The way in which German public opinion has drawn “absurd comparisons” and arrived at distorted judgments with respect to the Middle East conflict is deplored in a strongly-worded resolution adopted here by the directors of the Central Jewish Council in Germany. At the same time, the Council–which is the executive committee of the representative Jewish body in West Germany and West Berlin–called upon the Jewish community to bend every effort towards supporting Israel reconstruction.
The resolution about German reaction to the events in Egypt was prompted by a tendency to brand Britain, France and Israel “war criminals” and to state accusingly that the Nazi leaders were hanged “for the same sort of thing.” One example of this fairly widespread tendency is a well-publicized appeal for the release from Spandau jail of Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess, which his defense counsel based on the argument that Hess at most was guilty of acts like those now committed by Prime Ministers Sir Anthony Eden, Guy Mollet and David Ben Gurion.
A survey of public opinion in several European countries shows that approval of Israel’s conduct was expressed by only nine percent of German respondents, the lowest proportion in any country.
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