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Source: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.576598
The Complex Israeli-German Relationship
(Ha'aretz) Gil Yaron - The German media feel free to criticize Israel more harshly than ever. A new generation of German politicians has shed their predecessors' fear of speaking freely because of the Holocaust. As a result, some people argue that bilateral relations have reached an unprecedented low. But this conclusion is simplistic and wrong. Germany continues to be Israel's third biggest trading partner, after the U.S. and China, and Israel is Germany's second most important customer in the Middle East, after Saudi Arabia. More than 6,000 German companies have business ties with Israel. Bilateral trade rose nearly 5% last year, to $6 billion. Large German corporations such as SAP AG, Siemens, Daimler and Henkel have opened branches in Israel. Growing up in tranquil Europe that is busy erasing political borders, young Germans are nearly incapable of comprehending the existential threat facing Israel. Yet the relationship between the two peoples and the two countries has never been stronger or deeper. The writer reports on Middle Eastern affairs in the German media.