ISRAELI PRESIDENT PERES GRIPS GERMAN BUNDESTAG

UNCLAS BERLIN 000116 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL GM IS SUBJECT: ISRAELI PRESIDENT PERES GRIPS GERMAN BUNDESTAG WITH SPEECH ON REMEMBRANCE AND "UNIQUE TIES" ¶1. (U) The German government went far to demonstrate its "special relationship" with ISRAEL during the visit of Israeli President Shimon Peres to Berlin January 25-28. German fighter jets met Peres' aircraft as it entered German airspace and accompanied to its landing in Berlin. Security in the city center was at its highest possible level. German authorities closed off the entire area around the Brandenburg Gate -- Berlin's central landmark -- to vehicular and pedestrian traffic for the three days plus of Peres' visit to fully isolate the Adlon Hotel, where Peres was staying. The highlight of Peres' visit was his January 27 speech before the German parliament to mark the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. During the visit, Peres met with President Koehler, with whom he also visited a memorial where Berlin Jews were deported, and with Chancellor Merkel. ¶2. (U) Bundestag President Lammert gave a strong speech prior to introducing Peres before what appeared to be a nearly full plenary hall -- nearly 622 Bundestag members plus guests, including members of the Jewish community. Lammert stressed that it is Germany's responsibility to remember the Holocaust and to fight against intolerance and anti-Semitism. The German-Israeli relationship, he noted, is "no normal" relationship, since it will always be influenced by the Holocaust. "Israel came from the ashes of the Holocaust," he said, and from this a special relationship developed between Israel and Germany. To strong applause, Lammert underlined that there is no such thing as neutrality for Germany with regard to threats against Israel, and that "some things are negotiable, the existence of ISRAEL is not." Lammert referred to the Iranian threat as unacceptable not only for Israel but for Germany as well. ¶3. (U) Peres' moving and very personal speech, which he gave in Hebrew, included a recounting of his own family losses during the Holocaust. Shortly after beginning, with an audience standing in silence, Peres recited the Jewish prayer for the dead "in memory of, and in honor of, the six million Jews who turned to ashes." Despite the "pain of the Holocaust," he said that "The murder of Jews in Europe by Nazi Germany should not be seen as a kind of ... black hole, that ingests the past as well as the future." Peres also recounted the birth of the Jewish state and the development of ties between ISRAEL and Germany and the strength of the current relationship. Like Lammert, Peres spoke of the "unique ties" that have since grown between ISRAEL and Germany: "We believe, and continue to believe, that the new Germany will be doing whatever needs to be done to ensure that the Jewish state will never again have to fight for its survival alone." He expressed his appreciation, naming specifically President Koehler and Chancellor Merkel, for Germany's strong solidarity with Israel: "And you, Madam Chancellor...You have said to the American Senate and House of Representatives that 'an attack on ISRAEL will equate an attack on Germany.' We will not forget this." Peres ended his speech with a recitation of the Israeli national anthem, Hatikva. DELAWIE