After the Holocaust, Germany dedicated itself to ensuring the safety of Jews in the Middle East. Now, Israel is working to protect Germany. In December, Israel handed Germany its Arrow 3 missile defense system. Three weeks later, the German Bundestag approved an expansion of the purchase contract with Israel, raising the total value to $6.7 billion.

The deal, considered the largest weapons export in Israel’s history, signals the beginning of a new chapter in Israeli-German relations. For years, Germany has been Israel’s second-largest supplier of weapons. Now, Israel will not only receive weapons from its historic nemesis but also arm it.

The descendants of Holocaust survivors are now supplying the descendants of the perpetrators of the Holocaust one of the world’s most advanced and important weapons systems.

For the millions of Jews who died in German concentration camps, this turn of events would have been unthinkable. Likewise, it would be unfathomable to the many brave American and British soldiers who lost their lives to stop the German Holocaust.

Nevertheless, it is happening. The Jews are fortifying Germany in a way that increases the cost of stopping it militarily should its bloodthirsty nature reawaken.

The conclusion of this chapter in German-Israeli relations has already been written in Bible prophecy, and it paints a picture more frightening than the horrors of the Holocaust.

A Historic Turning Point

“We went through the greatest tragedy that any people suffered on German soil and committed by Germans,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a Dec. 7, 2025, press conference in Israel alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “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.”

Netanyahu then praised the defense capabilities Israel has developed “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: “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. … 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.”

Netanyahu and these other leaders failed to mention that just a few months prior, Merz’s government had imposed a partial arms embargo on Israel over its war with Hamas terrorists. While the Jewish state is arming its former enemy, Germany is placing conditions on its support for Israel. Both trends have profound implications.

Strategic Advantage

The U.S. is withdrawing from the world, and Germany and Israel are uniting to fill the void. The Jerusalem Post wrote, “When a superpower takes a leave of absence, both militarily and politically, it is the diverse strengths of former allies that, combined, may bring the security and stability formerly guaranteed by the withdrawing superpower” (Dec. 28, 2025).

Germany is the fourth-largest military spender in the world, with access to U.S. weaponry and a well-established European arms industry. Now Israel’s battle-tested systems are poised to help Germany reach the next level of military might.

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“Many modern, sophisticated military systems take decades to develop, costing billions of dollars,” the Post continued. “The only alternative is to buy them from reliable partners. … Israel produces multiple military platforms, such as the Arrow defense system, which Germany needs quickly and cannot rapidly produce on its own, and cannot buy almost anywhere else.”

Developed by the U.S. and Israel, the Arrow 3 system helps Germany cover the gap between its short-range missile defense systems and its higher-altitude interceptors. It can intercept and destroy long-range ballistic missiles outside Earth’s atmosphere, thereby minimizing the danger posed by radioactive or chemical warheads.

On three occasions since April 2024, Iran has launched 250 or more ballistic missiles and drones against Israel. These could have devastated Israeli defenses and cities. Some made it through, but Israel’s advanced air defenses prevented a nightmare scenario.

The Atlantic wrote that arms exports make “Israel a guarantor of German safety.” With such high stakes in terms of money, business and human life, the deal binds the two countries closer.

Beyond Arrow 3

In the first nine months of 2025, German exports to Israel totaled $4.5 billion; Israel’s exports to Germany was $2.3 billion. The fact that Israeli exports increased by 25 percent and German exports remained at roughly the same level shows that the relationship is changing in favor of Germany.

Germany has the world’s third-largest economy. Israel’s economy is much smaller, yet it ranks first in start-ups per capita. This creates a unique opportunity for the two countries to work together.

“Israel has developed into a leading location for innovation and start-ups—a model from which we can learn a great deal,” German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche said during her December visit to Israel. She had said the goal of her trip was “to bring high-tech companies together with our strong industry.” After a meeting in Jerusalem, she said, “Israel has almost perfected the start-up pipeline.”

“Closer cooperation with Israel can further strengthen the competitiveness of our economy by giving us access to groundbreaking technologies, highly qualified specialists and pioneering joint research and development projects,” Reiche added.

Defense was also a focus of Reiche’s visit. Her 70-member German business delegation included representatives from defense and defense-adjacent industries, including aviation, space and drones.

Israel is happy to help. By forging closer ties with Germany, it hopes to strengthen its economic standing and military preparedness and to win a strategic partner against a common enemy: Iran.

Alliance Against Iran

“It is entirely possible that ballistic missiles from Iran will target Europe in the future. Arrow 3 protects against this,” Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, said. “Israel is proud to be able to make a concrete contribution to Germany’s security.” In 2022, Al Monitor called Arrow 3 Germany’s “long-term plan against Iran.”

For many years, Israel has fought against Iranian terrorist proxies in the region, and it faces increasing international pressure, including from the United States, to give in to the terrorists. While governments around the world are increasingly shunning Israel, Germany is opening its arms.

German military strategists are also concerned about missiles from Iran. Merz said that when Israel attacked Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities, it was doing the West’s “dirty work.”

The Israelis see Germany as an ally against Iran. In a way, they are right. Germany is keenly interested in confronting Iran. However, there is a “hidden danger in Germany’s ‘alliance against Iran’” as Trumpet publisher Gerald Flurry pointed out in our July 2024 issue.

To understand this danger, we must understand Bible prophecy.

Daniel 11 prophesies a clash “at the time of the end” between a “king of the south” (Iran and its radical Islamic proxies) and a “king of the north” (a German-led European power). “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. He shall enter also into the glorious land …” (verses 40-41).

Germany is prophesied to conquer Iran. This becomes feasible with an effective missile protection shield, because Iran claims to have most of Europe within its range and has repeatedly threatened to use its arsenal against Europe.

This same prophecy reveals that after Germany attacks Iran, it will enter the “glorious land,” prophetic language for Israel. Given that the Hebrew word for “enter” in this verse indicates a peaceful entry, Mr. Flurry explained: “The Germans will undoubtedly be invited in as a peacekeeping force—to militarily secure Jerusalem from the engulfing violence” (theTrumpet.com/29536).

To that point in this sequence of events, Israel will still trust Germany as an ally.

Stirring Hatred

Psalm 83 describes an unprecedented alliance against Israel (a biblical name which also includes Britain, the United States and other descendants of the ancient Israelites). Notice verse 4: “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.”

As Mr. Flurry has explained, Germany is at the heart of this plot.

Germany’s role in this prophecy is extremely dangerous because the nations of Israel believe it is their ally. This will likely enable Germany to overcome their defenses without retaliation (Ezekiel 7:14).

Other passages warn the Jewish state of Israel—biblical Judah—specifically against forming an alliance with Germany, biblical Assyria.

In his booklet Nahum—An End-Time Prophecy for Germany, Mr. Flurry explains: “In verse 4 of Ezekiel 23, Israel is represented by Aholah, and Judah (separated from Israel at that time) is called Aholibah. Israel and Judah (modern-day Israel) become lovers to the Assyrians (verses 4-7). God then delivers Israel (mainly the U.S. and Britain) and Judah into the hands of the Germans. (The word Jew is a shortened version of Judah.)” “Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted. … She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men” (verses 9, 12).

Isn’t this an accurate description of Israel’s fondness for Germany today? It sees Germany’s growing economic, diplomatic and military capabilities, falls in love with its strength, and wants a close relationship with it.

But what does God think when people who have a history with Him turn to a nation that once sought to blot them out? “It seems the Israelis can trust their worst historical enemy, but they can’t trust God to protect them!” Mr. Flurry writes in Hosea—Reaping the Whirlwind. “And God is their only source of help.”