At the end of January, Chancellor Helmut Kohl is scheduled to visit Israel. He intended to go there last October as the first stop on a swing through the Middle East. But Menachem Begin’s illness and his resignation as Premier made it necessary for Kohl to postpone his visit to the Jewish State.
In the meantime, relations between the two countries have deteriorated. After years of hesitating to deliver arms to “areas of tension,” West Germany has embarked on a selling spree to Arab countries Germany wants to sell sophisticated military hardware long sought by Israel’s enemies. The lure of the petrodollar is, after all, too great to pass up.
There is a change going on in Germany. Official policy is moving away from the “special relationship” to Israel that was an outgrowth of the past. In the wake of a new approach to war and peace, and as a matter of self-assertion, the past might be forgotten. Germany wants to be free to deal with the Middle East conflict in its own way.
When Kohl visited Arab countries last October he went in search of orders for military hardware. When he returned, not much was said publicly about the success or failure of his quest. But soon after, high-ranking delegations from Arab countries came here to look at the material Germany had to offer and a few weeks ago it was officially confirmed in the Bundestag that Bonn will sell arms to Saudi Arabia in the near future.
THE ROLE OF THE GERMAN-ARAB SOCIETY
The man who confirmed this was Deputy Foreign Minister Juergen Moellemann. In his “private” life he is the president of the German-Arab Society. Some time ago he accepted this “honor” with the approval for Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Gen-scher. “I am a politician who is especially interested in the problems of the Arab region,” Moellemann explained. Actually, he is the head of a powerful pro-Arab lobby which has infiltrated the German government and is hard at work to change public opinion about the Arabs and israel.
There is nothing new about a lobby representing the Arab cause. What makes the German-Arab Society so special is that officials participating in formulating the nation’s policies are, at the same time, active participants in the Society’s lobbying efforts.
After it was founded in 1965, the German-Arab Society was fairly inactive. This changed with the Arab oil embargo following the Yom Kippur War, with the spread of petrodollars and with the changed political climate in the Middle East.
Presently, the Society is the center of Arab propaganda in Germany. Its influence has grown in spite of the fact that it does not have more than 750 members. Included in the membership are 200 powerful corporations, prominent politicians and civil service bureaucrats. The Arabs supply the money, if necessary, to keep the machinery of the organization running smoothly.
‘A FAITHFUL PARTNER OF THE ARABS’
It is no secret that the Arab League and several Arab embassies support the Society. This organization is, as an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung recently called it, “a faithful partner of the Arabs.”
During the war in Lebanon, the Society gained national publicity when it obtained the names of 150 German politicians, scientists, theologians and journalists on a petition demanding that Israel unconditionally get out of Lebanon. The Society is also active in trying to open markets for German industry in Arab countries and cement German-Arab political bonds.
Since 1980, Arab lobbyists in Germany have tried to persuade policymakers to sell arms to Arabs. At that time, the British newspaper, Observer, reported about Germany’s negotiations with Libya, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria. It disclosed the vital role a German company by the name of Magirus-Deutz played in the Yom Kippur War.
This company devised a method to breach the fortifications and barriers erected on the Israeli side of the Suez Canal. It manufactured a water cannon which was delivered to Egypt one week before the outbreak of the war. The firm’s engineers supervised the training of Egyptians in the use of the water cannon. Parenthetically, it is interesting to note that Magirus-Deutz refused to do business with Israel.
A DISTINCTION WITHOUT A DIFFERENCE
Israel is very well aware of the turn in German policy, despite efforts by politicians such as Moelle-mann to minimize the seriousness of the situation. He told the Parliament recently that the sale of military hardware to Saudi Arabia will not affect Israel’s security. Other pro-Arab apologists, in what has become a game of terminology, seek to distinguish between “offensive” and “defensive” weapons. Israel has rejected this distinction without a difference.
Premier Yitzhak Shamir instructed Deputy Foreign Minister Yehuda Ben-Meir to summon the German Ambassador and to deliver a stiff complaint about the intended arms sale to Arab countries. Kohl will have a lot of explaining to do when he meets with Israeli officials in Jerusalem.
Israel’s position on the arms sale is not new. Last August, Begin told German officials that Germany has no moral right to sell arms to Arabs. At that time, it was reported that Saudi Arabia wanted to buy 300 German Leopard tanks which rate as about the best in the world and which would give Saudi Arabia a definite technological advantage over Israeli armor.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia started some adroit maneuvering behind the scenes. If they cannot buy the tanks outright, they might as well buy the company that manufactures the tanks. The Saudis have sought to acquire 24 percent of the shares of Rheinmetall A.G. Such an acquisition would give them a formidable voice in company affairs, a veto over sales, and a political foothold of major proportions on a world scale.
Frequently, a look behind the scenes reveals a great deal about ongoing and changing policies. It helps to explain the continuing and constant extension of the Arab Israeli conflict involving more and more governments. It also points to the harsh reality that government policies are not permanent but really quite ephemeral. So, too, Germany’s “special relationship” to Israel cannot withstand the factor of time and what Germany sees as more urgent and imperative realities.
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.
