A shift in Germany’s Iran policy is clearly under way. In 2007, when Merkel learned of a firm’s plan to build a high-speed railway in Iran, she said: “I consider German assistance in the construction of the Transrapid, in a country whose president constantly announces that he wants to destroy Israel, to be completely unacceptable.” The Merkel of 2008, in contrast, seems less and less likely to rein in German firms that are strengthening Israel’s number one enemy. A few days after news of the gas-technology deal broke, she was suggesting not that it be scotched but only that future deals be reconsidered: “The government is expecting some sensitivity from businesses,” said her spokesman in Berlin, in a half-hearted effort to engage in damage control. A few days later, when I asked a cabinet spokeswoman why Merkel intervened to block the Transrapid deal, but was now retreating from a confrontational approach, she declined to comment. Might it be that the chancellor, who faces an election contest in 2009, is currying favor with the German business sector, a traditional base of CDU support?
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1011994.html