The hour of the diplomats

 

Four former Ambassadors speak about German-Israeli relations in Bremen.

 

The national anthem, played by a military band. In many countries this is the usual “backing” music played when an ambassador takes office. Including in Israel. Yet it is different if we are talking about the German national anthem. For owing to the Holocaust, nothing was ever “normal” in the relationship between Israel and Germany. Thus in 1985, 20 years after the reestablishment of diplomatic relations, Israeli President Chaim Herzog congratulated German Ambassador Wilhelm Haas when presenting him with his letters of appointment with the words: “This was the first time not a single soldier in the Military Orchestra refused to play the German national anthem!”

 

Among former Ambassadors to Israel, this is a precise barometer for the improved relations between the two countries, as became clear at a panel discussion held at Bremen City Hall in November 2015. The four diplomats in attendance were Haas, who served as Ambassador to Israel until 1990, Franz Bertele (1993 to 1996), Rudolf Dressler (2000 to 2005) and Harald Kindermann (2006 to 2011).

They agreed that the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 signalled the beginning of the “hour of the diplomats”. The tremendous dynamism of German reunification posed the question in Israel as to whether or not the threat of a “Grossdeutschland” existed. In Germany the fall of the Wall placed such demands on the political institutions that the Foreign Office did not send timely instructions and the Embassy in Israel had to “work without a network”. These were the words of Franz Bertele, who headed the Embassy from 1993. He had shown evidence of his ability to improvise as director of the Permanent Representation of the Federal Republic in East Berlin. Now the trust of the Israelis that had been built up since 1965 needed to be justified.

 

Bertele as Ambassador was to accompany the Oslo Accords, whose basic prerequisite was considered a quick success for Palestinian autonomy. In this context, Bertele said at the discussion in Bremen, a German office was to open in Jericho by way of a signal. Which led to Bertele being cross-examined by journalists from the Israeli military radio while travelling back from the inauguration of the office: “Why are you always the first when Israel stands to lose something?” The Ambassador was hardly able to reply that this step had been agreed with the Israeli government. Indeed, that had naturally taken place through diplomatic channels and wasn’t intended to be public knowledge.

Rudolf Dressler was not a career diplomat when he assumed the office of Ambassador in 2000, but had previously been Secretary of State and a member of the Bundestag representing the SPD. And precisely in this function he had agreed to a proposal by the Vatican to “internationalise” Jerusalem. The German press turned this proposal into the “future Ambassador’s call to place Jerusalem under international management”: a headline that triggered calls for him to renounce the post. Dressler however, who was on first-name terms with both the German and the Israeli head of government and was committed to keeping official channels short proved to be the ideal man for the post in the difficult period that was dawning. The Second Intifada began, then the second Iraq War. While almost all states evacuated their diplomatic missions in Israel, the German Ambassador stayed. “That made a strong impression in Israel”, noted Dressler. This gesture of solidarity was supplemented by military means in the form of Patriot missiles to protect the country.

 

In 2006 Dressler was succeeded by Harald Kindermann, who had previously headed the German diplomatic mission in Saudi Arabia. For him, diplomacy can be summed up in two words: “No witnesses!” Thus in 2008 Kindermann prepared Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel’s appearance in the Knesset in the course of private discussions. In the end, although some members of parliament left the plenary hall in protest at this first speech given by a foreign head of government to the Israeli parliament – especially as it was delivered in German, the language of the perpetrators – others applauded, despite the fact that parliamentary rules do not permit applause.

Ultimately, the Ambassadors on the podium agreed that even virtuoso diplomatic skills will hardly be able to lead German-Israeli relations to any sort of “normality”. On the other hand, they noted, this leads to a sensitisation and enables both sides to see the international situation from more than just their own perspective.

 

All four Ambassadors view the current situation with ambivalence. Wilhelm Haas observed that although people in Germany are greatly worried, they give “relatively little thought” to the topics under debate. Franz Bertele criticises media that portray Israel as a major regional power and the Palestinians as the underdogs – with the corresponding sympathy points. For Rudolf Dressler the key to a better future lies in communication among young people. Yet here Harald Kindermann identified a serious problem: For him as a child of the 1968 era, Israel enjoyed great sympathy from the word go. Now, he says, that is over. For young people today “the Action Reconciliation Service for Peace is as distant as for me the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71”. For this reason, and this was the message of this discussion evening, whose spectators included a number of Bremen school classes, we need to find, with the aid of books, films and theatre, factors that young people can relate to, with correspondences in their own lives.