It’s a historic time for German-Israeli relations. Last week, Israel handed Germany its Arrow 3 missile defense system. After brutally butchering 6 million Jews, Germany’s postwar governments committed to securing Jewish life in the Middle East. This deal marks a change in that relationship: Today, the Jewish state is arming its former enemy, while Germany conditions its support for Israel.

It’s the largest defense export deal in Israel’s history, worth $4.6 billion. The Israel-designed Arrow 3 system is capable of intercepting and destroying long-range ballistic missiles outside Earth’s atmosphere, minimizing the danger posed by radioactive or chemical warheads. Israel faces constant missile attacks and has, therefore, become a global leader in missile-defense technology. No other European country has a similar protective umbrella.

At a press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said:

We went through the greatest tragedy that any people suffered on German soil and committed by Germans. The generations that followed the Holocaust … understood that there was a special moral commitment to enable the Jewish state, the Jewish people, to recover from this horror. And Germany was committed and remains committed to Israel’s security in many important ways.

What has happened since the rise of the Jewish state is that we have been able to fend off our enemies, and in order to do that, we developed capacities that now enable us to reciprocate. Not only does Germany work in the defense of Israel, but Israel, the Jewish state, 80 years after the Holocaust, works for the defense of Germany. And that is a historical change that comes at the time of great international turbulence and change.

At the inauguration of Arrow 3 in Germany on December 3, the director general of Israel’s Defense Ministry, Gen. Amir Baram, said:

As a second-generation Holocaust survivor, I stand here deeply moved because a ballistic missile defense system, developed by the finest Jewish minds in Israel’s aerospace industry, out of our existential necessity, will now help defend Germany.

We Israelis, descendants of Holocaust survivors, want to see Germany strong and prosperous, proud and leading in Europe and throughout the world. We deeply appreciate that Israeli systems are part of Germany’s renewed force buildup. Today’s handover marks only the beginning for Israel and Germany. Our cooperation will strengthen and deepen—whether in the air, on land, or in space.

Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, said:

Our partnership is strategic, and Germany is Israel’s most important ally in Europe. Today, we mark another milestone in this relationship. Who could have imagined that only 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, the Jewish state, through the technologies it develops, would help defend not only Germany but all of Europe? My family, who fled Germany on the eve of the Holocaust, could never have foreseen this.

However, this partnership isn’t as rosy as it seems.

Arms Embargo

In August, Merz announced the partial suspension of arms exports to Israel for use in its war against Hamas in Gaza. The German government remains deeply concerned “about the ongoing suffering of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip,” Merz said. He urged the Israeli government “not to take any further steps toward annexing the West Bank.”

In response, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office released a statement: “Instead of supporting Israel’s just war against Hamas, which carried out the worst attack against Jews since the Holocaust, Germany is rewarding terrorism.”

Following the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, Merz announced in November that these exports would resume, provided Israel maintains its ceasefire obligations. Thus, Germany’s support for Israel has become conditional.

But Israel remains hopeful. Baram said:

Such an embargo should never have been imposed against Germany’s ally that is fighting murderous Islamist terrorism, whether it comes from Iran’s theocratic regime or from Hamas in Gaza. When Israel acts against nuclear threats, ballistic missiles and terrorism, we are not only defending ourselves, we are protecting the entire Western world. We are doing the hard work, sometimes the “dirty work,” that the entire world should be doing.

When Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear plants, Merz said it was doing the West’s “dirty work.” The Israeli government is focusing on these indications of support—but this is dangerous.

Two Opposing Visions of Peace

A “lasting peace is possible” in Gaza, Merz said at a joint press conference during his visit to Israel. Netanyahu responded: “I have to say, Friedrich, I think we’re at the cusp of a new age, because I think that we will achieve the expansion of peace.”

However, the two leaders’ vision for peace couldn’t be more different.

Merz said at the press conference:

Our conviction is that the prospective establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel presumably offers the best prospect for this future.

Netanyahu said at the same press conference:

On the question of two states, now we have a different point of view, obviously, because the purpose of a Palestinian state is to destroy the one and only Jewish state. They already had a state in Gaza, a defective state, and it was used to try to destroy the one and only Jewish state. We believe there’s a path to advance a broader peace with the Arab states and a path also to establish a workable peace with our Palestinian neighbors. But we’re not going to create a state that will be committed to our destruction at our doorstep.

Netanyahu knows that a two-state solution would lead to Israel’s destruction. However, he does not realize that Bible prophecy reveals that Germany does not seek to prevent this but to facilitate it.

Stirring Hatred

Netanyahu talked about the goal to “deradicalize Gaza” as “it was done in Germany.”

However, our booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire proves that Germany was never truly denazified—the Nazis simply went underground.

During World War ii, fascist powers pursued a policy of stirring Arab hatred against the Jewish people. In 1938, Herbert W. Armstrong exposed those efforts. He wrote in the Plain Truth: “In Palestine, [Benito Mussolini] pretends to be the protector of the Muslims, stirring them to hatred against Jews in order to strike at Britain.”

In 1940, he wrote: “The war now has reached that region, and Hitler has carried out the plot Mussolini laid. As this is written, the battle rages in Iraq over possession of British oil, and the German propaganda machine desperately tries to fan up the flames of ancient hatreds into a general holy war.”

If we carefully analyze today’s events, we see a similar pattern.

The European Union, largely funded by Germany, claims to be the strongest supporter of the Palestinians. In April, it announced another financial aid package of up to $1.8 billion to support the Palestinian Authority. A quarter of this sum is funded by German taxpayers. As Bild reported on December 8, EU authorities refuse to prove how this money is used—likely because it indirectly funds terrorism.

This shouldn’t surprise us. The Bible reveals that Germany will once again be at the heart of a plan to blot out the name of Israel.

A prophecy in Psalm 83 reveals an end-time alliance of Arab nations with Germany. Verse 4 reveals the aim of this alliance: “They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.”

The listed nations include the Palestinian Arabs (Philistines) and Germany (Assur), as explained in detail in “A Mysterious Prophecy.”

It is easy to believe Arab countries will try to conquer the Jewish people—they are trying to do so already. But the Bible reveals that Germany is on their side.