Bonn Accused of Surrender to Arabs

Israel’s Ambassador to West Germany, Eliashiv Ben Horin, today accused the Bonn government of giving in to Arab coercion in the Arab states’ threatened oil boycott. He said the government had repeatedly spoken of “special relations” with Israel, and this did not tally with its present policy of “strict neutrality,” especially at a time when Israel was fighting for its existence. Ben Horin claimed that West German government policy did not reflect general public sympathy here.

Speaking in a radio interview, the Ambassador said Israel’s security and existence could not be made to depend on a country’s central heating problems. Because of French and British attitudes during the Middle East war, these two countries had ruled themselves out as possible peace mediators, Ben Horin said.

He expressed his government’s astonishment to the West German Foreign Office about the equation of Bonn’s relations with Israel and the Arab states as being both of a “special character.” The remark came recently from Foreign Minister Walter Scheel in a television interview. Today, Chancellor Willy Brandt reported to the Social Democratic Party Executive on the situation in the Middle East and its possible repercussions for Europe and for oil supplies. The Cabinet is to discuss the Middle East tomorrow.

Leopold Trepper landed at London Airport Saturday night in the culmination of his three-year struggle to leave Poland where the former World War II master spy had been held a virtual captive. Trepper was met at the airport by his wife, Elisabeth, who left Poland 18 months ago. He will undergo treatment for a circulatory ailment at St. Thomas Hospital. Prof. John Kinmouth has offered his services free of charge.