question this is. Six million Jews were brutally killed in the Holocaust. And on Oct. 7, 2023, Jewish men were killed, women were raped, families were gunned down, and babies were beheaded in a Holocaust-like crime. Yet this prestigious German magazine looks at Israel’s retaliation and wonders whether the Jews failed to learn from the Holocaust how to treat their enemies with more humanity!
Everyone knows, or should know, that Hamas is murdering unarmed Jews while hiding behind unarmed Palestinians as human shields. The accusation against Israel is insane. Yet here was Bartov’s shocking answer: “On the contrary, it serves as a lesson in inhumanity. To put it bluntly, the Holocaust serves Jewish Israelis to see themselves as beyond any moral and ethical boundaries that apply to other people. They live in a state that occupies, humiliates and oppresses millions of people, a state that is not prepared to think about a way out without more oppression and violence. People can only justify or ignore this by referring to the Holocaust: After what was done to us, we can do what we want. And the non-Jews have no right to tell us how to behave because they stood idly by while we were murdered. This puts Israel on a completely different moral level.”
One would have thought the unhinged accusations against the Jewish people died with Adolf Hitler. But this same kind of reasoning is taking root again in Germany.
After the Nazi-like barbarity of October 7, many people worldwide started accusing Jews of being the new Nazis. And many descendants of the Nazis seem to agree!
In a Bertelsmann Stiftung survey published on May 9 in Spiegel, 42 percent of Germans agreed with the statement: “What the State of Israel is doing to the Palestinians today is, in principle, no different from what the Nazis did to the Jews in the Third Reich.” In other words, 4 in 10 Germans believe the Jews are the modern-day Nazis. Only 38 percent disagreed, while 20 percent were neutral.
In the same survey, 29 percent admitted that Israeli government policy has made them dislike Jews more, and 28 percent believe Jews contribute to anti-Semitism. If you take that reasoning to the extreme, as some do, you would conclude that the Jews deserved the Holocaust!
Many also agreed with typical anti-Jewish statements. For example, 27 percent agree that Jews have too much influence in the world. Asked whether the world should move on from the history of Germany’s Holocaust, only 32 percent said no; 45 percent said yes.
Since the Holocaust, German leaders have felt a moral obligation toward the Jews and the State of Israel. In a 2008 speech to Israel’s parliament, Chancellor Angela Merkel went so far as to call Germany’s guarantee for Israel’s security a “reason of state.” Yet the memory of the Nazi genocide of the Jews is fading as the last survivors die. In that poll, only 1 in 3 Germans believes the country has a special responsibility toward the Jewish people; 1 in 4 sees a special responsibility toward Israel.
Worse still, many believe that, because of the history of the Holocaust, Germany has a duty to stop Israel. Spiegel’s May 17 cover story, “How the Gaza War Is Changing the German View of Israel,” says, “But what does the crime of the Holocaust mean for Germany? Does the Federal Republic of Germany primarily have a responsibility for Israel, for the Jews of this world? Or is Germany also responsible for ensuring that genocide and misanthropy—no matter where, no matter by whom—are not repeated?” What a moral inversion: Israel is guilty of genocide against the Palestinians, and Germany is morally obligated to prevent it!
Germany’s shame over its crimes in World War ii is being replaced by a sense of moral superiority. With this kind of twisted reasoning, encouraged by a biased and even blatantly deceitful media, it is no wonder Jews are increasingly hated.
The Bertelsmann Stiftung poll found that only 36 percent of German citizens have a “very good or fairly good opinion” of Israel—10 points lower than in 2021. Those with a negative opinion of the Israeli government have jumped from 43 percent in 2021 to a solid majority of 59 percent.
In contrast, 60 percent of Israeli respondents have a “very good or fairly good opinion” of Germany. The last German government was viewed less favorably: Only 42 percent of surveyed Israelis viewed it positively.
Many accuse Germany of blind love for Israel. In truth, it is Israel that seems blind.
Jew-Hatred as Government Policy?
While Chancellor Merz has praised Israel’s attack on Iran’s nuclear program, he has criticized its war on Hamas in Gaza, suggesting that it violates international laws of warfare.
At the wdr EuropaForum in Berlin on May 26, Merz accused Israel of causing “suffering to the civilian population” in a way that “can no longer be justified by the fight against Hamas terrorism.” He added, “The Israeli government must not do anything that even its best friends are no longer prepared to accept.”
Merz failed to mention that Hamas seizes United Nations humanitarian aid, sells them to enrich its leadership and arm its terrorists, and kills civilians who attempt to claim aid directly from the UN. When Israel began to ensure that humanitarian aid bypassed Hamas gunmen and reached those who needed it, the German government was outraged.
Merz has acknowledged that Germany must be muted in its reproach and said that if not for “historical reasons,” he would be even more critical.
Before visiting Israel in May, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said, “The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip has now become unbearable.” He insisted that “the best chance for Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace, security and dignity” was to empower the Palestinians with their own state. He didn’t visit Israel to support its fight against the October 7 terrorists; he was working to change its policy. Eighty years after the Holocaust, Germany believes it can tell Israel how to fight its battles.
This is happening while Israeli hostages are still being held—alive or dead—in Gaza, and while the memory is still fresh of these Palestinians, who allegedly deserve their own state, para-gliding into quiet communities, shooting families, torturing women, blasting cars with rocket-grenades, burning people alive, and murdering family members in front of each other, then eating their breakfast amid the corpses. In the name of “humanitarian aid” and a “two-state solution,” Germany and other nations are condemning Israel for fighting murderers.
In no sense is Germany qualified to teach the world about repentance and morals. In fact, Bible prophecy reveals that before it truly learns this lesson, Germany will repeat its most grievous sin.
A Sinister Plan
“Today the Arabs live in roughly one half of Jerusalem. They just don’t control it—yet,” Mr. Flurry writes in Zechariah—The Sign of Christ’s Imminent Return. “… God gave all Jerusalem to the Jews, and because of their sins He is going to give their country over to the enemy.”
Momentum is growing for the Palestinians to seize half of Jerusalem. Zechariah 14:1-2 prophesy that they will do so violently. The so-called peace process will end in disaster for Israel.
The Prophet Hosea reveals that Israel will then turn to Germany for help: “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound” (Hosea 5:13). Mr. Flurry explains in his booklet Jerusalem in Prophecy that both Ephraim (the prophetic term for Britain) and Judah (called “Israel” today) go to Assyria (or Germany) for help. He then states: “Is the peace pact with the Arabs the Israeli wound that God refers to in Hosea 5:13? There would have been no peace pact if Judah would have trusted God instead of men.”
Judah’s wound is increasingly obvious—and so is its one-sided trust in Germany.
Jesus Christ prophesied that the world is going to see “Jerusalem compassed with armies” (Luke 21:20). Correlating this prophecy with Daniel 11 and other prophecies shows that these armies will enter Jerusalem peaceably. “He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon” (Daniel 11:41). Mr. Flurry notes: “The powerful European Union army will then enter the glorious land, or Israel. The word enter in no way indicates the use of force.”
Not long after the EU is invited in, the betrayal will occur. The Bible reveals the evil these armies will inflict on the Jewish people will be unmatched in history.
The rising Jew hatred within Europe is the beginning of a monstrous plot inspired by Satan the devil, who is in his worst wrath (Revelation 12:9).
That hatred spreading in Germany and across the world is a grave and urgent warning—not only of the danger of another Holocaust but of global conditions leading to a nuclear world war. Throughout history, rising anti-Semitism has repeatedly portended serious crisis. The Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland wrote, “Jews have often functioned as a canary in the coal mine: When a society turns on its Jews, it is usually a sign of wider ill health” (March 30, 2018). The 1940s marked not only the most murderous attack on Jews but also the deadliest war in history.
“How often have we heard that ‘history repeats itself’?” Gerald Flurry asks in “The History That Is Prophecy,” Chapter 1 in The Former Prophets. “It does—time and time again. [I]f we live the same lifestyles our forefathers did, we will attain virtually the same results—good or bad. History becomes prophecy. … History prophesies the fate of nations—whether they will thrive or collapse! This is ‘a law of history.’ … It is not about luck or happenstance. It is a law of history. If we break that law, the law breaks us!”
If we refuse to learn from it, historic evils will intensify, and the consequences will be far more devastating.
We haven’t yet seen the last of the world’s genocidal madness, but the Bible promises that soon, we will. Just after prophesying Jerusalem’s fate, Jesus Christ said: “And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Luke 21:27). The bloody path toward Christ’s return could be averted if the world would heed God’s warning message today.