Last update - 00:00 11/12/2007
A debt that can't be paid with money
By Haaretz Editorial
The minister of pensioners' affairs, Rafi Eitan, wants in the name of the Israeli government to reassess the reparations agreement with Germany, because he says the hundreds of millions that were paid to Israel in the 1950s did not take into account the long life expectancy of Holocaust survivors or the immigration to Israel of 175,000 survivors from the former Soviet Union. All of these monetary explanations, whose language is taken from tort law, are embarrassing and disgusting.
Israel is not the attorney for the survivors vis-a-vis Germany, but rather should be seeing to the welfare and security of all its citizens and elderly - those who were born here, those who survived the Nazis, and those who came to live in Israel more recently. As a country that automatically takes in any Jew who wants to immigrate, without reference to age or health, it could be expected that the state would find itself having to care for World War II survivors who came with the wave of immigrants from the Commonwealth of Independent States. This task is not beyond the means of this flourishing country; it can fulfill it without begging from door to door.
The reparations agreement with Germany, signed in 1952, in addition to the compensation it paid directly to Holocaust survivors, brought millions of dollars into the country - which added up to billions by the end of the state's first decade. It was collective compensation that helped establish the Jewish state. The agreement engendered intense conflict between Menachem Begin and David Ben-Gurion, and the term "reparations" was used to emphasize that this was not compensation for damages, because a people cannot be compensated for its destruction.
The money that came in at the time from Germany was a lifeline for the young country. But any additional money given now, in a country justifiably proud of its growth, its strong gross domestic product and its high-level health and welfare institutions, would be a luxury.
Since the early 1950s, Germany's leaders, first in West Germany and then in the reunited country, worked to fortify Israel's security. Germany understood that it would not meet its obligations only by means of monetary compensation to the survivors; it would have to work to prevent another holocaust of the State of Israel. Germany assisted and continues to assist Israel generously. It has supplied ground and naval weapons, and has helped to bolster the country's strategic strength. Chancellor Angela Merkel is now working to thwart Iran's nuclear program, efforts that if translated into economic sanctions will cost the German economy far more than any additional compensation it could provide to survivors. At this time especially, we might abstain from begging from Germany on account of the past - a past that cannot be wiped away with money, nor is there any reason to try.
The embarrassing demand was raised months ago, by Israelis who are the offspring of Holocaust survivors, that Germany finance their psychological treatments. An official demand by the Israeli government for additional compensation is even more embarrassing.
If Begin's stand against the principle of the reparations agreement had been accepted in the 1950s, it would have resulted in great damage to the country, which was lacking any means of subsistance. That position should now be adopted, being the right one for today.