GERMANY was poised yesterday to shatter its most enduring postwar taboo by sending troops into the cauldron of Lebanon, where they risk coming into direct conflict with Israelis. As troops from France, Italy, Spain, Turkey and other donor nations prepared to deploy in southern Lebanon, Germany’s late decision to participate ranked as its most delicate foreign policy move since it was held to account for the Holocaust in 1945. Since then, it has been unthinkable that Germany would put itself in a combat situation in which its soldiers could shoot at Jews. The decision to deploy troops to join the...
