Jerusalem - In an act that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, Germany's President Johannes Rau stood at the podium in the Israeli Knesset yesterday and, speaking German, delivered a plea for forgiveness for the crimes of the Holocaust, David Horovitz reports.
Some Knesset members boycotted the occasion, but most stayed put, standing politely to attention when Mr Rau entered the chamber, and applauding when he had had finished his address. "He spoke such soft German," said Mr Tommy Lapid, a Holocaust survivor and Knesset member, "that I couldn't take offence."
Speaking with unmistakable passion and sincerity, Mr Rau said that he bowed "in humility before those murdered, before those who don't have graves" and sought "forgiveness for what Germans have done". At a time when Israel has barred Austria's Freedom Party leader, Mr Jorg Haider, from entering and is leading the international campaign to isolate Austria, Mr Rau also promised that Europe would prevent a resurgence of racism.