Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin

17. Juli 2011 – 20:11

Last time I came to Berlin was in 2008. On May 2-3, I attended an International Conference organised by the Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin: “Business as usual? The Iranian regime, the holy war against Israel and the West and the German reaction”. It was an extremely interesting conference and very well organised. If you want to have a look at the program, click here.

By Karin Quade | Posted in Germany, Israel, Uncategorized, anti-Israelism, anti-Semitism | Comments Off

To the unknown pilot

16. Juli 2011 – 18:07

… who was flying over my house this afternoon and - if I am not seeing things - you wiggled your wings, didn`t you?

You made my day :-)

If my garden was big enough to land a plane, you`d have landing permission!

By Karin Quade | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

No time for tears

16. Juli 2011 – 17:57

After having walked through the Brandenburg Gate I went along the American Embassy. The two guards were smiling. That was nice. The German policemen a few metres down the road were not. Maybe there was a reason for it.

I had almost arrived at the Adlon Palais when I looked at the other side of the street, the Holocaust Memorial. I had been there before, of course. But I wasn`t sure whether I should visit it that very moment. After all I did not want to turn up at the Aspen event in tears. But then I did walk into it, the very heart of it, and - it was OK.

What became so clear to me that moment was that the best way to remember the dead is to stand at their children`s and grand-children`s side today.

So no time for tears. Time to listen. To a verbal pro-Israel fireworks. And then spread the news.

By Karin Quade | Posted in Germany, Israel, USA, Uncategorized | Comments Off

This Gate is open now!

16. Juli 2011 – 17:43

Whenever I come to Berlin I have to walk through the Brandenburg Gate. And when I walk through that Gate I remember Ronald Reagan`s famous speech that marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War in which he asked:

Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate.
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

And now this Gate is open and it is incredible to walk through it. I enjoy it every time. It gives me the ultimate feeling of freedom and it reminds me of the fact that you should never ever take it for granted.

More excerpts from that amazing speech:

(…) Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every man is a German separated from his fellow men.
Every man is a Berliner, forced to look upon a scar.
President Von Weizsäcker has said, “The German question is open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed.” Well today — today I say: As long as this gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind.
Yet, I do not come here to lament. For I find in Berlin a message of hope, even in the shadow of this wall, a message of triumph. (…)

What he said about totalitarianism is still so true today:

(…) Perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental distinction of all between East and West. The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront. (…)

So visionary:

(…) Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall, for it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom. (…)

Ronald Reagan, Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate, delivered 12 June 1987, West Berlin

By Karin Quade | Posted in Germany, USA, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Pro-Israel fireworks

15. Juli 2011 – 17:20

Wow! That really cheered me up. This week I was invited to an Aspen event featuring Ulrich W. Sahm. He spoke on “The Middle East in Turmoil - Israel in the Eye of the Storm”. I`d really wish he was not only ntv-Israel correspondent, but also reporting on ARD and ZDF. I assure you, we would easily get rid of these stupid opinion polls I talked about in my most recent posts. Then Germans would know that Israel is not waging a war of extinction against the Palestinians and that of course Israel is no threat to world peace.

In addition, Ulrich W. Sahm had some real good news that were not yet known to me. He said that although there is no peace treaty, and even if there might never be one, there might still be some sort of peace, at least some kind of arrangement that enables people to live together in relative peace and that the prospects are not that bad. That this is actually already happening right now.

To top it all this event took place in the most breath-taking atmosphere you can only imagine: The China Club Berlin, Adlon Palais. Wow! The sight from the upper sun terrace – spectacular! Definitely an event for intellect and senses …

I did not regret having changed my initial plans which were sun-bathing and swimming at the lake. Not a second ;-)

By Karin Quade | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Optimism needed - urgently!

03. Juli 2011 – 12:17

In his article “Merkels doppelte Wende” on the Axis of Good, June 30, 2011, Kevin Zdiara compares Angela Merkel`s radical change of mind regarding atomic energy and her relation with Israel. At first sight two totally separate issues, but he sees a very strong similarity:

Keine zwei Themen könnten auf den ersten Blick unterschiedlicher anmuten und im Kern so nah beinander liegen wie die 180-Grad-Wende der Kanzlerin in der Atompolitik und ihr Verhältnis zu Israel. Denn ein genauer Blick auf ihre Beziehung zum jüdischen Staat macht eines deutlich: 2008 erhob Merkel das Existenzrecht und die Sicherheit Israels zur deutschen Staatsräson, nur um seither beide in Wort und Tat zu untergraben.

Kennzeichen von Merkels Koalition sind ihr Hang zum Populismus und die Aufgabe einer konservativen, werteorientierten Politik. So veranlasste die vox populi nach der Katastrophe in Fukushima Merkel zu einem vollkommen überhasteten Ausstieg aus der Atomkraft. (…)

Ein ähnlich konterkarierendes Verhalten lässt sich ebenfalls in Bezug auf Israel feststellen. In einer historischen Rede vor dem israelischen Parlament im Jahr 2008 hatte Angela Merkel noch vollmundig verlautbaren lassen, sie wisse, dass Israel keine ungebetenen Ratschläge von außen brauche, „und schon gar nicht von oben herab.“ Aber schon bald muss ihr aufgegangen sein, dass sich mit einer pro-israelischen Außenpolitik bei vielen Deutschen und bei deutschen Handelspartnern im arabischen und muslimischen Ausland kein Blumentopf gewinnen lässt.

So gaben beispielsweise in einer weithin unbeachtet gebliebenen Studie der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung von Anfang 2011 47,7% der befragten Deutschen an, dass ihrer Meinung nach Israel einen Vernichtungskrieg gegen die Palästinenser führen würde. (…)

This last paragraph shocked me most: Kevin Zdiara refers to a 2011 study of the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation that went largely unnoticed, I wonder why. According to this poll 47,7 percent of Germans believe Israel is waging a war of extinction against Israel!

(…) Als Fähnchen im Winde hat die Kanzlerin die Richtung, aus der der Wind kommt, bereits erkannt: die Zeichen stehen auf Sturm gegen Israel. Eine Kanzlerin, die ihre Politik an Meinungsumfragen und nicht an Prinzipien ausrichtet, ist dem nicht gewachsen.

If Germany is governed by opinion polls, and if almost half of Germans believe that Israel is waging a war of extinction against the Palestinians, what does that mean for Israel?

I could need tons of optimism – right now.

By Karin Quade | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

CDU has lost her soul

25. Juni 2011 – 21:07

CDU has lost her soul and Angela Merkel has transformed her party into ideological nothingness, says Alexander Gauland in DIE WELT (page 2, June 24, 2011) in his article „Meine Abrechnung mit der CDU“:

(…) Angela Merkel hat es geschafft, aus einer Partei mit konservativen, liberalen und sozialen Inhalten ein ideologisches Nichts zu zaubern, eine Organisation zum Machterhalt, ohne dass man noch wüsste, wofür und wogegen. (…)

(…) Wie haltlos eine angeblich konservative bürgerliche Partei der Werte in den gesellschaftlichen Winden des vorgeblichen Wandels flattert, konnte man an der Causa Guttenberg beobachten. Dass hier der schlichte bürgerliche Anstand auf der Strecke geblieben war, versuchte die Kanzlerin mit der Bemerkung, dass sie keinen wissenschaftlichen Assistenten eingestellt habe, zu bagatellisieren. Als ob Anstand nur für wissenschaftliche Assistenten und nicht für Verteidigungsminister gefordert sei. Ist es schon Zynismus, so hat es doch Methode. (…)

(…) Die Union hat ihre Inhalte kopflos preisgegeben, statt sie neuen Herausforderungen anzupassen, und damit ihre Seele verloren. (…)

Sadly, he is right.

By Karin Quade | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Goodbye NATO

19. Juni 2011 – 15:42

“Goodby Nato” is an article written by Michael Stürmer in DIE WELT, June 15, p. 3 in which he harshly criticises Germany for not being a reliable partner. I`d wish he was wrong, but I suspect he is right:

(…) Wie sollen Streitkräfteplanung oder Europas gemeinsame Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik aussehen, wenn keiner weiß, nicht einmal die Bundesregierung selbst, wie sie morgen entscheidet? Wie soll es Arbeitsteilung und Spezialisierung in der Rüstung geben, wenn der größte europäische Bündnispartner nicht weiß, was er will? Deutschland schifft sich ein zur Insel Utopia - und goodbye Nato. (…)

By Karin Quade | Posted in Germany, USA, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Quo vadis Germany?

19. Juni 2011 – 15:31

I don`t know, I really don`t know where Germany is heading these days. But if Germany is really governed by opinion polls, as I suspect, this is a very scaring question.

Back in 2003 an EU poll said that 59 % of Europeans saw Israel as the biggest threat to world peace. In second place, after Israel, were Iran, North Korea and the United States (!) with 53 %.
In Germany the percentage was even higher. 65 % of Germans believed Israel was the greatest threat to world peace. If this is still true today and if opinion polls determine our foreign policy, what does that mean?
That we will comfortably lean back in our armchairs and watch Iran get the bomb? And then?

I don`t know, I honestly don`t know.

I only know that there is an American friend I should meet more often. He calls himself a “pathological” optimist. Maybe he could pass some of his optimism on to me.

By Karin Quade | Posted in Europe, Germany, Israel, USA, anti-Americanism, anti-Israelism, anti-Semitism | Comments Off

Peer Steinbrück: From zero to hero

12. Juni 2011 – 18:42

I told you so! Peer Steinbrück IS the alternative! He was not even listed on ZDF`s popularity list (ZDF Politbarometer) and now that he is back he immediately jumped to No. 1! Which makes him the most popular politician in Germany. A slap in the face to all politicians currently in power. Remains to see if his party will nominate him as chancellor candidate …

Speaking of candidates: The other day I have seen Mitt Romney on Piers Morgan Tonight and I was enthused. He was brilliant. And he and his wife are such a great team. Awesome!

By Karin Quade | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off