Operation Hostage Rescue
Negotiations about hostages are one of the more secret things in diplomatic life, details should not be made public, if only not to encourage imitators. And so it is all the more exciting and touching what my colleagues Thore Schröder and Marc Pitzke have found out about the latest deal between the Israelis and Hamas.
It is intended to allow 30 abducted children, eight mothers and 150 other women to be exchanged for <> Palestinian women and adolescents in Israeli jails, while a ceasefire of at least four days is in place.
It is astonishing, for example, how many people from Israel, Gaza, the USA and Qatar were involved in the negotiations, and it is impressive how intensively the agreements took place. Some of the interlocutors talked to each other on the phone every hour.
The fact that there is now an exchange is thanks to people like Avichai Brodutch. His wife and three young children were kidnapped by terrorists while he was away from home. Shortly thereafter, Brodutch went to the Israeli Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv. He took his dog, Rodney, and sat down on a plastic chair, holding a sign in front of his chest that read, "My family is in Gaza."
The very next day, hundreds of people came to encourage him, to support him, my colleagues write. The action in front of the Ministry of Defence turned into a permanent protest – and Brodutch became one of its most important faces.
Brodutch traveled as far as Germany, talked a lot with Qatari representatives, but he was disappointed by the reticence of some Israelis. Now the world is waiting for the ceasefire to be observed – and for the implementation of the deal to begin. This morning from 7 a.m. local time, the time has come.
Perhaps this encouraging story will end with a happy ending in the next few hours.
Israeli hostages: "Very careful, very secret, extreme discretion"
More news and background information on the Israel-Gaza war can be found here:
Dozens of newborns in Israel named after places attacked by Hamas: Beeri, Oz, Nir: A number of parents in Israel have chosen names for their newborn children to keep alive the memory of Hamas terror.
Why the dispute between Israel and the UN is escalating: The conflict between Israel and the United Nations has a long and bitter history. But since the beginning of the war in Gaza, it has intensified massively. The consequences could extend far beyond the Middle East.
Berlin sees important role for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza: The Chancellor and Foreign Minister have sent their chief diplomats on a discreet mission to the Middle East. Confidential talks in Israel and the Palestinian territories focused on the question of who should govern the Gaza Strip after the war.
Operation Hospital Reform
Many Germans only got to know Karl Lauterbach during the pandemic, through his speeches in the Bundestag, his appearances on talk shows, he was omnipresent, he was the personification of the vaccine syringe. Many appreciate it, some hate it, those who haven't been upset about it because of Corona may do so because of the cannabis release.
So it is almost forgotten that the Federal Minister of Health is also dealing with other issues, with very fundamental ones, such as the reform of hospitals, which many experts believe is urgently needed. The services offered by the clinics do not always match the needs, and much of what is currently treated during a hospital stay would also be possible on an outpatient basis, and this is set to change. The quality of the facilities is to become more transparent.
A good thing, one might think, but Lauterbach and his colleagues in the countries have quarreled over the details, yesterday one of the many rounds of negotiations came to a standstill after only one hour. As is so often the case, the states want more money from the federal government. They fear that otherwise many hospitals will have to file for insolvency before the new reform even takes effect.
Enlarge image
Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach
Photo: Maja Hitij / Getty Images
Today, the Bundestag will vote on the first law of the reform. The so-called Transparency Act is only a foretaste of the big reform, writes my colleague Milena Hassenkamp.
It could be that Lauterbach's zeal for reform is getting a damper today.
Hospital Reform in the Federal Council: The Revolution Is Delayed
Operation Hole Plug
Next week, the German government will propose to the Bundestag a resolution declaring an extraordinary emergency for the year 2023. Only then may it exceed the upper limit for net borrowing set by the debt brake enshrined in the Basic Law.
In this way, it wants to ensure that the expenditure of the current budget is on a legally sound basis. It is the consequence of the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court on the budget.
The coalition partners are still thinking about how to prevent 2024 from becoming a pure stingy year. It is possible that the emergency option will have to be used again for next year, whereby one could then ask the question of what the debt brake is actually still for.
Olaf Scholz, it can be assumed, has long had a plan, even if he does not announce it, presumably because he first has to coordinate it with his coalition partners, who are not so easy. The fact that the Chancellor is currently only tight-lipped, that he does not reveal how the ruling from Karlsruhe has affected him, that he does not give any insight into how he now wants to tackle the financial mega-problem, is part of a larger problem that my colleague Christoph Hickmann and a team from the Berlin office have written down in a SPIEGEL cover story.
"Scholz has been governing this country for two years now, his poll ratings have fallen, his party has suffered election defeats, but the chancellor always exuded the certainty that all this follows a plan, that everything will be fine in the end," the story reads. "Now Germany's top judges have struck down the plan, stating in black and white that it was inadmissible, unconstitutional. And all of a sudden, even the most gifted talkers in the government don't have the imagination to see how it's all going to be good again."
You can read the cover story on SPIEGEL.de later today.
Federal financial crisis: This is how expensive Lindner's supplementary budget will be
Read the current SPIEGEL editorial here
Roar and be silent: The debate about the war in the Middle East needs a few rules. Otherwise, it will continue to escalate.
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How many books did the Greek philosopher Socrates leave behind?
Winner of the day...
... are several current and former Minister-Presidents who today receive the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany from the Federal President. Among the honorees are: Prime Minister Malu Dreyer, Minister-Presidents Winfried Kretschmann, Dietmar Woidke, Stephan Weil, Reiner Haseloff and Bodo Ramelow as well as former Prime Minister and former Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer.
One can take a critical view of it when politicians award each other medals, one can ask cheaply, like the "Bild" newspaper, whether they deserve this award, and yet I find this gesture important and good.
Politicians take responsibility and have to answer for their decisions. If they make mistakes, they are mercilessly criticized, by the opposition, by journalists (see above). This does not change the fact that they preserve democracy and fill it with life, that they usually fight for a good cause and try to make the country even better for its people.
A medal is appropriate.
Federal President in favour of quota: Steinmeier wants to award 40 percent of the Order of Merit to women in future
The latest news from the night
Five-year-old and woman seriously injured after knife attack in Dublin: Several children and a woman have been stabbed by an attacker in the Irish capital. This was followed by riots on the streets, behind which the police suspected right-wing extremist hooligans.
WHO gives the all-clear after accumulation of unexplained lung diseases in children: In the increase in respiratory illnesses among children in northern China, the authorities have not found any "unusual or novel diseases". This was announced by the WHO in a statement.
Green Party leader sharply attacks Merz and calls for reform of the debt brake: Leading Greens have criticized CDU leader Merz. At the start of the party congress in Karlsruhe, there were also warnings against an austerity course. The issue of migration became controversial.
Today's SPIEGEL+ recommendations
Who is talking to whom, and what can be said? After Hamas' attack on Israel, Germany's linguistic sorting of the world has reached new heights. What does this mean, and what are its benefits?
The Mother of All Heavy Metal Battles: Painting your son's fingernails, celebrating motherly happiness with Motörhead: The »Tatort« tells the story of the metal festival in Wacken from a female point of view – but the headbanging is stupidly the responsibility of two older gentlemen.
Uh, are there any other preferences I should know about? I've had countless pen pals thanks to my dating app, but I've only had two dates so far. One is not worth mentioning. The other one was very special – and it started off really well.
I wish you a wonderful weekly finale!
Yours sincerely, Martin Knobbe, Head of SPIEGEL's Berlin Bureau