VZCZCXRO9609
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHRL #0116 0271655
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 271655Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6390
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

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