Reports that the West German Government is giving military aid to Israel received neither confirmation nor denial from the top Government spokesman here today. Karl Gunther von Hase, the Government spokesman, would say only that a statement on aid to Israel would have to await completion of parliamentary committee’s report on the issue.
Foreign observers here were of the belief that some members of the Government itself had spread the report about alleged military aid to Israel, to offset Israel’s criticism against the continued work by German scientists in Egypt, producing mass destruction weapons to be aimed ultimately against Israel. The reports said that, under a “secret” agreement between Israel and ex-Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, Israel has during the last six years, received about $50, 000, 000 worth of German military equipment.
In Parliament, this weekend, Dr. Eugen Gerstenmaier, president of the Bundestag, the lower House, and a leader of the dominant Christian Democratic Party, called for an end of what he called “the quasi-secret” methods of cooperation between Bonn and Israel. At the same time, such “official hypocrisy” was assailed by Herbert Wehner, deputy leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party. Both called for the establishment of diplomatic relations between West Germany and Israel as the way to put German-Israel relations on an open, proper basis.
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