(October 17, 2023 / JNS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Tel Aviv on Tuesday amid a string of visits to Israel by world leaders in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 terror attacks perpetrated by Hamas.

“As I said last week in the Bundestag, in hard times, Germany has only one place, and it is alongside Israel,” Scholz said in his public remarks.

“It is very important to say this today here during these difficult times in Israel: Germany’s history and the responsibility it had for the Holocaust requires us to help maintain the security and existence of Israel,” he added.

Netanyahu said the attacks that began on Oct. 7 marked “the worst crimes committed against Jews since the Holocaust.”

“Hamas are the new Nazis, Hamas is ISIS, in some instances worse than Nazis,” charged the premier.

Scholz was greeted at the airport by Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who thanked him for “this important visit, which proves that Germany stands by the State of Israel and supports its struggle for the safety of its citizens.”

‘We condemn what has happened in Israel’

Earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu hosted Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.

“Mr. Prime Minister, first and foremost, we wanted to show you that friends show their solidarity in practice,” Ciolacu told Netanyahu following a closed-door meeting.

“We condemn what has happened in Israel and also the terrorist organization Hamas,” said Ciolacu, noting that the “Romanian parliament was the first parliament in Europe to have, with both chambers, a commonly agreed statement in support of the State of Israel.”

“The quest for peace in the Middle East is something we share,” Netanyahu responded, adding that “such peace will only be possible if this caliphate, this Daesh [ISIS] Caliphate, is destroyed. Nobody can make peace with Daesh, nobody can make peace with Al-Qaeda and nobody could make peace with the Nazis.”

Ciolacu was joined by Romania’s Defense Minister Angel Tîlvar; Foreign Minister Lumini?a Odobescu; Jewish Parliament member Silviu Vexler; and Romanian Ambassador to Israel Radu Ioanid.