Dirty work

Germany’s Merz says Israel is doing the world’s "dirty work" by attacking Iran

From CNN’s Christian Edwards

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has praised Israel for doing the “dirty work for all of us” by striking Iran and preventing it from building a nuclear weapon.

In an interview with Germany’s ZDF broadcaster on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada, Merz was asked if he agreed that Israel was doing the world’s “dirty work” against a regime that in the West is viewed as a “disruptive” force.

Merz said he was “grateful” for the interviewer using the term “dirty work.”

“This is the dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us,” he said. “The (Iranian) regime has brought death and destruction to the world with attacks, with murder and manslaughter, with Hezbollah, with Hamas.”

Merz said attacks like the one launched by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023 “would never have been possible” without the regime in Iran.

“I can only say I have the greatest respect for what the Israeli military and government has had the courage to do,” Merz said. The alternative, he claimed, would have been many more “months and years of this regime’s terror – and then possibly with a nuclear weapon in its hand.”

Some context: Due to its role in the Holocaust, Germany believes it has a special responsibility to protect Jewish life and sees Israel’s security as a “Staatsräson” — a “reason of state.” But German leaders are often criticized for being too lenient towards Israel’s foreign policy decisions.

Merz did, however, issue a rare public rebuke of Israel last month, saying he was “dismayed by the fate of the civilian population” in Gaza.