DUBLIN, July 29 -- Friedrich Merz had come to Ireland's capital to meet with one of the European Union's most vocal critics of Israel's conduct in the occupied territories. The setting, a state house on the western edge of Dublin, carried its own unmistakable message: two governments, allied in their unease about what is happening in the West Bank, divided on the single question of what the European Union should actually do about it.

What Merz offered on Tuesday was not a diplomatic hedge. It was a declaration. Germany will not join sanctions against Israel, not now, not for the foreseeable future, and not under any diplomatic pressure the EU can bring to bear. "We do not believe that general sanctions against Israel are the right approa...