In fact, Germany announced last Thursday the resumption of arms deliveries to Israel, after a virtual interruption since the beginning of the year. According to Sipri, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Germany, with 30% of imports, is Israel’s second supplier (after the United States), especially of armored vehicles, although it is always difficult to determine the exact nature and the volume of imported military items. This morning, on the sidelines of a summit of European heads of state, Scholz declared again that Israel needed weapons to defend itself: “It is clear that supporting Israel means permanently guaranteeing Israel’s defense capacity, for example by providing it with military equipment or weapons”according to comments reported by the Reuters news agency.
The issue of arms shipments to Israel has divided Western countries for months. The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, like the French President, Emmanuel Macron, spoke out in favor of stopping shipments to Israel of weapons used in the Gaza conflict. In September, the United Kingdom announced the suspension of around thirty arms export licenses to Israel, out of a total of 350, after a review that concluded “a risk” that are used in violation of international humanitarian law. The Irish Prime Minister, Simon Harris, stated this morning in Brussels that “Europe had not yet used all the levers at its disposal to achieve a ceasefire” and that he would continue working with Spain to change the dynamics within the Union. As for US President Joe Biden, he has so far refused to use weapons against Israel, apart from suspending the dropping of bombs in May.
