Visitor's Welcome

Two years ago, West Germany's Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss ordered a consignment of Israeli-made submachine guns for the Bundeswehr, and the Israeli government was so grateful for the arms order that it invited Strauss down for a visit. The invitation gathered dust until Strauss, who is now out of the government, decided recently that the trip to Israel might not hurt his chances of making a political comeback at home. Delighted to have you, said Israel's Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion.

Most Israeli citizens agreed with Ben-Gurion. Nonetheless, anti-German feeling still runs deep in Israel, and a noisy minority led by the right-wing Herut Party and the Communists decided to vent it on Strauss. They urged the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, to cancel the visit and declare that Strauss was unwelcome. When the Knesset refused, street demonstrations broke out in Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. But Ben-Gurion stood firm. When Strauss landed at Tel Aviv--a day late, in hopes of avoiding a scene--his plane was surrounded by scores of police; three bodyguards were posted outside his hotel room. The Bavarian took the commotion in stride. After all, he admitted, "the past lies like a shadow between our two countries."

Soon after he arrived, a lawyer for the Israeli Communist Party filed a complaint demanding the German's arrest for war crimes allegedly committed when Strauss was a young lieutenant and battery commander at a German antiaircraft school near the end of World War II. Strauss retorted that he had never been in charge of a concentration camp. "I have a clear record and a clean conscience," he said.

After paying calls on government officials, Strauss toured Holy Land historical sites, spent one night at a kibbutz (cooperative farm). En route, he promised to press for the establishment of diplomatic relations between West Germany and Israel, and to try to bar West German scientists from working for Israel's archenemy, Egypt. Before ending his ten-day stay this week, Strauss was also to get a VIP tour of Israeli defense installations. In the less populated areas, feeling was not running so high. In any case, declared Ben-Gurion, rebuking the demonstrators, "the Jewish people will not accept Hitler's racist theory that a man is tainted because he belongs to a certain people."

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