Notably, Germany opposed various sanctions proposals in the EU. It is one of the few countries Israel can count on to at least abstain from one-sided UN General Assembly resolutions.

Friedrich Merz’s first visit to Israel as Germany’s chancellor comes as the relationship between the two countries has been both shaken and strengthened. It was strained by the war in Gaza, yet elevated to new heights with last week’s deployment of the Arrow 3 missile defense system near Berlin.

No European country matters more to Israel than Germany, and few relationships are as laden with history, expectation, and scrutiny. Yet Merz’s trip, the first by the elected head of a major European country in several months, marks something new: A mutual dependency that goes far beyond symbolism.

Two developments in particular have framed this visit. The first was Germany’s embargo earlier this year of weapons destined for use in Gaza, a startling development from a country that has long declared Israel’s security as its raison d’être.

If Germany, of all countries, suspended military exports to the Jewish state at a time of war with enemies committed to its destruction, what does that signal about the bedrock of an alliance built on memory and a sense of historic responsibility toward Israel?

The second development cut in precisely the opposite direction: The deployment of an Israeli Arrow 3 ballistic missile defense battery on German soil. Eighty years after the Holocaust, the Jewish state is now defending Germany.

Arrow 3 flips history in Germany-Israel relations

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at their joint press conference on Sunday, Germany has long worked for Israel’s defense, “but Israel, the Jewish state, 80 years after the Holocaust, now works for the defense of Germany.” Nothing captures the transformation of Israeli-German relations more powerfully than that.

These dramatic swings illustrate how the Gaza war pushed the relationship into unfamiliar territory. Merz came into office in May after months of sharp public criticism of Israel’s military campaign and ultimately moved to restrict offensive weapons sales.

For Berlin, usually careful not to appear lecturing or moralizing toward Israel, the step was jarring.

Merz acknowledged in Jerusalem that the war placed Germany in a “dilemma.” He said that Israel had the right and obligation to defend itself after October 7, but added that Germany had obligations rooted in its commitment to “human dignity” and the “rule of law.”

Yet he also emphasized something else: The embargo was a moment, not a precedent. “Circumstances have since changed,” Merz said, and the policy is no longer being pursued. His government has since lifted the restrictions. Germany’s core commitment to Israel’s existence and security, he insisted, remains immutable: “It applies today, it applies tomorrow, and it applies forever.”

For Jerusalem, that message matters. And so does the fact that, despite criticism of Israeli operations in Gaza and Judea and Samaria, Berlin remains the bulwark preventing European consensus from sliding toward punitive measures or diplomatic ostracism.

Notably, Germany opposed various sanctions proposals in the EU. It is one of the few countries Israel can count on to at least abstain from one-sided UN General Assembly resolutions.

And it has repeatedly pushed back against efforts to delegitimize or isolate Israel, including the recent attempt to bar Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, which Berlin blocked by making clear it would withdraw and refuse to broadcast the contest if Israel was banned.

If the chancellor’s overall message was one of enduring responsibility, even amid disagreements over the conduct of the war and long-standing differences over the two-state solution, Netanyahu delivered a message of historical reversal, stressing the countries’ “intertwined destinies.”

Germany’s post-Holocaust commitment to Israel, he said, was to help the Jewish people recover from the greatest crime in their history. “What has happened since,” Netanyahu added, “is that we have been able to fend off our enemies” and develop capabilities that now allow Israel to reciprocate.

The deployment of the Arrow 3 anti-ballistic missile system in Germany was not merely a defense transaction; it was a moment when history was inverted. It indicates that not only does Germany work for the defense of Israel, but the Jewish State now helps to defend Germany. That is a historic change, emerging at a moment of great international turbulence and transformation.

That is a historic change, emerging at a moment of great international turbulence and transformation.

And Netanyahu pointed to another transformation – not in the world’s vilification of the Jew, which now continues in the form of the demonization of the Jewish state – but in the Jews’ response to this.

“We may not be able to control the vilification,” he said, “but we have changed Jewish history. Those who vilify us cannot annihilate us. When they come to do so, as they did on October 7, we push them back. When Iran tries to tighten a noose of death around us using its proxies, we roll them back.”

The prime minister’s message was part warning to Israel’s enemies, part reassurance to Jews again facing rising hostility. Israel today faces unprecedented criticism in Europe and the US, some of it fierce, too much of it veering into open antisemitism. Yet Netanyahu’s point was that the Jews’ historical vulnerability has been replaced by agency and capability.

Despite the warmth of the visit, however, the disagreement over the two-state solution persists. Merz reaffirmed Germany’s long-standing position: A Palestinian state remains, in Berlin’s view, the best path toward a durable regional order and must be achieved through negotiations, but with recognition only coming at the end, not at the beginning, of the process.

Netanyahu, for his part, made clear he would have no part of it. A Palestinian state as currently conceived, he said, would threaten Israel’s existence.

Need proof? Just look at Gaza, which was a de facto Palestinian state, and launched an attack it hoped would trigger a wider war to destroy Israel. Israelis across the political map, he said, have drawn the same conclusion.

Yet what was striking in the room was not the disagreement but the way both leaders framed it as something that does not jeopardize the relationship.

Angela Merkel-era Germany often bracketed disagreements under the heading of “friends can say difficult things.” Merz took a similar line, but added a caveat: Criticism must never be a pretext for antisemitism, “especially not in Germany.”

Merz’s arrival also carried broader political meaning. Israel, diplomatically isolated for months and confronted by an ICC arrest warrant for its prime minister, is only now beginning to re-engage with Europe. Merz’s visit is a first step, with Jerusalem now starting the slow work of reestablishing its standing on the continent.

In this quest, Germany is the logical place to start. It is the EU’s most powerful economy, it is a political heavyweight, and the only major European state whose support for Israel is rooted not only in interests but in identity.

For Germany, too, the visit reflects a recalibration. After the embargo episode, Berlin clearly wanted to reaffirm the relationship’s durability. The message from both capitals is that this relationship can weather storms.

Germany’s friendship is an asset for Israel – diplomatically, militarily, and economically. And Israel’s friendship, as the deployment of the Arrow 3 system demonstrates, is increasingly an asset for Germany.

As Russian missile development accelerates, as the European Sky Shield Initiative expands, and as Europe’s defense architecture shifts in the post-Ukraine era, Berlin finds itself relying on Israeli technology, Israeli expertise, and, in a sense unimaginable to earlier generations, Israeli defense.

The symbolism of the moment is powerful, but the substance is even more so. The Jewish state now helps defend the country that once sought to annihilate the Jewish people.

As Merz said at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust’s shadow remains indelible and has shaped the identity of both countries, but the present is no longer defined only by the memory of that tragic past. The Arrow 3 deployment shows it is increasingly shaped by a relationship that has moved from obligation to interdependence.