As Germany moves closer to other European countries in adopting an increasingly tough stance toward Israel’s reluctance to resume peace negotiations with the Palestinians, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that it was more urgent than ever that the talks be restarted.
With the Middle East highly volatile as fighting and protests continue in a number of countries, Mrs. Merkel warned the visiting Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, against any further delay in returning to the negotiating table.
“The Middle East peace talks have an impact on the stability of the region,” Mrs. Merkel said after a nearly two-hour meeting with Mr. Netanyahu.
Later Thursday, violence erupted along the Israel-Gaza border when an anti-tank missile fired from the Gaza Strip wounded a boy in southern Israel. The Israeli military quickly retaliated, killing three Palestinians, officials in Gaza said.
Mr. Netanyahu said he recognized that the Middle East was going through immense change. But he made no link between breaking the impasse with the Palestinians and what that could mean for a new generation of leaders emerging in the Middle East.
“We want to see these countries move toward democracy,” he said, “but we can’t be sure.”
Mr. Netanyahu told Mrs. Merkel several weeks ago that he would soon present some kind of peace plan. But Berlin is still waiting.
Mr. Netanyahu has also faced criticism from his own diplomats, who say the stalemate in the peace talks and Israel’s seeming indifference to the events unfolding in the region have seriously damaged its standing among many Western governments. Those governments include Germany’s, its closest ally in Europe, and second only to the United States.
Israeli diplomats in Europe said their greatest concern was that the Palestinians would capitalize on the impasse by winning enough international support in time for the meeting of the U.N. General Assembly in September, when the Palestinians intend to apply as a state to join the United Nations.
Mr. Netanyahu raised this issue with Mrs. Merkel. When asked how Germany might vote, Mrs. Merkel side-stepped the question. “We support a two-state solution, a Jewish state and a Palestinian state,” she said. German diplomats said Berlin wanted a negotiated settlement.
Germany, Britain and France are trying to persuade the United Nations and the European Union to draw up plans for the outlines of a final settlement of the conflict rather than wait for the United States to re-take the lead.
Israeli diplomats said they feared Germany was aligning itself with Europe, which Israel sees as pro-Palestinian.
Until recently, whenever there was a vote to adopt strong language against Israel, Germany was one of the few dissenting voices inside the Union.
An Israeli diplomat, who asked not to be identified because the issue was so sensitive, said Germany was beginning to differentiate between its historical responsibility toward Israel and its political goals in achieving stability in the Middle East.
During her visit to Israel in early February, Mrs. Merkel warned the Netanyahu government that because of what was happening in the Middle East, time was not on Israel’s side.
A few weeks later, along with France and Britain, Germany for the first time in many years voted for a Security Council resolution calling the Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory illegal and demanding an immediate halt of all settlement activity.
Germany joined the U.N. Security Council last January for a two-year term.
The resolution was not approved. The United States, the only one of the Security Council’s 15 members to vote against it, vetoed it. Still, that did not stop the German vote from opening a serious rift with Israel.
Mr. Netanyahu was reportedly furious. Israeli and German diplomats said he had telephoned Mrs. Merkel, venting his disappointment. “How dare you?” Mrs. Merkel was said to have replied. “You are the one who has disappointed us. You haven’t made a single step to advance peace.”
Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Netanyahu tried on Thursday to cover those cracks. Mrs. Merkel described the talks as “intensive” and with differences. Mr. Netanyahu said they were “friendly.”
“Germany,” he added, “is our greatest supporter.”
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