Israel s Friend in Europe

The China bogey gave the regime a long lease of life, but the detente with China the regime is seeking so desperately will render all the ready arguments of the past irrelevant. There will be no alibi left for denying the people JUST before his visit to Israel, last month, Willy Brandt reassured Tel- Aviv that he had no intention of pursuing his policy of detente with the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe at Israel's expense and of drawing closer to the Soviet viewpoint on West Asia merely to get into Moscow's good books. But prior to that he bad already made obvious that the Federal Republic was not prepared to make the resumption of diplomatic relations with the Arab countries dependent on Israeli approval. It seems to be becoming clear that Brandt's Ostpolitik entails a balanced West German policy towards the Arab-Israeli conflict. Brandt has categorically refused to act as a mediator in the West Asian crisis as tin's would place him in the middle of the diplomatic cross-fire between the two sides. While he was in Tel-Aviv he stated bluntly: "We are not called on to act as 'an intermediary, nor arc we in a position to do so. The German interest is clear. We want to see a peaceful solution negotiated by and acceptable to those directly concerned". He further stated that part of the purpose of his visit was to convey to the Israeli leaders some of the thoughts that had come up during his recent talks with Nixon and Brezhnev. He also went to the extent of saying that three Arab states