End of isolation? German chancellor Merz meets PM Netanyahu, visits Yad Vashem & affirms support for Israel

German chancellor Friedrich Merz continued his visit to Israel on Sunday, meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several cabinet ministers, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, and visiting the Holocaust Remembrance Center Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

“I bow before the six million men, women, and children from all across Europe who were murdered by Germans because they were Jews,” Merz said in Yad Vashem.

“Germany must stand up for the existence and security of Israel,” he said, emphasizing his country’s “enduring historical responsibility” for the Holocaust.

אני מרכין ראשי בפני שישה מיליון הגברים, הנשים והילדים מכל רחבי אירופה שנרצחו בידי גרמנים, משום שהיו יהודים. https://t.co/Bq7lhi3liN

— Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz (@bundeskanzler) December 7, 2025

Merz’s visit marked the first high-profile visit by a European leader since the start of the ceasefire, with Israel hoping to signal that the situation in the country is slowly normalizing again, after over two years of war.

Compared to other European nations, Germany remained a relatively close ally to Israel throughout the war. Merz was among the last European leaders to impose an arms embargo on Israel, which remained partial and was lifted soon after the ceasefire began.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German Chancellor @bundeskanzler @_FriedrichMerz are now holding an expanded meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem.

Further information >>https://t.co/ZtE3Pjb50u pic.twitter.com/LM7Wjfye9w

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) December 7, 2025

Germany also didn’t join France and Britain when they recognized a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September.

Speaking at a press conference next to Netanyahu, the chancellor explained that Berlin would remain at Israel’s side, partly to atone for the Holocaust, but added that his government believed that Israel should have conducted humanitarian aspects of the war in a different way.

The partial arms embargo was a way to convey that message, Merz said.

He also highlighted that Germany blocked international attempts to harm Israel several times, for example, the fact that Germany threatened to pull out of the Eurovision Song Contest if Israel was excluded.

Opposition leader Lapid thanked Merz for lifting the embargo and “for his support in efforts to return the hostages,” Lapid said after their meeting.

At their joint press conference, Netanyahu noted the “open, honest” character of their phone conversations, even when there are disagreements. “But these are open conversations between friends and people who respect each other.”

He also highlighted Merz’s comments “about what Israel is doing for the rest of humanity” during a recent visit to Turkey, which he said “reflect a deeper commitment which expresses the intertwined destinies of Israel and Germany.”

Noting that vilification and lies about the Jewish people continued from the Middle Ages until today, Netanyahu said that Israel “changed Jewish history in the sense that those who vilify us can no longer annihilate us… as they try to put a noose of death around us, as Iran tried with its proxies, we roll them back.”

“And I think this truth will emanate and I commend the chancellor for speaking the truth in a number of important occasions.”

The prime minister also stressed that there is a difference of opinion about the two-state solution, explaining that “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.”

I wish the Israeli people better times after years of terror and war. May decisions be made that lead to peace and good neighborly relations. Germany will stand by your side in friendship, Benjamin @netanyahu. https://t.co/GsQlMT2eZ8

— Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz (@bundeskanzler) December 7, 2025

“The one thing that we will always insist upon is that the sovereign power of security from the Jordan River, which is right here, to the Mediterranean Sea, which is right there, that will always be in Israel's hands.”

Netanyahu also said there were discussion about deepening the defense cooperation between the two countries. Last week, Germany received and deployed the first battery of the Israeli Arrow-3 defense system, aiming to defend central Europe against potential Russian ballistic missile attacks.

Germany has radically changed its national security outlook in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and is currently seeking to overhaul its defense capabilities after decades of neglect, partially by acquiring Israeli technology.

“Israel and Germany are two of the most advanced economies in the world. We have extraordinary people, extraordinarily gifted people, and in the field of high technology, high tech, deep tech, AI, quantum, all these things that are going to change the face of this planet and the future of humanity,” he said.

We mourned with the Israeli people for their dead. We feared for the hostages along with them. The return of the last surviving hostages, including German citizens, moved us deeply. I am very touched to meet them and their families today. pic.twitter.com/Et2NuvCc9k

— Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz (@bundeskanzler) December 7, 2025

“Working together, we can not only better the citizens of Israel and Germany, but I think we can better the world and our immediate neighborhood in the Middle East. We discuss that and we are ready to seize the future together.”

He concluded: “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. I think that we are at a new age because I think that the possibilities of technology with their risks, especially in AI, but with their positive benefits are enormous in every field, I mean, from agriculture to health to transportation. I think that we are together, we can lead this and become not a secondary power, but a primary power in the advance of humanity.”