A German poll published in the national Stern magazine on Wednesday claimed that 59% of Germans describe Israel as “aggressive”. The figures emerged as President Joachim Gauck prepares for an official state visit of Israel and Ramallah at the end of the month and following a spate of anti-Israel incidents in the country.
The figures showed a sharp rise from the 49% of Germans who replied similarly only three years. Additionally, 70% of those polled today answered that “Israel pursues its own interest without consideration for other nations”.
Earlier this month, a group of suspected neo-Nazis attacked a booth distributing pro-Israel material during an otherwise peaceful “I like Israel” event in the west German city of Siegen.
According to the pro-Israel initiative’s chairman, Sacha Stawski: “The boundaries between anti-Semitism and anti-Israel are shrinking rapidly. In Germany, this is becoming apparent.”
German intelligence chief Heinz Fromm also claimed in an interview with German newspaper Bild on Tuesday that “the danger for (Jews in) Germany has not decreased”. Invoking the increasing tension between extremist Salafist muslims and police across German cites, he warned of a real possibility of an anti-Semitic attack, such as the Toulouse school shootings in France, taking place in Germany:
“With their intensive propaganda over the internet, in the streets, in mosques and also at so-called Islam seminars, Salafist preachers are reaching especially young people who are more sensitive to this ideology”, he declared, adding that “almost all Islamist terrorists from Germany have been radicalised in this way”.
Controversial German novelist Guenter Grass sparked debate last month, when he published a poem What Must Be Said in which he claimed Israel was threatening to “wipe out the Israeli people”. Although his statements were widely criticised by German politicians and Israeli officials, some German commentators feared his views might strike a chord with the population at large.
Former German central banker Thilo Sarrazin also waded into anti-Semitic controversy when he claimed in his new book Europe doesn’t need the euro that Germany has allowed itself to become the eurozone’s “hostage” as penitence for the Holocaust. The extreme-right National Democrat Party congratulated Sarrazin for “saying openly what most Germans think”.

EJP