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Central Europe West Germany Foreign Relations X HE OUTSTANDING POLITICAL EVENT of the year was the admission of the Federal Republic to the United Nations. The principal problems faced by the Brandt-Scheel government were: Eastern policy, Middle East politics, and cooperation with other West European nations within the framework of the European Community. In May Soviet party chief Leonid Brezhnev visited Bonn, as did Nicolai Ceausescu, head of the Rumanian government, in June. In the fall Bonn concluded a treaty with Czechoslovakia and agreed on diplomatic relations with Prague, as well as with Hungary and Bulgaria. Concerning Israel and the conflict in the Middle East, Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt said in a January policy statement in parliament: "The conflict continues to drag on in the Middle East. We cannot be indifferent to it, because in this month, 40 years ago, began what called itself the Third Reich. It is precisely this background that makes Israel's right to exist unassailable for us." In May Foreign Minister Walter Scheel visited Cairo, Amman, and Beirut, stressing anew the Federal Republic's neutrality in the Middle East conflict. His government, he said, supported a peaceful settlement on the basis of UN Resolution No. 242. It could not, he added, assume the role of mediator. On a visit to Israel in June, Brandt declared: "The clouds that lie over the relations between our two peoples cannot be brushed away. I realize that, and no one should expect the impossible. Yet the fact that direct dialogue is taking place between responsible persons in 471 472 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK. 1974-75 both our states does mean that a bridge is being built, and this may make visible what they have in common." During the Yom Kippur war the government exercised much restraint in its attitude. Relations with Israel became strained when, on October 24, the government asked the United States to refrain from using German ports for arms shipments to Israel, although deliveries from German soil had been tolerated up to that date. Speaking before parliament in mid-November, Brandt emphasized that not taking sides did not mean being indifferent. There can be "no neutrality of the heart and conscience" toward Israel, he said. The special character of relations between the Federal Republic and Israel would remain undisturbed. A permanent solution to the Middle East conflict was possible only if the right to exist were secured for all states and peoples in the region. West Germany was one of the Common Market nations which signed the Brussels declaration on the Middle East, a statement criticized in the German public sector as a capitulation to Arab pressure. The Social Democratic party demanded that the Big Powers guarantee Israel's right to exist. At its convention, the Free Democratic party passed a resolution supporting Israel's right to exist and to live in safety. In the future, it said, Israel's existence must be as little a matter of dispute as the integrity of the Arab states. FDP hoped for a permanent peaceful settlement which would guarantee safe borders to all parties and would embody a just settlement of the Palestinian problem. Domestic Policies Problems of economic stability and, toward year's end, energy problems dominated the domestic political scene. The government tried to maintain stability by an upward revaluation of the Deutschmark, taxation, and a number of other measures. Still, the cost of living rose by 6.9 per cent. In November the Bundestag passed an energy conservation law designed to counteract the effects of the oil shortage caused by the Arabs. In May Rainer Barzel resigned as leader of the CDU/CSU (alliance of Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union) because of intraparty disagreements. Secretary of State Dr. Karl Carstens succeeded him as parliamentary floor leader, and Dr. Helmut Kohl, governor of Rhineland-Palatinate, replaced him as national chairman of the Christian Democrats. WEST GERMANY / 473 Radicalism The Interior Ministry and the Federal Constitutional Court considered it impossible for radical parties to exercise strong influence on the political opinion of the people. There were clear signs within the population that forces hostile to freedom and democracy were being rejected. However, the internal security of the country was impaired by excesses on the part of foreign underground organizations. There were 129 rightist radical organizations with 28,700 members; 365 leftist radical organizations with 78,000 members, and 233 extremist groups of foreigners with about 65,000 members. These foreign groups published some 165 newspapers, more than 13 of them Palestinian. At the beginning of the year, 1,413 rightist radicals and 1,307 leftist radicals were in the civil service. A 1972 decree by the governors of the federal states was designed to prevent any further influx of radicals into public service, particularly as teachers and judges; but there were considerable differences of opinion among officials as to how the decree was to be enforced. Having reached an agreement with the governors, Brandt finally decreed that the civil service act be amended in a way that would henceforth bar extremists from the civil service. All radical organizations and publications on the right and on the left were unanimously in favor of the Arabs and against Israel. Foreign Radicalism On the surface the Arab underground seemed relatively inactive since the bloody incident in the Olympic Village at Munich; but Arab groups continued to be active. Official circles in Baden-Wiirttemberg reported strong Arab-Palestinian efforts aimed at resuming activities that had ceased in 1972, when the Generalunion Palastinensischer Studenten (General Union of Palestinian Students), and the Generalun- ion Palastinensischer Arbeiter (General Union of Palestinian Workers) were banned. The reports said that many Arabs, who had left the Federal Republic after the Munich incident, returned. For instance, in 1973 several hundred Arabs came from Arab countries to West Berlin and to the Federal Republic via East Berlin (784 of them during the first six months of the year), asking for political asylum, which was granted to some. CSU Bundestag delegate Erich Riedl complained that among them were many members of al-Fatah, and that this influx constituted an attempt to strengthen the Palestinian groups in the Federal Republic. Minister of the Interior Hans-Dietrich Genscher confirmed 474 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1974-75 in the Bundestag that there was an abuse of the right of asylum by Arab elements and announced that the authorities would take appropriate measures. There were many threats of assassination and warnings of Arab terrorism, as well as more incidents. In June members of the Black September organization bombed the Fritz Werner machine tool plant in West Berlin. In November two letter-bombs exploded in the Frankfurt airport post office, and injured two German employees. Six other letter-bombs were found there, all of them addressed to persons in Israel. In September members of Black September bombed the Israel exhibit at the International Radio Show in West Berlin, causing damage amounting to DM 50,000. In December Arab terrorists hijacked a German Lufthansa passenger plane from Rome to Athens, Damascus, and finally to Kuwait, where they released the hostages and the plane. In October four members of a Palestinian group were arrested in West Berlin upon their arrival from East Berlin. They carried explosives and arms which they intended to use in terrorist acts. In Frankfurt four Jordanians were arrested for possession of arms; one of them was under suspicion of having killed a German soldier. The Karlsruhe public prosecutor indicted three German men and one Jordanian who allegedly had collaborated with Arab underground organizations in plans to commit terrorist acts in the Federal Republic. In November the Arab-German Palestine Committees existing in the Federal Republic held a solidarity congress in Bonn in support of the Palestinian "struggle of liberation." They discussed cooperation among sympathizers for the "Armed Palestinian revolution" in West Germany and protested against that country's alleged discrimination against Palestinians and other Arabs. During a "Palestine Week," held at the University of Stuttgart, German leftist radicals and Arabs mouthed Arab propaganda arguments calling the Jewish State "criminal, racist, and expansionist," and distributed anti-Israel pamphlets. Relations With Israel Despite the setback caused by the German attitude in connection with the Munich Olympic Games massacre and during the Yom Kippur war, there was further improvement of German-Israeli relations in all areas. The mass media and the public gave much attention to the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish State. In April a public opinion poll conducted by the Allensbach Institut fur Demoskopie WEST GERMANY / 475 showed that 37 per cent of the Germans were in favor of Israel and 5 per cent in favor of the Arabs. Among the 16-to-29-year-old, 43 per cent were for Israel and 6 per cent for the Arabs. Of those over 60, 29 per cent were for Israel. Among Social Democratic party members, 39 per cent voted for Israel, 6 per cent for the Arabs; among CDU/CSU members, 41 per cent were for Israel, 3 per cent for the Arabs; among Free Democratic party members, 50 per cent were for Israel, 7 per cent for the Arabs. In an October public opinion poll, 60 per cent of those questioned said that Europe should not yield to the Arabs; 16 per cent felt that Western Europe should stop supporting Israel to assure an adequate supply of Arab oil. Numerous demonstrations of solidarity with Israel took place during the Yom Kippur war. Political parties and private organizations, groups and prominent individuals, as well as the "man in the street," expressed sympathy and gave money.