Chancellor Helmut Kohl announced Wednesday that Germany would grant Israel $165 million to help overcome its economic problems, which have been worsened by the Persian Gulf war.
Kohl made the commitment after being accused by opposition Social Democrats and even members of his own Christian Democratic Union of insensitivity toward Israel, especially after the Jewish state became a target of Iraqi missile attacks.
Kohl’s announcement was welcomed by Kent Schiner, president of B’nai B’rith International, who met with the chancellor Wednesday.
In his announcement, Kohl also promised to take swift, decisive action to halt German exports of “sensitive equipment” to Iraq or to any country from where it could find its way to Baghdad.
German firms are known to have supplied the Iraqis with materiel, equipment and technology for the manufacture of chemical weapons.
Those revelations and what some Jews have perceived as a low-key response by Germany to the Iraqi missile attacks on Tel Aviv sent Jewish protesters into the streets of Frankfurt and other German cities last weekend with placards reading “German Gas 1944, German Gas 1991.”
The Iraqi attacks so far have been by conventional, not chemical weapons. But some Israelis are concerned that Germany is not being sufficiently outspoken against the Iraqi attacks.
In response to such charges, Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher is due to leave for Tel Aviv on Thursday heading a delegation of German dignitaries in a demonstration of solidarity with Israel.
Meanwhile, strong anti-American demonstrations continued in Germany protesting the U.S.-led “Operation Desert Storm.”
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