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Copyright © 2001 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com
In Germany, harsh words for Israel
Peter Finn The Washington Post
Wednesday, April 10, 2002
BERLIN Germany's role as Israel's most steadfast European ally, a foreign policy
doctrine that was enshrined and sustained by the legacy of the Holocaust, is
beginning to crack with the country quietly suspending weapons sales to Israel and
leading politicians, led by conservatives, employing strikingly harsh language to
criticize Israeli military action in the West Bank.
In interviews Tuesday, officials in the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder
declined to use the word embargo to describe its action. But the government has
refused to act on planned weapons sales to Israel, effectively suspending them, and
similar action has also been taken by other European countries, sources said.
The move signals a growing impatience with Israel and an unexpected echo here of
widespread European revulsion at current Israeli policy. Israeli officials downplayed
the action, but did not deny that weapons sales were not going forward. "I can
categorically say this is not an embargo," said Shimon Stein, Israel's ambassador to
Germany, in a phone interview. "There are some problems that need to be resolved
and that is subject to ongoing discussion. We hope that we can overcome the
difficulty."
The German press agency reported, however, that Israel's Defense Ministry filed a
letter of protest with the German government over its refusal to sanction sales.
In 2000, the last year for which figures are available, Germany sold about $170
million worth of military equipment to Israel, including parts for tanks and armored
cars, torpedoes and other munitions.
The revelation that Germany is not allowing weapons sales to go forward followed
official meetings in Berlin last week with Dore Gold, foreign policy adviser to Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, that were described as "cool." German officials also
labeled Gold "intransigent," according to a report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine
newspaper.
And the government's frustration has begun to spill out of Schroeder's cabinet,
whose members are normally circumspect in their statements on Israel. "The
occupation against the resolution of the UN Security Council, the adherence to the
occupation, and the reports about the Israeli troops' conduct are shocking," said
Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Schroeder's minister of development aid, in some of the
bluntest comments yet from the government. German officials on Tuesday began an
initiative calling for the early creation of a Palestinian state, followed by
negotiations
on key issues such as Jerusalem, the final borders of Palestine and the issue of
Palestinian refugees. The Germans also called for an immediate withdrawal of Israeli
forces from the positions it took in the current offensive. In a significant change of
mood in Germany, leading parliamentarians from the center-right opposition have
cast Israel as the aggressor and, in one case, employed language associated with
the Nazis to describe the incursions into Palestinian territory.
In a widely publicized letter to Israel's ambassador to Germany, Norbert Bluem, a
former labor minister under Chancellor Helmut Kohl, described the Israeli offensive
as a "war of annihilation" - the very term employed by Adolf Hitler to describe the
1941 invasion of the Soviet Union.
And Juergen Moellemann, deputy chairman of the liberal Free Democrats, a likely
coalition partner in the next German government, said of Palestinian violence, "I
would resist too, and use force to do so," adding that would apply "not just in my
country but in the aggressor's country as well."
Such deliberately provocative language was once taboo outside far-right and far-left
circles here. And some observers view the political mainstreaming of anti-Israeli
sentiment as more than an immediate response to the crisis, but a deeper
expression of Germany's desire not to be shackled by history as the unified republic
assumes a greater role on the world stage.
"There is no question there has been a shift," said Deidre Berger, director of the
American Jewish Committee office in Berlin. "This is critical issue for Germany. They
are trying to assert themselves: We are a European player and while we are mindful
of history, we don't need to feel constrained by it."
Stein, the Israeli ambassador, said the current situation is the "immediate trigger"
for
the German response. But, he said, Germany has been "soul searching" since
unification and the end of the Cold War.
"There is a reexamination of the German role and, part and parcel of that, they are
redefining their relations with us," Stein said.
There have been a number of demonstrations of solidarity with the Palestinians in
German cities in recent days, but what is unusual about the political criticism is that
much of the strongest language is emanating from Christian Democrats, the bulwark
of the pro-Israeli policy of recent decades.
After World War II, the Christian Democratic government of Konrad Adenauer staked
the restoration of Germany's reputation, in part, on good relations with Israel, and
his
descendants in the Christian Democratic Union elevated a pro-Israeli stance to
something of an article of faith. But Bluem said recently it was now time to break the
"taboo" of not criticizing Israel.
Karl Lamers, the foreign policy spokesman for the Christian Democrats in
Parliament, distanced himself from Bluem's choice of words but said in an interview:
"Not in spite of our special responsibility to Israel's security, but because it, we
should
not say 'Yes' to everything that happens. This policy of the present Israeli
government could lead to a catastrophe, first for Israel, but then for the region and
the West.
"Germany used to not look out beyond Europe," he added, "but it must now."
The opposition's candidate for chancellor in national elections this September,
however, took a more traditional line during a recent interview with American
journalists.
"The sovereignty, the right of Israel to exist, is unimpeachable, and that includes the
right to life without terror," said Edmund Stoiber, premier of Bavaria and leader of
the
Christian Social Union, the Christian Democrats' sister party in Bavaria. "Therefore,
we do not confuse, as others do, cause and effect."
Copyright © 2001 The International Herald Tribune
End<{{{
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