Jews appalled by German plan for peacekeeping

GERMANY provoked fierce criticism from the Jewish community yesterday by suggesting that it was ready to send troops to Israel to support a Middle East peacekeeping operation.
The idea that German soldiers, after half a century of rebuilding a relationship with Israel, might fire on Jews brought howls of dismay from across the political spectrum.

The blocking of weapons sales to Israel and some unusually open German criticism of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, had already strained relations, but when Gerhard Schröder, the German Chancellor, told generals that he was considering troop deployment in the Middle East — a taboo for Germany since the Holocaust — the row erupted.

“It’s absolutely scandalous to think that German soldiers could fire on Israelis,” Saloman Korn, the influential chairman of the Frankfurt Jewish community, said, adding that Israel could not accept foreign troops on its soil.

There was no mistaking the new sharpness of the German tone towards Israel. Norbert Blüm, a former Christian Democrat minister, described the Israeli offences as a “war of annihilation”. Jürgen Möllemann, the Free Democrat Party’s deputy chairman, said that he supported Palestinian violence. “I would resist, too, and use force to do so,” he said.