West Germany’s ex-Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss said in an interview published here today: “I would not like to give any details on what I have done for Israel. I have full understanding for Israel’s security. He said he had originally been invited to visit Israel by Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister Shimon Peres, “acting, I believe, on behalf of Prime Minister Ben-Gurion.”
The invitation, he stated, was first extended when he was still Minister of Defense, and he accepted but postponed the trip because he believed it would not be wise for an active Defense Minister to visit Israel. When the bid was repeated after his resignation from the German Cabinet post, he said, he decided to go because it would have been impolite to refuse.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
