Germany Turns Down Israeli Military Request

The tangled debate on Germany’s decision to provide Fuchs armored vehicles to Israel, seemed to get even knottier with Defense Minister Peter Struck making a surprise statement that Germany is unable to spare any vehicles engaged in foreign deployments.

German Defense Minister Peter Struck, left

In a television interview on Friday, Struck (photo, left) said, "a number of our armored vehicles are currently deployed on foreign missions, so we can’t spare any of this type. But there are other types of equipment which we could consider sending."

The Fuchs APC is currently being used by German soldiers stationed in the Balkans. A number are with German KFOR troops in Kosovo and others in Macedonia.

Germany will still provide patriots

Struck however maintained that Germany would stick by its earlier statement and fulfill another Israeli request for anti-aircraft Patriot missile systems.

"The conditions under which we will deliver the Patriots, still have to be cleared, but there’s no doubt that it will meet Israel’s wish," he said.

But Israel is still hoping that Germany will deliver the armored vehicles despite the German government’s deep reservations.

Israeli President calls for German help in blunt terms

Israel's President Moshe Katzav

Israeli President Mosche Katzav, who will begin a three-day visit to Germany on Sunday said in a pre-published interview with the Spiegel news magazine that "we would be very disappointed" if the Israeli request was turned down.

While Germany still wavers over the legality and morality of military exports to Israel, the Israeli President, Mosche Katzav, who is due to meet with German Chancellor Schröder, President Rau and Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer in Berlin on Monday, minced no words in calling on Germany for help.

"There are still enough Arabic organizations in our neighborhood who want to destroy Israel," he said to Spiegel. "Germany can help us to prevent it."

Fuchs "purely defensive vehicle"

Katzav defended the Israeli request and said he viewed the Fuchs tanks as "a purely defensive weapon". He said it was about defending their citizens in the fight against terror. Israel "doesn’t want to attack anyone or even destroy the Palestinian autonomy" with the Fuchs vehicle, he said.

At the same time the Israeli president didn’t rule out using the Fuchs armored vehicles in the occupied territories. "When we receive information, that an attack on Tel Aviv is being planned in the Palestinian town of Jenin, should we just stand at the border and wait till the assassins are in the city and kill Jewish children?", he asked.

Katzav stressed that a German plan to deploy the Fuchs vehicles only around Tel Aviv, couldn’t be accepted by Israel.

Confusion still surrounds Israeli request

However it remains unclear whether Germany will still consider Israel’s request. The German Defense Ministry is reported to say that the present denial is not an all-out rejection of Israel’s controversial request for the standard Fuchs armoured personnel carrier.

The Israeli Ambassador to Germany, Simon Stein said in a television interview, "If that’s the case, then that’s it as far as the German government is concerned. We’re not going to make an official request if we have nothig to talk about."

Israeli request raises storm in Germany

The Israeli request for the Fuchs vehicle has sparked a heated debate within government circles in Germany in recent weeks about whether such an export would violate an arms export law prohibiting the sale of weapons to countries involved in political or military conflicts. Chancellor Schröder described it as Germany’s moral and historical obligations towards Israel.

The Greens, the junior coalition partner of the governing Social Democrats also expressed fears that the defensive Fuchs armored personnel carrier, which analysts say is ideal for the kind of urban military incursions that Israel has been carrying out in the West Bank and Gaza, would be used against Palestinians.

The controversial issue also exposed a series of embarrassing bungles in Chancellor Schröder’s government, which initially led to the wrong type of armored vehicle being offered to Israel.

The opposition conservatives have accused the Schröder government of "hypocrisy, saying that it’s incomprehensible that the government had agreed to send Patriot missiles systems to Israel, but didn’t want to send the Fuchs.