Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin laid a wreath at the Jewish memorial at the former Dachau concentration camp Wednesday and later visited a munitions factory near Munich.
Both events symbolized the dual nature of the first official visit to West Germany by a Defense Minister of Israel — a reminder of the Nazi past and an affirmation of the present cooperation between the two countries in developing and producing armaments.
Rabin said at Dachau that there was no pardon for Nazi crimes against the Jews, but a commitment to remember what happened. At the same time, he added, it is Israel’s duty to build military strength which, with other elements, make impossible a recurrence of the past.
Rabin also visited the former Olympic Village in Munich where on September 6, 1972, Palestinian terrorists massascred the Israeli Olympics team. The barracks where the athletes were gunned down is now an apartment building.
MEETINGS WITH GOVERNMENT LEADERS
Before returning to Bonn, Rabin met with Franz-Josef Strauss, leader of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), sister party of the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Strauss, who sits on the boards of several leading German arms manufacturers, favors West German arms sales to both Israel and the Arab countries.
The Israeli defense chief was scheduled to meet with Chancellor Helmut Kohl and other leaders and attend a war game at school for armored troops.
Rabin arrived in Bonn Monday where he was greeted by a military honor guard and held talks with the West German Defense Minister, Manfred Woerner. The two Ministers discussed industrial and technological cooperation in the military field. According to Rabin, this has been going on for some time under guidelines provided by the respective governments. He did not say which companies are involved but noted that the cooperation covered “specific, limited fields.”
Rabin also said that to the best of his knowledge, West Germany is not supplying arms to any Arab state. Asked if Israel planned to order submarines from West Germany, he declined to discuss Israel’s intentions.
He said he was impressed with Woerner’s account of West Germany’s problems in developing a new jet fighterplane. Rabin said the German leaders felt their country could not afford to build such a weapons system alone and was seeking a joint project with their European allies. Israel has just scrapped its own jet fighter project, the Lavi, because of excessive costs. Rabin explained the reason for that decision to Woerner.
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