The specter of conflict between German and Israeli troops served as the ultimate nightmare scenario that detractors used to argue against participating in the United Nations UNIFIL peacekeeping mission along the Lebanon-Israel border. In order to assuage those fears, Germany's armed forces, the Bundeswehr, agreed to send naval forces to patrol the Lebanese coast instead of any ground troops, thus reducing the likelihood of any altercation. Given its history, the notion of German troops skirmishing with Israelis is politically untenable.

But only days into Germany's command over UN naval forces off Lebanon's coast, two incidents have sent shivers down Berlin's political spine. Israeli fighter jets last week fired shots over a helicopter and an unarmed German vessel off the Lebanese coast. Some are wondering if the decision to deploy to Lebanon that German Chancellor Angela Merkel deemed "historic," could still become exactly that, but for the wrong reasons.

The center-right daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung expresses concern that the German navy is now engaged in the most complicated and dangerous conflict in the world. The editors compare Germany's involvement in the UNIFIL mission with its NATO-led mission in Afghanistan. Even though the German military has been retooled over the past several years to become an "intervention" force, it is only now starting to be confronted with those difficulties -- most prominently in Afghanistan and now along the Lebanese coast. Given the country's history and the fact that it is surrounded by bellicose and confrontational neighbors, it is understandable that Israel doesn't blindly trust the UNIFIL presence to secure its peace. Nevertheless, writes the editor, "intimidation manoeuvres by Israeli fighter jets -- that are not only aimed at Hezbollah, but also at international peacekeeping troops -- will do little to help achieve peace."

The business daily Handelsblatt warns that "dark clouds" are looming over the UNIFIL mission, casting their shadow over the Defense Ministry and the German parliament. The editorialist questions whether the logic of the mission is realistic given the intransigence on both the Lebanese and Israeli sides. On the one hand you have the Lebanese government limiting the amount of control Germany can exercise over its coastal waters. On the other, you have Israel making aggressive shows-of-force against the German navy -- a move that could be seen as a provocation by Hezbollah. Success of the mission -- regardless of how "robust" the UN mandate is -- depends on the willingness of the governments to abide by the rules. The paper concludes by calling for both sides to show greater willingness to foster lasting peace. Israel must entrust its security more to international forces and Lebanon has to crack down on its radical militants. "The alternative is dependence on Syria and Iran -- and an endless spiral of violence," the paper writes.

The war is over, but Israel still manages to stir up trouble, declares the left-leaning daily Die Tageszeitung. This time it's not with its Arab neighbors, but with other nations whose military presence they should welcome. Israel signed up to the cease-fire agreement and the deployment of UN peacekeeping forces, now it must stick to it. In the end, the editor places the responsibility on the UN as an effective arbitrator. "Perhaps the UN would have more power to convince if it were as hard on Lebanon as it is on Israel in enforcing contracts."

A cartoon of a UNIFIL ship off Lebanon's coast characterizes the Berliner Zeitung's assessment of how "robust" the UN mandate is proving to be. A loudspeaker announces to the naval soldiers the program for the day: "1. To apologize to the Israeli's for shooting at us. 2. To ask the Lebanese government where and how we're allowed to carry out our robust mandate." In its accompanying editorial, the paper writes that the ground rules of the mission need to be clarified. Most notably, the UN mandate isn't just there to protect the Israeli border. It's also intended to protect the Lebanese. That means the Israeli air force can no longer make flights into Lebanese airspace. "Now that German troops have been deployed," the paper writes, "it should quickly be made clear in Berlin that (Resolution 1701) applies to Lebanon, too."

-- Joshua Gallu, 3 p.m. CET

Kaczynski's Fixations

"Candid, honest and very friendly" are the words German Chancellor Angela Merkel chose to describe her meeting on Monday with Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. However, few would choose the same words to describe the frosty state of Berlin-Warsaw relations during the past year.

Tensions began in earnest in September 2005, when then-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to build a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea that would bypass Eastern Europe and bring supplies of natural gas straight to mainland Germany. Such a pipeline bypasses Poland and thereby deprives it of lucrative transit revenues from gas flowing from Russia to Germany. It represented such an affront that Poland's defense minister likened it to the Hitler-Stalin pact of 1939, which -- among other things -- divided Poland into German and Soviet spheres of influence.

Prime Minister Kaczynski is not an uncontroversial figure himself. Hailing from the right-wing Law and Justice Party, he was appointed to the office in June 2006 by his twin-brother, Lech, who is president of the country. After an exhibition in Berlin highlighted the plight of Germans expelled from Poland after World War II, he has called on Merkel's government to renounce any claims for compensation those Germans may seek.

The German media was generally skeptical of what the meeting could achieve in terms of easing tensions.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung holds the Polish government largely responsible for the bad relations in its editorial, and calls on Kaczynski to move beyond his "fixation with the historical experiences of his people." Most of his country's people already do this, the paper notes, "they do not see themselves as threatened in any way by the Germans. Many understand that a good relationship amongst neighbors is useful to both sides."