"Reason of State": The True Story Behind Merkel's Promise to Israel

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Chancellor Angela Merkel speaking to the Knesset on March 18, 2008. “Israel's security is non-negotiable for me as German chancellor.”

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Sebastian Scheiner / AFP

Chancellor Olaf Scholz was wearing black when he stepped in front of Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, on October 12 of last year.

Five days after the massacre perpetrated by Hamas, he said that the hearts of all Germans were "heavy in the face of the suffering, the terror, the hate and the contempt for human lives" that had been visited upon Israel.

It was clear, he said, that Germany sided with the victims.

And then he uttered a notable sentence: "Israeli security is Germany's 'reason of state.'" In other words, Germany's very existence was linked to Israel's security.

It was almost the exact formulation that Angela Merkel used during her famous speech before the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in 2008. Since then, there has been plenty of head-scratching and debate: What does the statement mean?

Is it an element of foreign policy doctrine?

Is it a blank check for Israel, enabling the country to turn to Germany at any time?

Or was Merkel simply carried away by the moment?

Flattered by the honor of being the first foreign head of government to be allowed to speak to the Knesset?

And did the formulation perhaps even harm German foreign policy rather than help it?

Former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (a Social Democrat) once said that Merkel had been presenting "an emotionally understandable but foolish notion that could have extremely serious consequences."

Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD), who was Merkel's foreign minister for a time and today serves as German president, expressed doubt on one occasion that she had been "completely aware of the importance of that sentence."

DER SPIEGEL set out to discover the origin of Merkel's statement.

We examined classified documents from the WikiLeaks trove and spoke with around a dozen people from Germany and Israel, including diplomats, current and former politicians, senior officials from the Chancellery and the German Foreign Ministry, and with intelligence officials.

Almost all of them insisted on anonymity.

Merkel herself declined a meeting.

Beate Baumann, her former office manager and closest political confidant, did agree to answer questions, and consulted with the former chancellor.

She gave permission for her answers to be used, but not directly quoted.

Berlin, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) headquarters, January 2005

Angela Merkel was under pressure.

With the party having just suffered painful losses in state elections in eastern Germany and her adversaries inside the CDU sniffing an opportunity.

They believed that Merkel, herself a divorced, childless woman from the east, wouldn't be able to last much longer as party chair of the conservative CDU.

In Merkel's favor, though, was the fact that the CDU was preparing its 60th birthday that summer.

She was hoping to deliver a special speech that would strike the soul of the party.

As the year got underway, she asked her team to come up with a powerful speech, including something about Israel.

After all, party godfather Konrad Adenauer had sought close ties to Israel following the Holocaust, which was widely seen as a significant achievement.

Relations with Israel were also extremely important to Merkel.

Even during East German times, Merkel, who holds a Ph.D.

in physics, was fascinated by the research performed by her Israeli counterparts.

She also valued Israel's position as the only democracy in the Middle East, and she valued the diversity of Israeli society, the beauty of the landscape and the historical sights.

During her tenure in the Chancellery, Merkel even played with the idea of ​​moving to Israel for a time after retiring from politics – specifically to the kibbutz Sde Boker, where Israeli state founder David Ben-Gurion lived after he had left the limelight.

And she was well aware of the weight of the historical burden born by Germany.

Her father became a pastor in response to the Holocaust, and the mass murder of the Jews was a topic frequently discussed in her childhood home in Templin.

Still, Merkel would say after the fall of the Berlin Wall that she "only learned quite late just how inconceivably massive was Germany's loss because of the Shoah."

Some of her contemporaries believed that her fondness for Israel was a kind of overcompensation.

Merkel's team had a hard time fulfilling the task their boss had given them.

But then, in April, an essay appeared by Rudolf Dressler, a former SPD parliamentarian and now Germany's ambassador in Tel Aviv.

Dressler wrote that he was concerned about anti-Semitism back home, with the piece concluding with the statement: "The secure existence of Israel is in Germany's national interest and is therefore an element of our reason of state."

Merkel's staff was electrified.

They felt that the concept of "reason of state" was "CDU language," with former Chancellor Helmut Kohl and CDU cornerstone Wolfgang Schäuble having frequently used the term.

Who would care if they stole the sentence from a Social Democrat?

Plus, Dressler and Merkel knew and respected each other.

The precise meaning of the term itself has been the subject of some debate among academics since making its way to Germany in the 17th century.

Many believed that it was a call for the political leadership to prioritize the state's interests above considerations like law and morals.

Modern-day politicians, though, use the phrase when speaking of vital interests.

Which fit quite well.

It referred, says Baumann, to a fundamental, non-negotiable concept.

The CDU celebration took place on June 16. Merkel's position within the party had significantly improved by then and she had been chosen as the conservative candidate for chancellor in the approaching elections.

Speaking to her fellow party members, she said: "Germany's responsibility for European unification, for the trans-Atlantic partnership, for the existence of Israel – all of that is part of our country's reason of state and part of the reason for our party as well."

It was an ambitious statement, essentially placing Israel on a level with NATO and the European Union, but it went largely unnoticed.

The guests were more eager to chat about the snap new elections in September.

The media, too, didn't pay much attention to Merkel's sentence.

Berlin, case 2005

Merkel won the election and had just taken power when Ehud Olmert, Israel's deputy prime minister, spoke with her on the sidelines of an event.

Olmert doesn't recall the precise date – he was in Berlin twice in the autumn of 2005. But he has clear recollections of his chat with Merkel.

He had been charged by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with finding out if Merkel would be prepared to export Dolphin-class submarines to Israel, an inquiry that involved the most sensitive arms export in Germany.

Israel had been purchasing such vessels from the production site in Kiel since Kohl's tenure in the Chancellery.

Hardly anyone doubted at the time that the special configuration of the submarines served to enable Israel to arm them with nuclear warheads.

Any country willing to attack Israel had to anticipate a nuclear counterattack launched from a vessel that was almost impossible to locate.

From the Israeli perspective, it was Germany's most important contribution to the security of the Jewish state.

But such deliveries were in clear violation of German laws pertaining to arms exports.

Nevertheless, Merkel's predecessor Gerhard Schröder of the SPD had proven willing to send two such subs to Israel.

"Sharon requested that I ask Merkel if she supported the submarine deal," says Olmert.

"Merkel said that if Schröder had authorized the deal, then she was naturally in favor."

Those close to Merkel say that she has no memory of the encounter.

Schröder had the contracts signed in the last days of his tenure, and Merkel then implemented them.

Several years later, she would say at an event held by the women's magazine

Brigitte

: "The security of Israel is, for us, part of our reason of state. That can be seen for example, in the fact that we have sold submarines to Israel on repeated occasions."

Jerusalem, King David Hotel, January 2006

It was Merkel's inaugural visit to Israel as chancellor and she was staying in the legendary King David Hotel.

For the first time in years, the peace process appeared to be moving forward, with Israel just having cleared out of the Gaza Strip.

After her arrival, Hamas made a discrete inquiry as to whether the chancellor would be interested in a discussion.

The terrorist organization was listed on an EU sanctions list and its accounts were frozen.

But a few days earlier, the group had won a spectacular election victory in the Palestinian Territories – and the anti-Hamas front in Europe appeared to be crumbling.

Merkel hesitated.

According to a confidential US report, she had been opposed to including the Islamist group on the ballot in the first place.

And she believed, as people close to her say, that Hamas wanted to use her as a lever against Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

But she also didn't want to simply reject the offer outright.

After all, Hamas had won the election.

She sent a message that Hamas must first recognize Israel's right to existence, or at least take clear steps in that direction.

The talks never happened.

And a similar request was not repeated during Merkel's tenure as chancellor.

She got along well with her host Ehud Olmert, who had since risen to the position of Israeli prime minister.

The two were convivial in small gatherings, joking with each other and drinking their fair share.

Olmert found his visitor interesting, a woman from the former East Germany who had belonged neither to the ruling party nor participated in the civil rights movement.

Merkel, meanwhile, was impressed by the omnipresence of the past.

She visited the Holocaust remembrance center Yad Vashem, a stop which left her "filled with deep shame."

At dinner, she sat next to Rafi Eitan, an expert in pensions and a former agent with Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence service.

The two spoke about providing pensions to former ghetto residents – and about Adolf Eichmann, the chief logistician of the Holocaust.

Eitan had been part of the Mossad team that captured Eichmann in Argentina in 1960.

According to a US diplomatic cable, Olmert told Merkel that he was prepared to go "a long, long way with the Palestinians," but not with Hamas.

When the Israelis requested that she work to maintain EU unity on sanctions against Hamas, she said in public that it was a "matter of principle" to eschew negotiations with Hamas until the group recognized Israel.

The position was far from universal.

Just a few months later, ex-Chancellor Schröder called on Israel to negotiate with Hamas without any preconditions.

Three parliamentarians from the SPD and the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) even received a Hamas minister in Berlin, to Merkel's irritation.

If Israel's security is threatened by Hamas, she says, "then there can be no tolerance."

Bayreuth Festival, August 16, 2006

A number of top officials in the Foreign Ministry and the Chancellery were unhappy when Merkel said during a summer interview with German public broadcaster ZDF: "The existence of Israel is part of our reason of state."

They had missed her speech at the CDU anniversary celebration the year before and there was no draft in existence – nor had one been commissioned, according to numerous contemporaries.

Was the chancellor considering a security guarantee comparable to the NATO mutual defense clause?

No, say people close to Merkel today, her intent had been less than that, even if the relationship with Israel was a special one.

Just how much less would soon become clear during the 2006 Lebanon War.

Following an attack launched from Lebanon by the Hezbollah militia, Olmert's reaction was robust.

Israel launched a bombing campaign, closed Lebanon's airspace, set up a sea blockade and, ultimately, sent troops across the border.

After just a few days, global public opinion was heavily against Israel.

Merkel warned that it should not be forgotten who had triggered the violence, but also demanded that Israel keep destruction "as minimal as possible."

Olmert then inquired whether Merkel would be prepared to send German soldiers to take part in a UN peacekeeping mission at the Israel-Lebanon border.

Cease-fire talks had already gotten underway within the UN Security Council.

It would have been quite a sensation: Soldiers from the Bundeswehr, the German military participating – 60 years after the Holocaust – in "the force protecting Israel," as Olmert described it.

Merkel said nothing about the request in public for several days.

In a telephone conversation with Olmert, she expressed concern that German troops could find themselves in a situation at the border where they would shoot at Israelis – an eventuality, she told the Israeli prime minister, that was unacceptable.

Olmert made clear that he thought such a scenario was absurd, which seemed to have its desired effect on Merkel.

But the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to Merkel's CDU, was adamantly opposed to the idea – as was a majority of Germans.

Sending German troops to the border would never have been supported by a parliamentary majority – a requirement in Germany for all military deployments.

After all, who wanted to fight against Hezbollah?

Still, the onus was on Merkel.

Lebanon was suffering from the sea blockade, and Israel's government said it would only lift it if the amount of weapons being smuggled to Hezbollah across the Mediterranean Sea and across the land border from Syria was curbed.

Fuad Siniora, the pro-Western head of government in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, asked Merkel to mediate.

To Merkel's surprise, Olmert agreed to lift the blockade as long as the Bundeswehr took part in efforts to smuggle curtail weapons.

Which led to Merkel receiving the leaders of her governing coalition in Bayreuth, where she was for the annual opera festival, on the last day of her vacation in mid-August.

The group decided on sending a German contribution.

Ultimately, two German frigates, along with speedboats and other vessels, headed out to take part in a UN mission to patrol the coast of Lebanon.

German police and customs officials were to help establish a control system on the border to Syria – which ultimately did little to prevent arms from reaching Hezbollah.

The Bundestag rubber stamped the deal.

In several interviews, Merkel sought to gain support for the mission by using the reason of state formulation.

And she also used it in parliament for the first time: "If maintaining Israel's right to exist is part of Germany's reason of state, then we cannot just say: If Israel's right to exist is in danger – and it is – then we are just "Going to stay out of it."

Merkel would avoid this particular use of the formulation in the future, because she felt it raised the impression that Israel's right to exist was up for debate.

"What are we actually doing here? This country is recognized under international law," she said.

In later comments, she adopted the formulation that Israel's "security" is part of Germany's reason of state.

Berlin, Hotel Intercontinental, December 11-12, 2006

Olmert was in Berlin for his inaugural visit as Israeli prime minister.

His standing had taken a hit from the war in Lebanon, but he was nevertheless determined to push forward the peace process with the Palestinians.

And his willingness to compromise seemed unending: He even seemed prepared for an almost complete Israeli evacuation of the West Bank and for the potential partitioning of Jerusalem.

Merkel quickly realized the opportunities this presented.

On the evening before their official meeting, she went to his hotel on her own so they could speak in private.

Olmert's security personnel didn't actually recognize the German woman who was loitering in the hallway, and they stormed up to Merkel and surrounded her.

Olmert had to clear up the confusion.

The two of them then spent three hours discussing Lebanon and the peace process.

It was a passionate discussion at times, but in the end, they established a working foundation.

From that point on, Merkel frequently sent her security adviser Christoph Heusgen and Middle East expert Jens Plötner – who is now Chancellor Olaf Scholz's security adviser – to the region to provide discrete assistance in the negotiations between Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Today, people close to Merkel say that for her, supporting Israel in reaching a two-state solution was a central element of her understanding of the reason of state formulation.

In truth, of course, the Germans had little to offer aside from good intentions.

Nothing for the Israelis who were concerned about their security.

And nothing for the Palestinians, who accused Merkel of having a lack of sympathy for the situation they faced.

Even Heusgen said of the German mediation effort: "In hindsight, I wouldn't say that it was world changing."

On one sensitive question, Merkel took a clear position, which many believe resulted from the influence Israel's ambassador, Shimon Stein, had on the German chancellor.

Stein was among the few diplomats who she received, and she valued his delight in debating and his knowledge, from which she also benefited.

The result was that in the new CDU platform of 2007, there was a clear recognition of Israel as a "Jewish state."

It was a formulation that flew in the face of Palestinian demands for a right of return for those who fled or were expelled when Israel was founded in 1948.

In a speech to fellow party members, Merkel said: "The security of Israel as a Jewish state is non-negotiable for us. That is something we are making clear to everyone in the world."

New York, UN Headquarters, September 25, 2007

In her 2007 speech to the UN General Assembly, Merkel used the reason of state formulation abroad for the first time.

At the time, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was accelerating his country's nuclear program and had threatened to destroy Israel.

He had even written a letter to Merkel in the same vein, a missive to which she declined to respond.

Now, speaking to the global public, she aired her thoughts.

"Each and every German chancellor before me has shouldered Germany's special responsibility for the existence of Israel," she said, as part of her plea that Iran be prevented from building a nuclear weapon.

"It is part of my country's reason of state."

This form of moral support was monitored closely in Israel.

But according to people involved at the time, Merkel failed to actually make any plans for a possible war between Iran and Israel.

Berlin's arsenal consisted entirely of economic sanctions when it came to pushing Iran toward compromise.

That, Merkel told the UN, was the practical element of her country's burden.

During her tenure, German exports to Iran would shrink to a third of their former volume.

And half a year later, Merkel would give her sensational speech before the Knesset in Israel.

Jerusalem, Knesset, March 18, 2008

Knesset President Dalia Itzik had invited the German chancellor for the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel, receiving Merkel with the words: "I've changed the rules for you."

Until that point, only heads of state had been allowed to speak in Israeli parliament.

But Itzik's proposed change received unanimous approval.

Merkel's pro-Israeli stance had been making the rounds.

As with other speeches during important state visits, Merkel had the first few words translated into the local language and written out in phonetics.

A translator then practiced with her as she was preparing for her appearance:

"Anni modda lachem sche-nittan li le-dabber ellechem kaan be-bait mechubad se. Se kawwod gado awurri"

– I thank you for the privilege of speaking to you here .

It is a great honor for me.

She then switched from Hebrew to German.

Merkel spoke for 24 minutes, discussing the lessons of the Shoah, the fight against anti-Semitism and the German-Israeli relationship.

The term reason of state came in the 19th minute.

Merkel quoted almost exactly from her speech at the UN, including the promise: "Israel's security is non-negotiable for me as German chancellor."

A number of Israeli parliamentarians were uncomfortable hearing the language of the perpetrators of the Holocaust in the Knesset, including President Itzik.

“It was a strange feeling: on the one hand, a woman representing the people who had wanted to exterminate us; on the other, this feeling that she was like a big sister wanting to protect us.”

Today, those close to Merkel say that it was the site of the speech that transformed it into such a special event.

Itzik was moved as she said.

"Merkel was plagued by questions as to how one of the most enlightened nations in the world wanted to exterminate an entire people. I think she understood that and acted accordingly."

Itzik believes the sentence about Germany's reason of state is a powerful one.

"It goes beyond considerations about how this or that might be beneficial."

Berlin, Chancellery, August 27, 2009

The commitment that Merkel had created through that phrase became clear after Olmert's resignation.

His successor, Benjamin Netanyahu from the right-wing Likud party, pushed forward settlement construction in the West Bank, which placed incredibly high hurdles in the way of a contiguous Palestinian state.

During Netanyahu's inaugural visit to Berlin, Merkel warned him that the "window of opportunity" for the peace process was closing and that settlement construction had to stop.

Netanyahu was unmoved.

A few weeks later, Heusgen, Merkel's security adviser, met secretly with Philip Gordon, a department head in the US State Department, and Philip Murphy, the US ambassador to Germany.

He proposed putting the pressure on Netanyahu.

Specifically, he proposed that Washington threaten to withdraw support from Israel in the UN Security Council regarding the so-called Goldstone Report, which accused Israel of human rights violations in Gaza.

Heusgen's proposal is documented in a secret US report.

The Americans were not overjoyed by the idea.

Later, Merkel considered making weapons deliveries to Israel dependent on concessions to the Palestinians.

When Netanyahu inquired about a new nuclear submarine, Merkel delayed making a decision regarding the financing.

The vessel cost around 400 million euros, and Germany was to cover a third of the purchase price.

Even Netanyahu critics in Israel were pushing her to up the pressure.

On the other hand, though, her hesitation on the financing of the submarine was inconsistent with her promise that Israel's security was non-negotiable.

Ultimately, she acquiesced.

On March 20, 2012, the contract for the sixth submarine was signed.

The Germans can be counted on no matter what, it was said in Jerusalem.

Still, Israel did make one concession: freeing up frozen Palestinian tax revenues.

It was a small success, but it seemed unlikely that more could be achieved.

In the US, President Barack Obama had moved into the White House, and his involvement in the peace process would remain limited.

And German Middle East policy can only be successful if the Americans take the lead.

As a confidential US report notes, Olmert told visitors just a few days after Merkel's speech in the Knesset: Merkel is a "real friend" of Israel.

"But at the end of the day, it's the US that counts."

Jerusalem, May 29, 2012

Just a few weeks after the submarine deal, the new German president, Joachim Gauck, visited Israel.

Even on the plane across the Mediterranean, he made it clear to journalists what he thought about Merkel's reason of state phrase: not much.

In Jerusalem, Gauck said publicly that he wasn't inclined to "imagine any scenario that would put Germany in a difficult spot when it came to politically implementing her statement that Israeli security is part of Germany's reason of state."

In other words, Merkel had gone too far.

Gauck would later come to regret his choice of words.

In principle, he supported Merkel's view – contrary to most Germans.

Indeed, Merkel would never be able to convince more than a third of her compatriots of Germany's special responsibility for Israeli security.

And anyway, from a military point of view, Merkel's promise was rather empty.

The Bundeswehr was in deplorable condition at the time and would have been completely unable to provide assistance to Israel in the case of, for example, an Iranian attack.

On the other hand, though, Netanyahu didn't expect such help.

"We need military equipment to defend ourselves. We'll take care of the rest on our own," as one Israeli official said.

Merkel didn't care much about Gauck's criticism.

In the several weeks that followed, she would go on to repeat her formula a number of times.

Berlin, Chancellery, December 2012

Merkel went on to issue several public rebukes of Israel's settlement policy, and when Netanyahu made yet another trip to Berlin, she said into the cameras: "We have agreed to disagree."

Netanyahu, meanwhile, complained about Germany's voting patterns at the United Nations, saying he was "disappointed."

Some 138 countries, for example, had voted in favor of the resolution to give the Palestinian Authority "non-member state observer status."

Germany, though, had abstained, which created a certain amount of consternation.

Until then, Merkel had been seen as a reliable ally to the Israelis in international organizations.

In actuality, Merkel felt that supporting Israel at the UN was essential – but she was equally devoted to a two-state solution.

Such an outcome, she would say in her own unique style, was "without alternative."

The tone now grew more contentious.

Heusgen and an aid to Netanyahu even became involved in a yelling match.

Voices were also raised in telephone calls between Merkel and Netanyahu.

In speaking to German government representatives, the Israeli prime minister even hinted at Germany's historical guilt for the Holocaust.

“You want the West Bank to be cleansed of Jews?”

Merkel, though, avoided an escalation.

During a visit to Israel in 2014, she said: "All sides have to make compromises."

But she had largely stopped using the formulation about Germany's reason of state.

Those close to her say that it had never been a strategy, but had resulted from the fact that other issues had been in the foreground.

Either way, it fits the situation.

Merkel went four years without visiting Israel.

Assisi, Basilica di San Francesco, May 12, 2018

The Franciscans awarded Merkel the Lamp of Peace, a replica of the fixture on the grave of Saint Francis of Assisi, in 2018. The same award had been presented in the past to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the former Israeli President Shimon Perez.

In her acceptance speech, Merkel repeated her assertion "that Israeli security is part of Germany's reason of state."

The statement came at a time when her relationship with Netanyahu was at an all-time low.

She placed great value in discretion and dependability, but he apparently did not.

Israeli newspapers would repeatedly print reports about things she had allegedly told him in confidential telephone conversations – but had never actually said, according to people close to Merkel.

The year before, Merkel had even canceled the annual government consultations that she had introduced in 2008. Officially, the cancellation was due to scheduling conflicts, but in truth, it came in response to Netanyahu's settlement policies.

People close to Merkel say today: How many more times were they supposed to say that they agreed to disagree?

The fact that she nevertheless began using the formulation regarding Germany's reason of state more often again likely came in response to domestic developments.

She was unsettled by rising anti-Semitism in Germany.

Just like Rudolf Dressler before her – the man who had come up with the formulation in the first place – she wanted to exert influence on the Germans.

And they listened.

Politicians from almost all parties began using the formulation.

It appeared in the Bundestag resolution regarding the anti-Israeli boycott movement BDS in 2019, which received support from all parties except the extreme right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the extreme left Left Party.

The current governing coalition, which took over from Merkel in 2021, also included it in its coalition agreement: "For us, Israel's security is reason of state."

Berlin, Today

Angela Merkel is currently working on her memoirs, which are set to be published this case, and there are of course passages about Israel.

Much of her tenure has come under criticism since she left office, including her approach to Russia and her policies on migration.

But the formulation about reason of state has remained – and become part of Merkel's legacy.

"Reason of state can include so much: the delivery of submarines, the sending of troops or just a few polite words of support. As chancellor, Merkel showed the way. And the formulation has developed its own dynamic. It is anchored in the public consciousness, with every divergence requiring an explanation. Which also explains why Chancellor Scholz returned to the formulation following the October 7 terror attack by Hamas. It is the German stance.

And what about the Israelis?

"Under normal circumstances, we do not need the support of anyone. And there is nothing militarily Germany can do that we can't get from the United States anyway," says ex-Prime Minister Olmert.

And yet, Merkel's formulation does have value: as "moral support."