Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy has good reasons to be pleased with his visit to Germany last week.
One is reported German willingness to give Israel a low-interest loan of up to 1 billion marks, roughly $630 million, to help repair damage done by Iraqi Scud missiles during the Persian Gulf war.
Another is a statement released Friday by the German Foreign Ministry favoring bilateral talks between Israel and the Arab states instead of an international conference. That has been Israel’s position all along.
The loan emerged from talks between Levy and Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, German television reported.
Levy, commenting on the report, refused to give details but said he was pleased with the progress made on economic cooperation in his talks with Genscher.
It is understood they concentrated on financial and economic assistance to Israel from Germany. The Israelis reportedly asked Bonn to take into account that the former East Germany never paid reparations to Israel. The two Germanys united Oct. 3.
Levy and his aides were delighted with the Foreign Ministry’s statement that an international conference to settle the Arab-Israeli dispute would succeed only if it was preceded by bilateral talks among the parties concerned.
Levy described the statement as a major diplomatic success for Israel. One of his aides pointed out that Germany has largely adopted Israel’s position that the peace process should begin with direct dialogue rather than an international conference.
A participant in the talks here reported that at one point a German official remarked that an international conference should not be treated like “theological dogma.”
The conference scenario, until recently favored by the European Community, could culminate rather than launch the peace process, the official was quoted as saying.
A VISIT TO BUCHENWALD
Levy had his first meeting as foreign minister with Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who expressed respect and thanks for Israel’s restraint under missile attack during the Gulf war.
Levy thanked the German government for assisting Israel in its time of peril. Kohl reportedly showed interest in Levy’s background. The Moroccan-born foreign minister is the first Sephardic Jew to hold that office.
Levy also met with the president of Germany, Richard von Weizsacker, with whom he conversed in French. His political talks were conducted through interpreters.
Levy left Frankfurt on Friday for Rome to meet with the Italian foreign minister, Gianni de Michelis. He was due back in Israel on Sunday.
Before leaving Germany, the Israeli foreign minister visited the site of the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, capital of the state of Thuringia, in what was once East Germany.
Levy was the first ranking Israeli diplomat to set foot on what had been East German soil. He delivered a brief statement at the memorial to those who died at Buchenwald.
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.
