Editorial: ​How right the German leader is about Tehran

​Compare and contrast. The German chancellor praises Israel for doing the world’s “dirty work” re Iran.

​British and Irish leaders rush to call for an de-escalation.

So what is London and Dublin’s plan to deal with the threat from Tehran and its rush to get a nuclear bomb? Talks? More deals?

Little attention will be paid in Jerusalem to Ireland’s premier and deputy premier, Micheal Martin and Simon Harris, who have called for an “immediate de-escalation” between Israel and Iran and for talks to restart. After all, Irish leaders have helped the Republic to become one of the most hostile states towards Israel in western Europe.

And Keir Starmer and David Lammy have squandered any goodwill in Israel towards Britain too, being at the helm of a government that would arrest Israeli leaders if they set foot in the UK – as a result of international legal activists equating of the hyper civilised Jewish state with the mass murdering Islamic extremist barbarians of Hamas.

In contrast to such pusillanimous rhetoric, the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has praised Israel for being "courageous enough" to attack Iran's nuclear site, saying that it was doing the "dirty work" of the West.

“This mullah regime has brought death and destruction to the world,” he said. “I can only say that I have the utmost respect for the Israeli Army for having the courage to do this, and for the Israeli leadership for having the courage to do this.”

Germany is often clear-eyed about Israel, as it was after the October 7 atrocities, because of its Nazi past, and the existential threat that Jews have faced both in Europe and now in the Middle East.

How right he is about the bravery of the Israeli military and about the blood-stained record of the religious fanatics who run Iran.