Behind the Headlines the Brandt Visit: the End of the ‘special Relations’ Era Between Israel and Wes

The assessment that Chancellor Willy Brandt’s Israel visit is marking the end of the “special relations” era between Bonn and Jerusalem and a move to greater normalization was incisively confirmed at a press briefing in Jerusalem by a senior Israeli official. Appearing before 150 German and local newsmen he took issue with a statement by German government spokesman Rudiger Von Wechmar Thursday that Germany sought to “speak to Cairo and Jerusalem in the same language.”

Asked to comment on this, the official asked rhetorically: “Can the Chancellor speak to the Arabs in the same language as to us? Were six million Arabs killed…?” No country has ever managed to speak to any two other countries in the same language, he added. As far as Israel and Germany were concerned, he said, the holocaust must have an effect on the language they used in addressing each other.

This, of course, is not what Von Wechmar or the German Chancellor have been saying during their visit to Israel. Brandt repeatedly and care fully stresses the “normal relations of a special character”–significantly different from the “special relations” which Israel sought to perpetuate. The Israeli official dismissed this as semantic minutiae. Israel had never used the term “special relations,” he claimed–Kennedy had used it referring to U.S. and Britain.

But Foreign Ministry officials here last week most definitely were using it and saying that they hoped it would continue. The official, at any rate, accepted the new German phraseology and added that the special was being stressed more than the normal–though this was not the opinion of most observers of this visit. The official hoped sensitivity over the holocaust would prevent drastic divergences of views–as it had done in the past.

GERMANY TO HELP WITH E.E.C

The official noted with satisfaction Brandt’s declared support of negotiations between the parties to the Mideast conflict as the path to peace–Israel’s position exactly. He noted too Brandt’s rejection of any mediatory role. Asked to comment on reports of increasing political cohesion within the 9-member European Economic Community, and the Israeli economy, the official said the European political union was still a far off dream. He added that nonetheless, European political cooperation could have been the reason for the Germans’ desire to adopt a more “balanced” policy in the Mideast.

Brandt had declared Friday that political union was the ultimate aim and it would entail a unified policy on even such complicated issues as the Mideast. The Israeli official expressed confidence that Bonn would not allow itself to be led by Paris on this issue. The official seemed happier to speak of Bonn’s promised support for Israel’s demands from the EEC on economic matters. The Chancellor has promised to support Israel in the negotiations for a new tariff agreement. These talks are to be concluded this year. There had also been useful talks about scientific cooperation and student exchanges and tourism, the official said.

Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir is understood to have presented Brandt with some new ideas for economic aid at their meeting Sunday morning. No German answers were immediately forthcoming but Sapir found the atmosphere good as he later reported to the Cabinet. Sapir also raised the indemnification question for Nazi victims who left Eastern Europe after 1965 and therefore filed their claims after the deadline of existing German laws. Brandt had not been hopeful about this at his Friday press conference though he said it was under consideration.

DOUBLE NORMALIZATION

On Israel’s intended opposition to East Germany’s UN candidacy, the official said that Pankow did not deserve the privilege of unanimous acceptance into the international community of nations as long as it persisted in its anti-Israel policies and failure to indemnify Nazi victims.

The Brandt visit to Israel, the first ever by a German Chancellor, marked, according to observers here, a double normalization: emotional and political. During Brandt’s previous visit to Israel, 13 years ago, a large part of Israeli public opinion violently protested against the visit, though Brandt at the time held no federal office and served as Berlin mayor. Yigal Allon at the time refused to meet the Socialist leader. During the current visit he invited him to his home at Kibbutz Ginossar. Though Israel has not forgotten the past, it was prepared to accept the reality of a new post-war Germany.

This process has been accompanied, however, by a less welcome political normalization. Israeli diplomacy has traditionally claimed that Germany has special debts and responsibility towards the survivors of the Nazi victims. The Israeli diplomatic thesis asserted that relations between Israel and Germany cannot be similar or comparable to those of other countries. Brandt and his aides have shown during the visit that normalization is a double edged sword.