Relations between Israel and Germany are excellent, between the governments as well as between peoples, with flourishing cooperation in many area, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Avigdor LEiberman said after a meeting in Je rusalem with visiting German President Christian Wulff.
It is Wulff’s first visit to Israel since his election at the presidency in July.
The two countries are involved in very important joint projects to extend aid to third-world countries, he said.
At the meeting, the two leaders discussed various subjects, including Iran.
Lieberman said that it is necessary to toughen and increase the sanctions against Iran, provide massive support to students and other free organizations in Tehran, and broadcast messages of freedom to the Iranian people.
"The West is delivering a misguided message of weakness instead of dealing with the threat in the appropriate manner," the minister said.
"If the international community cannot stop North Korea, which is a poor country isolated by the world, this sends a bad message to countries like Iran and organizations like the Taliban, which are following events closely."
He said that the Iranian leadership employs rhetoric against Israel, "but its prime objective is the Gulf States and, after that, Saudi Arabia."
Germany's president, who is the first German president to be born after World War II, said the "inconceivable crimes" of the Holocaust require all Germans to act forever on behalf of Israel.
On Sunday, the 51-year-old Christian Wulff toured the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.
He is accompanied in Israel by his 17-year-old daughter Annelore, various diplomats and MPs.
During his two-day visit, he met Israeli President Shimon Peres and other Israeli leaders.
He will then travel to the West Bank, where he will meet Palestinian leaders and visit Bethlehem.