A statement by Prime Minister Levi Eshkol on the agreement with the West German Government for a $40, 000, 000 loan to Israel this year was approved today by the Israel Parliament, despite a bitter attack by ex-Premier David Ben-Gurion.
Mr. Ben-Gurion said that “the Government of Israel has humiliated itself” in accepting the loan. The sum obtained, he contended, is smaller than the amount previously agreed upon, and “the entire manner in which the negotiations were conducted has been shameful.” The only reason for signing the pact with West Germany on the terms accepted by Mr. Eshkol, he said, was “Eshkol’s desire to bolster the failing strength of his government.”
“This,” he went on to say, “is further proof that Eshkol is unfit to be Prime Minister.” He revealed formally for the first time that Dr. Konrad Adenauer, when he was Chancellor of West Germany, had pledged in 1960 to lend Israel $500,000,000. That pledge, said Mr. Ben-Gurion, was given to him by Dr. Adenauer when they conferred six years ago at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. He said the money was to have been used for development in the Negev Desert.
Mr. Ben-Gurion’s criticisms were taken up by other members of the Knesset, including Y. Hazan, of Mapam, and Z. Tsur, of Achdut Avodah, both representatives of parties in the present government’s coalition. Both attacked the manner in which the economic aid talks were conducted with West Germany, and Mr. Hazan proposed that no further loans be accepted from the Bonn Government. Agudath Israel also joined in attacking Mr. Eshkol over the economic aid pact.
Replying, Mr. Eshkol told the house that the terms of the German loan are favorable and constitute “the first link in a chain of future financial relations” with the Bonn Government. Conceding the correctness of Mr. Ben-Gurion’s report about the agreement with Dr. Adenauer, Mr. Eshkol said that the terms stated by the former Bonn chancellor had not been met. It took two years of negotiations to get the first installment of a $50,000,000 loan, he stressed.
The Prime Minister reiterated his repeated contention that West Germany has a moral obligation to aid Israel. He referred to the manner in which he had told Dr. Adenauer here two weeks ago of Germany’s moral obligation, but declared that “inexact German translation” of his remarks made his comment appear “much sharper” than he had intended.
As part of his report to the Knesset, Mr. Eshkol also mentioned the agreement announced last week for Israel’s purchase of Skyhawk light bombers from the United States. These planes, he said, will “complement vitally the array of weapons possessed by Israel’s air force.” “The security situation vis-a-vis our neighbors,” he added, “has not been worsened by as much as one grain of sand.”
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