“Israel is doing the dirty work for the West.” What does this mean and what are its consequences?

After Israel launched its attack on Iran on the morning of June 13, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Israel was doing a “dirty job…for all of us,” meaning the entire West.

Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prossor, agreed with him, saying that Meretz had correctly described the reality of the Middle East.

But what did the German chancellor mean by this interesting statement? This is a question that an article in the Haaretz newspaper analyzed to understand its meaning and implications.

The author of the article, Odeh Bisharat, an Arab Palestinian journalist, said that he had turned to the Google search engine and could not find an Israeli public figure who disagreed with Meretz.

He added that he couldn’t believe his eyes and wondered, “Is this the country that Jews in exile in Eastern Europe dreamed of? Is this the fate of a people who were supposed to be ‘a free people in their own land’ as the Israeli national anthem says?”

In the writer’s belief, he expected that Meretz’s statement would cause an ideological, political and moral storm about the role that the German chancellor assigned to Israel as the spearhead of the West against the East.

Why was Israel chosen for this role? Bisharat reads and says that Meretz has summed up in a few words that what the West wants from Israel is to be a contractor doing the West’s dirty work.

Bsharat: Meretz summed up in a few words that what the West wants from Israel is to be a contractor doing the West’s dirty work.

So it’s easy to understand what he means. The West ultimately does not want to get its hands dirty if Israel is willing and even enthusiastic to carry out the task on its behalf, according to the author of the article.

Bisharat criticized what he described as “hateful” regimes in the region and around the world, arguing that they want to get rid of their opponents, “and here they have Israeli spying programs and the list goes on.”

The writer goes back to 1956, specifically, when then Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser issued a decision to nationalize the Suez Canal, so Britain and France asked Israel for help to “teach him a lesson.”

About 85 years ago, the largest genocide in history was carried out in Germany and Eastern Europe. The perpetrators were Germans, the victims were Jews, and 6 million people died, “and the wound still bleeds.”

But Germany learned its lesson, and much of its population today struggles with racism and xenophobia, says Bisharat, who notes that the West German government paid huge compensation to Israel in its early years, which contributed greatly to maintaining its economic system.

Bisharat: Israel has become a brutal power, and thanks to its unfettered support from the West, it has engaged in occupation and discrimination, and is now living at the height of a coup that reminds us of the darkest periods of history.

The writer ridiculed his excessive naivety, saying that he believed that all this generosity bestowed by the German government was intended to pay off his enormous debts based on moral motives. But Meretz’s confession revealed the malice behind this generosity.

He went on to say that he would expect the German chancellor, “if he really loved the Jewish people,” for his country to do the dirty work and “wipe Iran off the map” to atone for its sins against the Jews, the Holocaust that the Nazi regime committed against them during World War II.

What’s more, Bisharat says that all this love is being given in the name of fighting anti-Semitism, this time sending a message to anyone who still thinks about the experience when Jews suffered persecution in Europe, saying, “That time has passed.”

He attributed this to the fact that Israel has become a brutal power and, thanks to the unfettered support of the West, has engaged in occupation and discrimination, adding that it is now living on the cusp of a revolution reminiscent of dark periods in history.