Government officials were taken aback by Israeli Premier Menachem Begin’s angry personal attack today on Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Government sources expressed surprise at the incident, coming after months of efforts to improve relations between Bonn and Jerusalem which were seriously strained when Begin attacked Schmidt as a Nazi last June.
According to radio and television commentators, the latest blast by the Israeli Premier only served to arouse public support for Schmidt who has been under attack by opposition spokesmen in the Bundestag recently for his alleged pro-Nazi activities during World War II.
Begin assailed Schmidt on the basis of an Israeli newspaper report which quoted the German Chancellor as saying he would not make his long postponed trip to Israel until he received an apology for Begin’s remarks last year. Government spokesman Kurt Becker officially denied that Schmidt had set such a condition for his visit.
BEGIN: WILL NOT APOLOGIZE TO SCHMIDT
Begin seized on the report to exhort Schmidt to “go down on his knees and ask forgiveness of the Jewish people … for what his countrymen perpetrated under the National Socialist regime against my people.” He said he would never apologize to Schmidt “privately or publicly.”
Last June, during Begin’s re-election campaign, he accused Schmidt of remaining loyal to Hitler and of serving in the German army that helped wipe out European Jewry. That attack was prompted by remarks Schmidt made in support of the creation of a Palestinian state, while visiting Saudi Arabia last spring.
Schmidt was attacked in the Bundestag last January 14 by Helmut Kohl, leader of the Bavarian-based Christian Socialist Union, for having attended the show trial of a group of senior German army officers involved in an unsuccessful attempt to kill Hitler in 1944. According to Kohl, his presence at the trial was a clue to his political attitude at the time.
But Begin’s remarks went far beyond the accusations which have become commonplace in West German politics. Most observers believe Begin has succeeded in promoting solidarity with the Chancellor among West Germans.
Schmidt was first invited to visit Israel in 1975 by the then Premier, Yitzhak Rabin. The invitation was renewed by Begin in 1977. At that time, Bonn sources told reporters that the Chancellor was holding back because he was critical of Israel’s policies and was trying to promote better German relations with the Arab states.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
