Leader of Green Party Says Israel Deserves Scud Hits

The leader of Germany’s Green Party has equated Israel’s administration of Arab-populated territories with Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait and said Israeli policy is therefore to blame for the Iraqi missile attacks on Israel.

Hans-Christian Strobele, in a newspaper interview published Wednesday, said Israel’s administration of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is “in principle the same unlawful act as the occupation of Kuwait” by Iraq, and thus Scud missile attacks on the Jewish state are “the logical, nearly unavoidable consequences of Israel’s policies.”

Strobele, who was involved in an assault on Jewish community headquarters in West Berlin nearly 20 years ago, is presently the Greens’ chief policy-maker and spokesman. He opposed Germany’s shipment of Patriot anti-missile batteries to Israel, claiming Israel would one day use the defensive system for offensive purposes.

The Greens, a coalition of environmentalists and pacifists, has often been accused of anti-Israel bias. Its small pro-Israel faction is weak.

But the party no longer has much influence on German policies. It lost its Bundestag representation in the December 1990 elections, the first held in the newly united Germany.

German military assistance to Israel has run into more formidable resistance from the opposition Social Democratic Party, or SPD.

Oskar LaFontaine, its leader, reiterated Wednesday that the SPD opposes the government’s plans to finance the construction of two submarines for Israel’s navy. Help in financing the submarines is part of a $670,000 aid package recently promised Israel by the German government.