Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has told an interviewer that he wants German troops in any international force protecting the Jewish state. I'm really not kidding:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he would welcome German troops participating in an international force in southern Lebanon, according to a newspaper interview published Friday. ...

Olmert said he told Merkel that Israel has "absolutely no problem with German soldiers in southern Lebanon."

"Why should German soldiers shoot at Israel? They would be part of the force protecting Israel," Olmert was quoted as saying in the interview with the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

"There is at the moment no nation that is behaving in a more friendly way toward Israel than Germany," he added. "If Germany can contribute to the security of the Israeli people, that would be a worthwhile task for your country. I would be very happy if Germany participated."

So now we have the spectacle of another genocidal nutcase threatening to kill off millions of Jews in the form of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the nation that will protect them will be the last nation with the same genocidal impulse, if Olmert gets his way. Not that the Germans still have that illness -- they lost it sometime during the Nuremberg trials, for the most part. However, the historical irony is too great to simply dismiss -- and some Israelis with living memory of the Holocaust may find the irony more than just a historical curiosity.

Olmert knows that international troops will eventually get deployed in southern Lebanon, and the question will be which countries contribute. America has already ruled out another military commitment, a move that is questionable considering our fight against terrorism; where better to find it? Canadians would probably make a great choice, but they do not seem enthusiastic about the mission at this point. The UK has stretched itseld in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the French .. think that Iran is a stabilizing force in the area.

The Germans look pretty good at this point, history notwithstanding. However, Germany's Angela Merkel has demurred, and probably for more reasons than just overcommitment in Afghanistan. A real peacekeeping force will have to open fire on anyone violating a DMZ. Can anyone imagine the public relations nightmare if German forces started shooting Jews, which has to be considered as a theoretical possibility? That may be why Olmert wants the Germans in southern Lebanon, but Merkel is rightly leery about that assignment.

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