It has been a while since a leader of a German party called for the political exclusion of the head of Germany's Jews. Last week, Klaus Ernst, co-chairperson of the anti-Israel Left Party, called for Dr Dieter Graumann, the president of Germany's Jewish community, to leave "party politics" as rapidly as possible.
What sparked Mr Ernst's attack on the head of Germany's 105,000 Jews was Mr Graumann's criticism that the Left Party permits its politicians to "let out their rabid, almost pathological hatred of Israel".
Mr Ernst, a Bavarian trade union leader, and Left Party co-chairwoman, Gesine Lötzsch, from the former East Germany, have worked overtime to dismantle Israel's right to exist. The Left Party's record is replete with examples of calls to boycott Israeli products, it has advocated a "one-state solution" to eliminate the Jewish state, and it paid for two of its Bundestag members to join the Mavi Marmara last year.
The two Left Party parliamentarians, Inge Höger and Annette Groth, who aligned themselves with Turkish Islamists on the Mavi Marmara, received a hero's welcome last year from Ms Lötzsch on returning to Berlin.
