- BERLIN -- German Chancellor
Angela Merkel narrowly escaped a helicopter crash while travelling
to attend an election rally, a news report has said.
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- The chancellor travelled in a VIP helicopter of the federal
police to Oldenburg in the state of Baaden Wuerttemberg to attend
an election campaign rally of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
party on Wednesday evening.
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- After dropping her in Oldenburg, the helicopter left
for Oberschliessheim, near Munich with its three-man crew on
board and just a few minutes into the flight and at an altitude
of about 1,600 metres, both rotors of the Superpuma 332 chopper broke
down.
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- It fell from the sky like a stone and the pilots succeeded
in restarting the engines and stabilising the machine only a few
hundred metres above the ground, Bild newspaper reported in its Sunday
edition.
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- It was forced to make an emergency landing in Augusburg.
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- Chancellor Merkel had flown by the helicopter earlier
on Wednesday for several hours to take part in two other CDU campaign
meetings in the state, Bild said.
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- She was informed about the near-crash of her helicopter
after she completed her campaign assignment in Oldenburg and from there
she took a car for the next lap of her journey.
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- German authorities are not suspecting any attempts of
sabotage in the incident.
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- Nevertheless, they are investigating how both rotors
of the powerful 21-seat helicopter broke down simultaneously.
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- It was a brand new helicopter taken into the service
of the federal police only in December, last year, Bild said.
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- A Deepening Rift Between Germany And Israel
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- By Judy Dempsey
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- 3-7-11
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- BERLIN - On Feb. 18, Germany did something
unthinkable. It voted in favor of a U.N. Security Council resolution
calling the Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian
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- territory illegal and demanding the immediate halt of
all settlement activity. The resolution did not pass - the United
States, the only one of the Security
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- Council's 15 members to vote against it, vetoed it. That
did not stop the German vote from opening a serious rift between Germany
and Israel. Ruprecht Polenz, a conservative lawmaker and chairman
of the German
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- Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, said "the
vote was highly unusual" given Germany's practice of abstaining from
or voting against any U.N. resolutions criticizing Israel. But
Mr. Polenz was adamant that it did not mean that Germany no longer
defended the security of Israel. "It means that Chancellor Angela
Merkel is trying to explain to the Israeli government that
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- with the extraordinary changes taking place across the
Middle East, time is not on its side when it comes to resolving the conflict
with the Palestinians," he said.
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- The German vote was authorized at the highest level.
It marks a major change in Mrs. Merkel's attitude toward Israel,
which she had unswervingly supported since she took office more than
five years ago.
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- Over the past few months, and particularly since the
collapse of the authoritarian regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, Mrs.
Merkel has made it plain to the Israeli government that it cannot
expect unqualified support from Berlin if it allows the conflict
with Palestinians to drag on.
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- "The situation in Egypt should not be seen as a
reason not to continue the negotiation process," Mrs. Merkel
told the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University
last month.
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- "If we sit and wait, we might face an even more
difficult situation." Mrs. Merkel made those remarks after difficult
talks, particularly related to the settlements, with the Israeli prime
minister,
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- Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Israeli and German officials.
So when Germany voted against Israel at the United Nations last month,
Mr. Netanyahu was furious. He telephoned Mrs. Merkel on Feb. 21, venting
his disappointment.
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- "How dare you?" Mrs. Merkel replied. "You
are the one
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- who has disappointed us. You haven't made a single step
to advance peace."
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- The conversation, leaked to Haaretz, a liberal Israeli
newspaper, and confirmed by Israeli and German officials, reveals a deep
rift between Berlin and Jerusalem.
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- "We are disappointed with Germany's decision,"
said a senior Israeli government official who spoke on the condition of
anonymity. "It reflects the frustration that the peace process is
not moving forwards and that we are at an impasse.
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- Somehow in Europe, there is an expectation that if there
is an impasse, it is Israel who must take the step to break it."
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- The German vote exposed the divisions in Israel over
its complicated relationship with Germany. On one side are Jews
who will never forgive Germany for the Holocaust; in their view, Germany
has a permanent obligation never to criticize Israel.
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- On the other side are voices who say that because Germany
is a good and consistent friend of Israel, it should use that special relationship
to speak out when needed.
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- "Merkel is a real friend of our country; the only
one that stands up for us in Europe," said Moshe Maor, a political
science professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
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- "Merkel is telling Netanyahu to face the changes
taking place in the region. Because she is so appreciated by many here,
why shouldn't she be able to criticize Israel?"
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- The U.N. vote seems to be part of a more complex phase
of the relationship, with Israel expecting Germany to toe the line
on all counts but a younger generation of German politicians questioning
that stance, especially over settlements and human rights.
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- Last June, for example, the Israeli government prevented
Dirk Niebel, the German development minister, from visiting Gaza.
He had wanted to see a ¤12 million, or $16.8 million, wastewater
treatment plant financed by Germany. The Israeli government claimed at
the time that Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, would
exploit the visit.
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- Mr. Niebel's pro-Israeli credentials cannot be faulted.
As a young man he lived in a kibbutz, and he was later on the board of
the German-Israeli Association. When his visit to Gaza was blocked, an
angry Mr. Niebel said publicly that "friendship with Israel does not
make for blind obedience."
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- A month later, the German Parliament unanimously
passed a resolution criticizing the Israeli blockade of Gaza and Israel's
storming of a pro-Palestinian Turkish ship trying to break through to Gaza.
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- These shifts sent alarm signals to Israel. "It was
the first time that the German Parliament passed a resolution criticizing
the security policy of a close ally," said Deidre Berger, director
of the Berlin branch of the American Jewish Committee, an international
advocacy organization that supports Israel.
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- And two weeks ago, just after the U.N. vote, the German
Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, which had planned to visit
Israel and the Gaza Strip, canceled the trip. The Israeli government had
refused the delegation entry to Gaza.
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- "We wanted to see German-funded projects and meet
U.N. representatives in Gaza," said Rainer Stinner, a lawmaker
from the Free Democratic Party, which is part of Germany's governing
coalition, and a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
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- "We had no intentions of meeting Hamas."
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- Mr. Stinner dismissed the idea that Israel's refusal
was linked to the U.N. vote. "Israel's security is Germany's priority,"
Mr. Stinner said. "But the settlements are not in Israel's interests.
They are counterproductive. Our criticism does not mean that Germany's
special relationship with Israel is in doubt," he added. David
A. Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, said
the issue of settlements could probably be solved over time and should
not cloud the special bonds between Berlin and Jerusalem.
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- The real issue, Mr. Harris added, was a different one.
"The big question is if the special relationship will endure. With
the passing of generations in Germany, will it continue to sustain
the sense of responsibility, or, over time, will it diminish?"
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