In Germany, harsh words for Israel

BERLIN Germany's role as Israel's most steadfast European ally, a foreign policy doctrine that was enshrined and sustained by the legacy of the Holocaust, is beginning to crack with the country quietly suspending weapons sales to Israel and leading politicians, led by conservatives, employing strikingly harsh language to criticize Israeli military action in the West Bank.

In interviews Tuesday, officials in the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder declined to use the word embargo to describe its action. But the government has refused to act on planned weapons sales to Israel, effectively suspending them, and similar action has also been taken by other European countries, sources said.

The move signals a growing impatience with Israel and an unexpected echo here of widespread European revulsion at current Israeli policy.

And Juergen Moellemann, deputy chairman of the liberal Free Democrats, a likely coalition partner in the next German government, said of Palestinian violence, "I would resist too, and use force to do so," adding that would apply "not just in my country but in the aggressor's country as well."