Manfred Woerner, the West German Defense Minister, arrived in Israel Sunday for a four-day visit as the guest of Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin who welcomed Woerner and his wife at Ben Gurion Airport. Both men spoke of peace and stressed that the good relations between Israel and Bonn must be nurtured without either forgetting the past.
Woerner is the first German Defense Minister to visit Israel, though he personally has come here before in a different capacity. In response to Rabin’s welcoming remarks, he declared, “As you feel obligated to peace here in this very delightful and fruitful region of the Middle East, we feel obliged not only to the peace in Europe but also to the peace here in this region of the world.”
Woerner added, “Our continents have come so close to each other that you cannot separate a crisis in one continent from a crisis in another.”
Rabin told his guest, “We believe that during your visit you will have the opportunity of getting first hand knowledge of Israel’s defense problems, the threats and the ways we would like to cope with the major and ultimate threats and the methods of preventing war, which is our main aim. No doubt, the strength of Israel serves as an important factor in enhancing and increasing the hopes for peace.”
Referring to Israel’s special relationship with West Germany, Rabin said, “I believe that our peoples, bearing in mind the past we can never forget, should look at the same time to the future, to do the utmost to develop relations without forgetting the past.”
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