IT’S OFFICIAL NOW. The German government plans to send naval forces in support of the proposed 15,000-strong enhanced UNIFIL peacekeeping force in Lebanon to help maintain the shaky ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. This compromise decision–which clearly excludes the deployment of German combat ground troops inside Lebanon–came only after weeks of intense political debate over an issue that has deeply divided Chancellor Merkel’s Grand Coalition government, the three opposition parties, and German public opinion. The exact details of Germany’s military participation (and UNIFIL’s terms of engagement) are yet to be determined, but it seems likely that the forces will primarily be tasked with interdicting arms shipments for Hezbollah. In addition, Beirut has asked Berlin to train Lebanese police and customs agents, who could then patrol airports as well as the volatile border with Syria.
Germany has already come a long way since its reunification in 1990, having assumed an increasingly important role in international security affairs as part of various U.N., NATO, and E.U. stability operations. Today, about 7,700 Bundeswehr soldiers are deployed around the world in hot spots such as Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Congo, Sudan, and the Horn of Africa. But the deployment of German armed forces in the Middle East, in close proximity to Israel, crosses a major historical and psychological threshold that makes many people in Germany rather uneasy.
Ironically, both supporters and opponents of Germany’s military engagement in Lebanon have made veiled references to the Holocaust in support of their positions. Those in favor of sending troops argue that Germany has a moral obligation to do everything in its power to help guarantee the existence of the Jewish state. German President Horst Koehler, for instance, urged his countrymen “to take on responsibility,” making it clear that “Germany must make a contribution to securing Israel’s right to exist.”
In fact, today Germany is already Israel’s closest ally, though not its most powerful one (that title is reserved for the United States). Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was clearly conscious of his country’s close ties with Berlin when he explicitly asked for German troops to help secure the border with Lebanon. Olmert’s request is supported by recent opinion polls in Israel, which show that 72 percent of the respondents would welcome German troops as part of the U.N. peacekeeping force.
In contrast, Germans opposed to sending soldiers to police the ceasefire argue that this would have the potential of setting Bundeswehr against Israeli soldiers. As German FDP opposition leader Guido Westerwelle put it, “if there is one area of the world where German soldiers have no place, it is the Israeli border. Our history forbids it.” And according to Germany’s Central Council of Jews, “the thought that the grandchildren of perpetrators of the Holocaust might find themselves shooting at the grandchildren of the Nazis’ victims was impossible to contemplate.” German Jewish leaders, however, quickly toned down their rhetoric after Prime Minister Olmert had come out in favor of German troops.
And still others argue that precisely because of Germany’s pro-Israel stance, it cannot be part of a neutral U.N. force in Lebanon which, by definition, would have to respond equally to ceasefire violations by either party.
IN THE END, it was Olmert’s unprecedented request for the deployment of German troops (which Berlin ruled out) as well as the urgent need to quickly beef up the existing U.N. force in Lebanon that made the difference for Chancellor Merkel’s government and led the administration to compromise on sending naval forces.
The deployment of naval and police forces away from the Lebanese-Israeli border makes it virtually impossible that German soldiers could ever face a situation where they would shoot at Israeli units. In fact, it was only the exclusion of German combat ground troops that made the compromise agreement palatable to conservative Bavarian CSU party leader Edmund Stoiber, a key member of Merkel’s coalition. Previously, Stoiber had been a staunch opponent of any German military participation in the U.N. force, raising the specter of a potential parliamentary showdown in the Bundestag, which will need to give final approval for the Lebanon mission in September.
Berlin has already dispatched an advance team of experts to Lebanon to assess the situation on the ground. Germany’s planned UNIFIL participation comes at a crucial time and sends an important political signal, not only to Israel, but also to countries such as France or Spain, both of whom are so far very reluctant to make any major troop commitments and are waiting for other key Western and Muslim powers to come forward. For Germany, the prospective deployment of naval forces marks an historic step which further illustrates the country’s growing stature as an important actor in international security affairs, both in the Middle East and beyond.
Ulf Gartzke is a Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University’s BMW Center for German and European Studies in Washington, DC. This article reflects only his personal views.
