In his most wide-ranging statements yet on the war in Lebanon, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has said that Germany will focus its diplomatic efforts in the region on Syria. Damascus may be a Hezbollah-backing international pariah but, according to the calculus in Berlin, that's also why it may be able to help deliver peace between Israel and Lebanon.

In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper published on Tuesday, Steinmeier said Damascus must "constructively" participate in efforts to resolve the crisis between Israel and Lebanon. Alongside Iran, Syria is a key Hezbollah supporter -- though it denies Western accusations that it provides weapons deliveries.

Putting the impetus on Syrian leader Bashar Assad, who is considered a rogue leader by large swathes of the international community, Steinmeier said: "Syria must decide for itself if the country wants to follow Iran down its path to self-destruction. I believe that can't be in Syria's best interest and I hope that enough of its leaders are able to recognize this."

If Syria chooses to play a constructive role, Steinmeier said, it could open the door to a package of incentives aimed at improving relations between Damascus and the European Union. Steinmeier has been in direct contact with Syria's foreign minister  and has dispatched two envoys to Damascus.

Steinmeier also called for the total disarmament of Hezbollah as called for in United Nations resolution 1559. Describing the radical Shiite group as a "state within a state" in Lebanon, Steinmeier said: "Hezbollah has not yet decided whether it wants to be a political force or an armed militia -- over the long term it can't be both."

Though Steinmeier and his boss, German Chancellor Angela Merkel of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, seem to be speaking in tandem on the Middle East violence, the latest escalation has shed light on party divisions in the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the junior coalition partner in the federal government.

A rift in the SPD

Merkel has declared the Middle East crisis as the main issue on her political agenda and she has filled her days with calls to the key actors on the diplomatic stage: Putin, Olmert, Bush, Chirac and Blair. But as the chancellor engages in telephone diplomacy with world leaders, the different political factions of the left-leaning Social Democratic Party (SPD) of former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder have been wrestling amongst themselves over the appropriate stance to take on the Middle East. The party is struggling to find the balance between Germany's special responsibility to Israel and its disgust over the civilian deaths taking place as Jerusalem bombs Lebanon.

Many in the party's leftist base, led by German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczoreck-Zeul, want the SPD to call for an "immediate cease-fire" in the Middle East. "We need an immediate cease-fire," she said, "people are dying there every day." Wieczoreck-Zeul was so insistent about getting that message across that she even invited herself to a telephone meeting of the SPD's executive committee last week -- despite the fact that she isn't a member.

Still, for a party crasher, Wieczoreck-Zeul got a largely warm reception with many of the committee's members, including the party's deputy chairwoman, Ute Vogt, who said SPD "base (voters) expect us to do this."

But others in the party -- led by Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and SPD General Secretary Hubertus Heil -- see little point in demanding a cease-fire when neither Israel nor Lebanon necessarily wants one. "What is the point of such a declaration when the main participants simply aren't prepared to call a cease-fire," the foreign minister asked. In the end, the party executive didn't issue any official statement, but it became apparent that a majority of committee members supported it -- in opposition to their foreign minister.

Indeed, the latest flare-up in the ongoing Mideast crisis presents a real image problem for an SPD that shares governing responsibility with the conservatives. The party is trying to protect its reputation as a party of peace -- the most bankable commodity it has from the Schröder era, at least when it comes to elections. In "Pace" flag-flying Germany, the SPD's dove-like slogans are real vote-getters. And most Germans tend to agree more with those in the SPD calling for a cease-fire than the traditionally pro-Israel line of Angela Merkel's conservative CDU. Merkel's party has long taken its cue from the United States and provided the greatest amount of support and solidarity to Israel possible.

The SPD, for its part, has traditionally offered its support for Israel while at the same time also trying to express the needs of the Palestinians. Former SPD German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt became the first leader in Western Europe to call for Palestinians to be given the right to their own self-determination in 1974 -- the first of a series of policies that were deeply unpopular with the Israeli government. Now, the latest flare-up is connecting the more pacifist elements of the party with those that tend to have a defensive, knee-jerk reaction to US President George W. Bush.

In recent weeks, both Israel and the United States have given these powerful, cease-fire demanding wings of the party plentiful ammunition. News broadcasts have been filled with images of death and destruction. Newspapers are reporting on an Israeli strategy that basically thumbs its nose at the interests of its Western allies. And at the United Nations Security Council, it was the United States that refused to allow the body to condemn the deaths of four UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon after their post was bombed by the Israelis. Then, of course, came the Israeli bombardement of a Red Cross relief convoy on Friday and the attack on the village of Qana on Sunday that caused the deaths of at least 56 Lebanese civilians.

A coalition killer?

If the Mideast crisis worsens, politicians in both the SPD and CDU fear, it could lead to major collateral damage to the governing coalition in Berlin. "It could spell the end of the grand coalition," warned Michael Müller, an influential member of the left-wing of the SPD. If, for example, Syria were to enter into the war, Müller believes, differences between SPD and CDU policies on the Mideast would become irreconcilable. The conservatives would call for Germany to step in and provide its full support for Israel, but the SPD might oppose such measures.

The stakes are high for the SPD, and many members of parliament already say they are facing considerable pressure on the Mideast situation from their constituents, who are dismayed by the bombing of Beirut and attacks against refugees. "The people think what is happening is absolutely insane," said Astrid Klug, a member of parliament from the state of Saarland. After the deaths of UN peacekeepers last week, Niels Annen, the former head of the influential youth wing of the SPD, used similar language in denouncing the Israeli action as being "purely insane," adding that it would be "adventurous to believe that one could eliminate Hezbollah in that manner."

Rumblings of discontent could also be heard in the conservative wing of the SPD, the so-called "Seeheimer Circle." In a statement, the group exclaimed: "Israel must refrain from its disproportionate use of military means at the expense of the Lebanese civilian population." Initially, the group had even planned to use the term "a violation of international law" to describe the Israeli attacks, but it eventually abandoned the line, fearing condemnation from the country's leading Jewish organization, the Central Council of Jews in Germany.

In their discussions behind closed doors with Israeli representatives in Berlin, SPD leaders haven't minced words. Still, they haven't born much fruit so far. During one meeting between the deputy head of the SPD's parliamentary group and Israel's top representative in Germany, Ambassador Shimon Stein, the ambassador let the politician know that he thought little of his appeal for putting an end to the "limitless bombing" of Lebanon.

Historical sensitivities

But the split in the SPD over Middle East policy is also reflective of general ambivalence in Germany over relations with Israel some 60 years after the Holocaust. Politicians here are constantly struggling to find the balance between a historic responsibility to Israel and contemporary policies. Among Germany's influential leftists, for example, the debate continues today over whether or not one can criticize Israel's unwillingness to compromise with its Arab neighbors or if one is obligated to practice reserve because of Germany's history.

These sensitivities also explain why German politicians have little appetite at the moment to discuss the hypothetical possibility of sending German peacekeeping troops to the Middle East. Even the remote possibility of German troops being in a situation where they might have to fire on Israelis is enough to eliminate any political support for sending German "blue helmets."