It takes them more time to decide when to open the Christmas market.

Pathetic.

In early August, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced a suspension of exports of arms to Israel that could be used in the Gaza Strip “until further notice,” marking a major shift in German foreign policy.

Regardless of how arms exports should be handled (i’d be on the side of banning them until there is actual change), this just seems like bad politics. Why even bother to first suspend them completely after such a long time and then immediately revert back?

Seems to me like this achieves literally nothing, but is the worst option in regard to public perception. Like they could have just kept the status quo, since there all the bad publicity was already “priced in” so to speak. Or they could do a move like in August and change their stance, but then you got to keep it up for it to actually matter and intend to do so from the start. If you revert this fast you get the backlash again for your original stance AND you look weak to the counterparty.