‘Never, in all my years in Berlin, have I heard such an eruption of joy as when Scholz increased the military budget’

MATI SHEMOELOF digests the drama sparked by Germany's U-turn over the Ukraine crisis

I EMIGRATED TO Berlin from Israel to escape war. The conflict in Ukraine has made me doubt the wisdom of that decision.

I had wanted to find a quiet, safe place and Berlin seemed the perfect choice. Now it seems  the whole country will undergo major militarisation and who knows what the result will be of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Unlike the average German, I know the whistle of the Grad missile, life in the shadow of a huge army, and running into a dirty shelter.

With the outbreak of the war, the discourse in Europe, and particularly in Germany, changed completely. Within three days, Germany halted the Nord Stream Baltic Sea gas pipeline project, designed to double the flow of Russian gas direct to Germany.

Germany then decided to allow the delivery of arms shipments to the Ukrainian army (it will send 1000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles) and agreed to join other EU countries arming the Ukrainians.

Most importantly, Germany has joined with them in agreeing to block the Central Bank of Russia and six other Russian banks from the SWIFT international banking system It also joined in a united move to block all airspace between Russia and Germany, and the German government began preparing further sanctions.

More than 100,000 people demonstrated in Berlin in a show of support for Ukraine. They waved Ukrainian flags, called Putin Hitler, and supported Germany’s economic sanctions against Russia.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the Government had decided to supply 100 billion euros (two per cent of Germany’s GDP) for military investment from its 2022 budget. Germany had long resisted calls from the US and others to raise its defence spending to two per cent, yet it took just three days of war in Ukraine to achieve what four years of hectoring from Donald Trump could not.