After a report like this - with so many talkbacks - it should, please, be noted also that the German government has rejected the petition, called "Manifesto". So, please, be careful with generalisations in your judgements about us Germans!

While I understand the outrage about this idiotic and unnecessary 'manifesto' I'd just like to point out that rendering the undersigners 'highly influential' is a gross exaggeration and giving these morons more due than they deserve. Several names on this list are well known and they always pop up when Israel becomes a public issue in German media. And not surprisingly, they always have the same (antisemitic) nonsense to say. Rising antisemtism IS an issue in modern Germany and it needs to be fought against, but please don't generalize and think that just because 25 eggheads craving for public attention wrote down a manifesto, the entire German populace will applaud.

Please believe me, these so-called "experts" are also much criticised for their stupid statement in germany itself. For those of you who understand the language, go to http://lizaswelt.blogspot.com/ and read the article "Applaus, Applaus". Friendly greetings from Germany

The first usefull comment in this talkback is No.79. To make things clear: Germany has been Israels closet ally ever since the beginning of the state. And the best is: Israel never had to say "thank you". The "Manifesto" is far less critical towards Israel than Eldad Beck has described. It seems as if Beck was appointed to cover Germany because of his anti-German attitude and his talent to show Germany in a bad light. Because after all most Germans have a very positive attitude towards Israel and this acedemic paper doesn't represent anything. So stop falling into generalizations about Germany or Europe. As human beings we should work for peace. And anyone, also Germans have the right to criticize people who work against that.

That's exactly what Germany is: Israel's closet ally. Hiding in the closet when terrorists approach. Sorry, I know it is not nice to poke fun at typing errors, but I could not resist. Seriously - I agree with you on one point: Generalizing is not helpful. But I don't consider this manifesto as harmless as you do. It shows a bad attitude towards Israel that many Germans unfortunately share.

Does this refer to the life of a Jew or the life of a Goym?

Funny if Germany is such a miserable country filled with neo nazis why did 200,000 Jews from Russia just immigrate to Germany in the last couple of years.

Give us all a break. The British are the biggest raciss that ever existed on earth. Just look at your colonial history.