More than 80 years after World War II, Germany and Israel have developed a remarkable security relationship. German-built submarines constitute an important part of Israel’s naval power, Israeli defense technologies have been incorporated into the German Bundeswehr, and both countries cooperate in areas including missile defense, intelligence, cyber security, military technology, and training.

Such a relationship might have seemed extraordinary in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust.

Therefore, the German-Israeli experience offers useful lessons for another historically difficult relationship: Japan and South Korea.

To be sure, the historical experiences are fundamentally different, and thus they should not be equated. Nonetheless, Germany and Israel demonstrate a crucial strategic principle: complete historical reconciliation is not necessarily a precondition for meaningful security cooperation to begin. Practical cooperation can first develop around concrete security needs, and it could be institutionalized with the passage of time.

The lesson is increasingly becoming relevant as Japan and South Korea face growing North Korean military capabilities, deepening Russia-North Korea cooperation, China’s military expansion, and a strategic environment in which the United States is encountering an increasingly heavy burden.

From Secret Contact to Strategic Cooperation

German-Israeli defense cooperation started much earlier than is sometimes remembered.

In 1957, Shimon Peres, then director-general of Israel’s Ministry of Defense, secretly met with West German Defense Minister Franz Strauss, initiating close covert cooperation between the two defense ministries. West Germany subsequently supplied Israel with military equipment, and from 1962, the relationship expanded to include major weapons systems such as transport aircraft, helicopters, tanks, and other weapons systems to Israel.

This relationship was politically sensitive, and much of the early stages of the cooperation remained discreet. Nevertheless, it was not merely about Germany assisting Israel.

Since the Arab countries were operating massive quantities of Soviet equipment, Israel possessed valuable expertise on Soviet weapons and military practices. For West Germany, which was confronted with the Warsaw Pact across the divided European continent, such intelligence had strategic value.

Such reciprocity mattered. What began partly as assistance gradually evolved into a relationship based on mutual security interests.

The partnership further deepened in the post-Cold War era. After the 1991 Gulf War, Germany financially helped Israel with the Dolphin-class submarines and later continuously offered subsidies for additional submarine acquisitions. In 2017, Berlin agreed to contribute 540........

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