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| Israel loses friends in new German coalition
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Otto Schily, former Interior Minister and Leo Baeck Medal recipient
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With the recent makeover of Germany’s ministerial postings in the new coalition led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, Israel has lost two influential, prize winning friends.
Joseph “Joschka” Fischer, the Green Party’s left wing radical turned foreign minister and his Social Democratic colleague Interior Minister Otto Schily are now both gone from the ministerial posts they have held for seven years.
“In the past seven years, Gerhard Schroeders social democratic government has not shown the same commitment to Israel that Helmut Kohl’s Christian Democrats had”, one Israeli correspondent in Berlin told EJP.
However, Fischer and Schily proved to be two hawks within the party. They did not shy away from defending Israel’s place on the world map.
Originally critical
In the 1960s Fischer himself used violence during left wing and often pro-PLO demonstrations. Perhaps his utter commitment to resolving the Middle East conflict came in June 2001 – when he himself witnessed the aftermath of the Dolphinarium Disco bombing, in Tel Aviv.
Schily, during his stint as a Green Party member, was also very critical about Israel’s policy towards Palestinians. However, he was equally critical about the Left’s total disdain for the only democracy in the Middle East.
It was Schily’s initiative that paved the way for Germany’s loosening up of its citizenship and immigration laws – especially on immigration of Jews into Germany from the former Soviet Union.
Since Schily took over as Interior Minister, the official number of Jews in Germany has doubled to 105,000.
The 9/11 destruction of the World Trade Center in New York prompted his crusade against intolerance – especially since many of the 9/11 terrorists had resided in Germany.
Support for Jewish community
Both ministers were regular guests at Jewish events Germany-wide – and both stayed beyond the time that protocol demanded them to stay. They made every effort to show their support for Jewish life in Germany, or for Israel.
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Former foreign minister Fischer receiving the Leo Baeck Prize in May 2005 | On 21 November, Schily was awarded the Leo Baeck Medal in New York City.
The prestigious award was handed to him on his last day as minister by Dr. Henry Kissinger, Former U.S. Secretary of State.
Schily told the Associated Press that he was “delighted to receive this award.”
“It is a great honor and a wonderful completion of my term in office,” he added.
He was recognized for his stand on anti-Semitism in Germany as well on his support for rebuilding Jewish communities throughout Germany. He has also vigorously campaigned unsuccessfully to ban the right wing NPD party from parliament.
“Parties that undermine undemocratic institutions have nothing to do in a democratic parliament”, he said at the Leo Baeck Institute’s London branch’s 50 anniversary commemoration, in early November.
“We have a responsibility not to underestimate the meaning of critical dialog …Only a free and open society can withstand the dangers that fanaticism, anti-Semitism, racism and violence bring with them. The language that the Iranian President has been speaking against Israel is just as vile as Islamic terrorism and all the variations of right wing radicalism,” he said in London.
The New York based Leo Baeck Institute for the Study of German Jewry gives the medal to personalities who have contributed to the reconciliation of Germans and Jews.
Fischer recognized
In May, former foreign minister Fischer was awarded the Leo Baeck Prize, which has been awarded annually by the Central Council of Jews in Germany since 1956.
 Parties that undermine undemocratic institutions have nothing to do in a democratic parliament
Otto Schily | In a public statement, Central Council president Paul Spiegel called Fischer “a friend of Jewry and of Israel”. He praised Fischer’s “efforts against anti-Semitism and as a broker in the Middle East conflict”.
“Fischer is a fierce democrat who uses his rhetorical skill to defend against the enemies of an open, tolerant civil society,” Spiegel said during the ceremony in Berlin.
Both the Medal and Prize are named after Rabbi Leo Baeck (1873-1956), the prominent scholar and leader who served as president of the council representing Jews in Germany during the National Socialist era and who survived the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
The Central Council’s prize includes a 10,000 euros stipend.
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