Germany's Merz makes first visit to Israel as chancellor

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

64% : 'Signal of support' After the recent strains, Israel expects a "signal of continued support" from Merz, said Michael Rimmel, head of the Jerusalem office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, affiliated with Merz's centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU).
58% : The decision to include Israel in the upcoming Eurovision event, reached on Thursday, was warmly welcomed in Berlin even as it prompted boycotts from Spain, the Netherlands and elsewhere.
52% : Merz, after stopping in Jordan for talks with King Abdullah II, is set to fly on to Israel in the evening before meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Sunday.
50% : Berlin (AFP) - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz heads to Israel on Saturday for his first visit since taking office, aiming to reaffirm traditionally solid ties that were shaken during the Gaza war.
47% : Merz recently offered Israel full-throated support as European broadcasters weighed whether to exclude the country from the annual Eurovision Song Contest, calling such a possibility "scandalous".
43% : "Israel is no longer dependent on German technology, but rather German defence depends on Israeli technology."
41% : Shohat argued that Merz is effectively offering political support to Netanyahu and Israel's hard-right government.
39% : Given the dark legacy of Nazi Germany's industrial-scale murder of Jews, German leaders have long seen unflinching support for Israel as a bedrock of the country's foreign policy.
38% : " Defence deals Although Merz's public criticism of Israel was unusual for a German leader, it was measured by international standards.
34% : Merz, who took power in May this year, has repeatedly criticised Israel's relentless military campaign, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.
33% : But Israeli-German ties were shaken during the Gaza war set off by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, the deadliest in the country's history.
22% : The UN also warns that Israel is still not allowing enough aid into Gaza.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.