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Israel reprimands German Chancellor Olaf Scholes for threatening to arrest Netanyahu

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman has sharply rebuked German Chancellor Olaf Scholes for saying his government would arrest the prime minister on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), sparking a rare public dispute between the two allies during the Gaza war.

“I'm old enough to remember the German leader coming here a few days after October 7 and declaring that Hamas are the new Nazis. They want genocide against the Jews. Many people in the world need to check their moral compass and be on the right side of history,” Avi Hyman told Fox News Digital on Thursday.

When asked on Wednesday whether the German government would execute an ICC arrest warrant against Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in the course of Israel's efforts to defeat the terrorist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Scholz's spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said: “Of course. Yes, we are abiding by the law.”

Germany's comment on the execution of the ICC order to arrest the prime minister sparked an electrifying mood on social media. Critics accused Finance Minister Scholz's government of anti-Semitism for remaining loyal to an arrest warrant issued by an allegedly anti-Israel court. Netanyahu called this another example of the “new anti-Semitism.”

Accusations of anti-Semitism

The leader of the German Christian Democrats, Friedrich Merz, told the Bild newspaper: “The silence of the federal government, including the suggestion by a government spokesman that Netanyahu could be arrested on German soil, is now truly becoming a scandal.”

Scholz is from the left-wing Social Democratic Party, whose members and party leaders have come under more criticism of Israel than the conservative parties in the Bundestag. Merz said the ICC's comparison between the terrorist Hamas and Netanyahu was “an absurd reversal of perpetrator and victim.”

After Israeli government spokeswoman Tal Heinrich criticized the allegedly anti-Semitic German official Michael Blume in a comment to the Jerusalem PostBlume blamed the Jewish state for the increasing anti-Semitism in Germany.

Protesters take part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Berlin, Germany, April 6, 2024. (Source: Lisi Niesner/Reuters)

Blume, who is responsible for combating anti-Semitism in Baden-Württemberg, told the German news agency DPA on Friday that the Israeli government was responsible for anti-Semitism because of its efforts to eradicate Hamas terrorists.

Blume said that, according to German media, Netanyahu's behavior is not doing the fight against anti-Semitism any good. “We are clearly noticing that Israel-related anti-Semitism is increasing sharply,” Blume added.

The anti-Israel official Blume stated: “Right-wing extremists from Israel, the USA and Europe, but also the Netanyahu government, use the accusation of anti-Semitism in an inflationary manner and instrumentalize it – this does not help us at all if we want to honestly fight anti-Semitism.”

Roman Haller, a Holocaust survivor living in Munich and former director of the Jewish Claims Conference, sent The post On Sunday he wrote in a statement to Blume: “Your recent statement on the attribution of anti-Semitism is outrageous and leaves me, as a Holocaust survivor who is used to some things, speechless.”

“With your statement, you are not only counteracting the repeatedly asserted rights of defense of the State of Israel, but you are also encouraging precisely those against whom you should be fighting as anti-Semitism commissioner. Because what you are saying is pure anti-Semitism.”

Haller wrote that Blume was adopting the oft-quoted anti-Semitic accusation against Jews that “the Jews themselves are responsible for anti-Semitism.” Haller added: “With your statements, you are not only depriving Israel of the right to defend itself, but you are also giving in to those who want to wipe out Israel.”

I expect a clear apology from you. However, if you persist with your unspeakable accusations, you are unacceptable for the fight against anti-Semitism.”

Baden-Württemberg's Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) has defended and tolerated Blume's repeated attacks on Jews and Israel over the years, say critics and anti-Semitism experts. The post reported in 2017 that Kretschmann gave state funds to the pro-BDS and anti-Semitic Lutheran pastor Mitri Raheb in Bethlehem.

Heinrich, the spokeswoman for the Israeli government, said The post on Tuesday about Blume: “One of the very first statements made by the Prime Minister at the beginning of the war – right after October 7 – underlined that this is a time of moral clarity. Comments we have heard from Mr. Blume in the past about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and during this war show that he often lacks moral clarity.”

Heinrich added: “I cannot judge whether he should remain in office or not. But in general, anyone who wants to fight anti-Semitism must be able to clearly distinguish between good and evil. There is no grey area when it comes to hatred of Jews.”

The government of Blume and Kretschmann has been involved in a number of anti-Semitism scandals over the years. Martin Widerker, the former head of the Jewish community in Stuttgart and a prominent Zionist and Jewish leader for 40 years, said the post Blume is anti-Semitic and should resign.

Two German courts have ruled that Blume can be labelled an anti-Semite for comparing German Jews to Nazis and denigrating the father of the Israel Defense Forces, Orde Wingate, as a “war criminal”. Blume supported a call on X for Netanyahu to “tear down” the security fence in Judea and Samaria that prevents Palestinian terror attacks against Jews.

In a German radio interview, he described German Jews as “right-wing extremists.”

Israel's former ambassador to the US and ex-MK Michael Oren, Christian United for Israel, General Amir Avivi, the CEO of the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF), the Zionist Organization of America, Jewish War Veterans of America, Colonel Richard Kemp of the UK, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and other Jewish and Israeli organizations in America have all called for Blume's dismissal or resignation from his post. The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center cited Blume twice in its reports on the worst outbreaks of anti-Semitism.

The post They addressed press inquiries to Kretschmann, Blume and the Baden-Württemberg Interior Minister Thomas Strobl. post Press inquiries were also sent to the heads of the Jewish communities in Baden-Württemberg, Barbara Traub and Rami Suliman.

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