Friedrich Merz is set to become Germany’s most American chancellor.

Never in history has a German head of government had more affinity for the United States. Merz has traveled to the U.S. over 100 times, by his own tally, and counts former U.S. President Ronald Reagan as one of his role models.

Merz became a conservative member of the European Parliament in 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell. Five years later he was elected to the German Bundestag, where he developed a close relationship with Wolfgang Schäuble, the CDU stalwart and forceful advocate of European Union integration. Under Schäuble’s tutelage, Merz rose in stature and was considered a likely choice for chancellor candidate.

His rise ended in 2002, however, when he lost a power struggle with the more centrist Angela Merkel.

Seeing no role for himself in the CDU under Merkel, Merz withdrew to the back benches, and in the midst of the world financial crisis of 2008 published a paean to free markets titled “Dare for More Capitalism.” A year later he left the Bundestag to work as a corporate lawyer while also taking the helm of Atlantik-Brücke, a lobby advocating transatlantic ties.

While with Atlantik-Brücke, Merz pushed for an EU-U.S. trade agreement — the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP — and forged closer connections with the U.S., networking with American politicians and corporate leaders.

Over a decade in the private sector, Merz sat on a series of corporate boards, including a four-year stint with U.S. asset manager BlackRock, a time he counts as among the happiest in his life, according to biographer Resing. Merz says this time provided him valuable experience outside of politics, but his critics accuse him of simply using his political connections to lobby for powerful interests, making himself a millionaire in the process.

Though Merz and his conservatives emerged victorious in Sunday’s election, surveys suggest he’s not particularly popular among the public.

In a country that remains deeply skeptical of the financial industry, Merz’s wealth and time at BlackRock, the American investment company, are often viewed with suspicion.

Merz has also vowed to make “deals” with Trump. In an interview last month he suggested Germany could endear itself to Trump by buying American F-35 fighter jets and boosting defense spending to put Germany consistently above the NATO spending target of 2 percent of gross domestic product. Despite the U.S. president’s love of tariffs, Merz also floated trying to bring back negotiations on TTIP, which collapsed during the first Trump administration.

In an interview the following day, Merz warned that Europe should prepare for Trump to end NATO protection and hinted at a major strategic shift, saying Germany needed to discuss the possibility of “nuclear sharing, or at least nuclear security” with European nuclear powers the United Kingdom and France. German conservatives have previously favored maintaining strong ties with the U.S. over calls from Paris to cultivate European “strategic autonomy.”

Merz has expressed a willingness to do so, but the way forward remains murky.

“Within this Europe, Germany must play a leading role,” Merz said at the rally in Hesse. “We must take on this responsibility. I, for one, am determined to do so.”>

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced overnight into Sunday that it would postpone the release of Palestinian prisoners, using unsubstantiated claims of Hamas violating the ceasefire agreement as justification.

Accusing Hamas of so-called “humiliating ceremonies” and the “cynical use of hostages for propaganda,” Netanyahu’s office declared that the scheduled release of Palestinian detainees on Saturday would be delayed until Israel secures the next batch of hostages.

Iraq's oil ministry announced that preparations to restart oil exports via the Iraq-Turkey pipeline are complete. This development follows a near two-year halt in crude shipments from the Kurdistan region, which had been disrupted by disputes between Baghdad and Erbil. Improved relations between the central Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional administration have paved the way for resuming exports.

The suspension began in March 2023 when Turkey halted pipeline operations after an International Chamber of Commerce ruling required Ankara to pay $1.5 billion to Baghdad for unauthorized exports by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) between 2014 and 2018. Recent amendments to Iraq's federal budget law, which set transport and production costs at $16 per barrel and require the KRG to transfer its oil output to the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO), have facilitated the resumption of exports.

This comes amid reports that the Trump administration is pressuring Iraq to restart Kurdish oil exports, allegedly threatening sanctions similar to those on Iran if Baghdad does not comply. Reuters reported that this pressure is part of Trump's renewed "maximum pressure" campaign against Tehran, aimed at cutting Iranian oil exports to zero to curb its nuclear ambitions. US officials argue that allowing Kurdish oil exports would help offset the loss of Iranian supply in global markets, stabilizing prices and maintaining energy security.

JERUSALEM: Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday that a special agency would be established for the “voluntary departure” of Gazans, after Israel expressed commitment to a US proposal to take over the Palestinian territory and expel its residents.

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The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) have agreed to integrate their military forces into the army of the new Syrian government.

The agreement is also believed to involve the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, commonly known as "Rojava", which is the civil authority that rules SDF-held areas of Syria.

The fighters are believed to be those affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which waged a decades-long insurgency against key Syrian ally Turkey, and which has many forces in neighbouring Iraqi Kurdistan.

The Syrian Democratic Union (PYD), which is the main component force of the SDF, is essentially the Syrian wing of the PKK, meaning that this move will bring an end to fighting between the SDF and Turkish-backed forces that have blighted post-Assad Syria.

The SDF held around 25 percent of Syrian territory, including many of the richest areas in terms of oil, natural gas and minerals, with many of these areas being Arab-majority areas prior to the war and their conquest by the Kurdish force.

There has not yet been any comment from the US, which materially and physically supports the SDF, including the use of several American bases in the areas under their control.

An Israeli soldier recently released from Gaza has told media that Hamas allowed her and other prisoners to observe Jewish traditions and holidays, permitting them to practice their religious rituals.

Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth published an interview on Wednesday with Agam Berger, who was recently released from Gaza as part of the prisoner swap deal with the Palestinian resistance group.

She recalled that she and other captives "were surprised" when Hamas provided them with various items, including a Jewish prayer book, known in Hebrew as siddur.

"We have no idea how it happened, but they simply handed us prayer books," she said, describing the issue for her as "particularly unusual." "It (the prayer book) wasn't random ... it arrived exactly when we needed it most," Berger said.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/26284554

By Syma Mohammed
Published date: 20 February 2025 21:44 GMT

Alex Tyrrell, party leader of the Green Party of Quebec, who accompanied Engler to the police station on Thursday, spoke to the Middle East Eye about Engler’s arrest.

“I think it’s a shocking attack on free expression and democratic rights and criticism of Israel in Canada - a country that’s supposed to be a free, democratic society. We’re supposed to speak out about a genocide," Tyrrel told MEE.