Cablegate: Israeli President Peres Grips German Bundestag
VZCZCXRO9609
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHRL #0116 0271655
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 271655Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6390
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
UNCLAS BERLIN 000116
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL GM IS
SUBJECT: ISRAELI PRESIDENT PERES GRIPS GERMAN BUNDESTAG
WITH SPEECH ON REMEMBRANCE AND "UNIQUE TIES"
1. (U) The German government went far to demonstrate its
"special relationship" with Israel during the visit of
Israeli President Shimon Peres to Berlin January 25-28.
German fighter jets met Peres' aircraft as it entered German
airspace and accompanied to its landing in Berlin. Security
in the city center was at its highest possible level. German
authorities closed off the entire area around the Brandenburg
Gate -- Berlin's central landmark -- to vehicular and
pedestrian traffic for the three days plus of Peres' visit to
fully isolate the Adlon Hotel, where Peres was staying. The
highlight of Peres' visit was his January 27 speech before
the German parliament to mark the 65th anniversary of the
liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. During the
visit, Peres met with President Koehler, with whom he also
visited a memorial where Berlin Jews were deported, and with
Chancellor Merkel.
2. (U) Bundestag President Lammert gave a strong speech
prior to introducing Peres before what appeared to be a
nearly full plenary hall -- nearly 622 Bundestag members plus
guests, including members of the Jewish community. Lammert
stressed that it is Germany's responsibility to remember the
Holocaust and to fight against intolerance and anti-Semitism.
The German-Israeli relationship, he noted, is "no normal"
relationship, since it will always be influenced by the
Holocaust. "Israel came from the ashes of the Holocaust," he
said, and from this a special relationship developed between
Israel and Germany. To strong applause, Lammert underlined
that there is no such thing as neutrality for Germany with
regard to threats against Israel, and that "some things are
negotiable, the existence of Israel is not." Lammert
referred to the Iranian threat as unacceptable not only for
Israel but for Germany as well.
3. (U) Peres' moving and very personal speech, which he gave
in Hebrew, included a recounting of his own family losses
during the Holocaust. Shortly after beginning, with an
audience standing in silence, Peres recited the Jewish prayer
for the dead "in memory of, and in honor of, the six million
Jews who turned to ashes." Despite the "pain of the
Holocaust," he said that "The murder of Jews in Europe by
Nazi Germany should not be seen as a kind of ... black hole,
that ingests the past as well as the future." Peres also
recounted the birth of the Jewish state and the development
of ties between Israel and Germany and the strength of the
current relationship. Like Lammert, Peres spoke of the
"unique ties" that have since grown between Israel and
Germany: "We believe, and continue to believe, that the new
Germany will be doing whatever needs to be done to ensure
that the Jewish state will never again have to fight for its
survival alone." He expressed his appreciation, naming
specifically President Koehler and Chancellor Merkel, for
Germany's strong solidarity with Israel: "And you, Madam
Chancellor...You have said to the American Senate and House
of Representatives that 'an attack on Israel will equate an
attack on Germany.' We will not forget this." Peres ended his
speech with a recitation of the Israeli national anthem,
Hatikva.
DELAWIE