Just keep quiet when things get dicey. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been pursuing this tactic for a long time. Sit out, let’s see what happens. Better to say nothing than something wrong. Can you do it. It’s often good too.
But not in this case. The Palestinian President is standing in the middle of Berlin, in the Chancellery. The place where there is a promise to Israel: unbreakable solidarity. Forever. For historical guilt. The Holocaust is a crime without equal. Perpetrated by the National Socialists, for years, systematically, unsurpassed in brutality and contempt for human beings. Six million Jews are tortured, tormented and murdered.
«50 Holocausts»
And in the chancellery where the promise to Israel is guarded, Abbas compares the Holocaust to Israel’s attacks on the Palestinians. Israel has committed “50 holocausts” against Palestinians since 1947.
And Scholz says: nothing. Handshake, press conference over, goodbye Abbas. Total loss of instinct, total blackout. It is all the more astonishing that Scholz is briefed before such meetings by legions of political officials. The apparatus in the Chancellery creates dossiers, speech notes, warnings. We know that Abbas relativized the Holocaust earlier, one could have guessed it. Scholz could have prepared himself, put his words together. correct Abbas. Or throw it out altogether. Nothing of the sort happened.
That would not have happened to Merkel
This mistake will haunt Scholz for a long time. The criticism comes from all over the world – and of course from the opposition. It’s clear to everyone that something like this would never have happened to Angela Merkel. The former chancellor was always highly concentrated, prepared, instinctively sure.
Scholz, on the other hand, shows massive concentration disorders. He listens to Abbas almost impassively. Mentally yes or somewhere else. It’s not surprising either. The chancellor is under pressure. Next Friday he has to testify about a tax affair from his time as Hamburg mayor. tricky. The polls of his party, the SPD, are in the basement, the personal anyway. The energy crisis, the war in Ukraine, the Chancellor’s brain is smoking.
Stress causes everyone to make mistakes. But as chancellor on this issue, that is unforgivable. Even if Scholz has meanwhile apologized via Twitter. It is also clear, and it is important to note that, of course, Scholz’s silence was not in agreement with Abbas’ statements. Of course, Scholz is aware of the dimensions of the Holocaust, especially as a social democrat. The blackout just came at the wrong moment. That is bitter. For Scholz. But above all for the Jews all over the world.