Merkel Says Holocaust Fills Germans 'With Shame'

I. I. Merkel Says Holocaust Fills Germans ‘With Shame’ New York Times, March 18, 2008
II. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/world/middleeast/19merkel.html?ref=world
III. II. On Tuesday, March 18, 2008, Angela Merkel, the chancellor/ Prime Minister of Germany, became the first chancellor to confront the Israeli Parliament conducting a three-day long visit aimed at the idea to strengthen ties between Israel and Germany. This visit became particularly symbolic as the 60th anniversary of Israel’s establishment against the background of the Holocaust comes near. Complimenting the infamous date, Merkel reports that the Nazi genocide fills German citizens “with shame”. Also on the matters to be addressed was Germany’s role in the campaign against Iran’s suspected building of nuclear weaponry. Other than Germany reducing its commercial ties with Iran, Israel still thinks there is more that can be done. Merkel’s view on this issue is that it is Iran’s job to tell the world that they are not building a nuclear weapon. Iran has repeatedly denied the building of nuclear weaponry, and that there uranium enrichment program is for civilian energy only. As a response to this, Iran repeatedly condemns UN sanctions intended for their punishment to end the uranium enrichment program. Nevertheless, Merkel wants “a diplomatic solution, together with its partners”, even if it means supporting more sanctions imposed on Iran. As for Israel’s relationship with Germany, the nations seem to be copasetic, as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accompanied Merkel to Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial.
III. A. The AP theme this article relates to is Development and interaction of cultures and State-building, expansion and conflict. One of the main aspects of the Holocaust was due to religious views, philosophies and ideologies, which compliment the theme of Development… As Israel and Germany works to restore their positive relationship, they use the AP world theme of State-building…
B. The historical background on this issue goes back to WWII when Hitler led the German Nazi’s on a mission to take over Europe, and eventually the world. The Jews were his main targets due to their religious views. Over the coarse of about 4 years, 6 million Jewish people died of genocide caused by the Nazi soldiers. Since then the relationship between Israel and Germany has been a weak one, due to their past.
C. The author of this article is Isabel Kershner. It seems as though she is a female reporter for the NY Times.
D. This article provides little bias throughout the text. It seems as though the author isn’t leaning towards one side more then the other. Even when Iran was mentioned with their debatable uranium enrichment project, the author remained neutral.
E. I feel as though that there isn’t a missing voice missing in this article. The opinions of both Prime Ministers were heard, as well as Iran’s take on their alleged nuclear weaponry-building project.
F. This article was very exciting to read. Due to Israel’s current struggles with the Palestinians, I’m glad that Germany and Israel resumed their relationship. In my opinion, I think Israel needs all the support they can get. I was also glad to see that both Germany and Israel were on board with current issue of Iran’s suspected nuclear weaponry building. What ever is going on in Iran, it needs to stop, in the risk that many nations could be affected by their assumed terror.