ZGram - 6/6/2002 - "Rau Declines to Mediate in Anti-Semitism Dispute"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

June 6, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

You might want to know that Johannes Rau, the German President and 
largely a ceremonious figurehead, is known in Europe as "der fromme 
Johannes" - the pious John.  He plays the fiddle that is handed to 
him - no ifs and no buts. 

Remember also that it was his seventeen-year-old daughter who 
rebelled against the sickening Holocaust indoctrination that is 
forced down every German youngster's throat - and she plain had it up 
to here.  It was quit an hilarious interview she gave - I believe to 
Der Spiegel.

Papa Rau  was hugely mortified and "explained" all over the place 
that Youth will be Youth, and what could he say, he he he?

Well, maybe a bit rubbed off from Daughter to Dad?  You be the judge.  

[START]

Rau Declines to Mediate in Anti-Semitism Dispute

=46.A.Z. FRANKFURT. German President Johannes Rau declined on Monday to 
mediate in the dispute over whether a prominent Free Democratic Party 
representative is guilty of anti-Semitic remarks.

Some Germans -- including Foreign Minister Joseph (Joschka) Fischer 
-- have warned that the row is being watched closely abroad and could 
seriously damage the country's image.

But a spokesman for Mr. Rau said that while he has been following the 
affair closely, the German president is by law above politics and had 
concluded he could not become involved in a row with partisan 
political implications.

The statement came in response to a request for Mr. Rau's involvement 
from Michel Friedman, deputy president of the Central Council of Jews 
in Germany. Mr. Friedman said over the weekend that he hoped the 
president, who met with the council's presidium last month and 
declared afterward that Germans had a "special responsibility" to 
oppose anti-Semitism, would play a mediating role.

Mr. Friedman has been feuding with the FDP deputy chairman, J=FCrgen 
M=F6llemann, for the past two weeks over Mr. M=F6llemann's plan to 
welcome into the FDP group in the North Rhine-Westphalia state 
parliament a parliamentarian, Jamal Karsli, who has accused the 
Israeli army of "Nazi methods" and complained of a pro-Israeli bias 
in the news media.

At one point Mr. M=F6llemann responded that strident individuals like 
Mr. Friedman cause anti-Semitism, a remark described by another 
prominent Jewish leader, Central Council of Jews in Germany President 
Paul Spiegel, as anti-Semitic.

Mr. M=F6llemann, while saying he regretted his choice of words, has 
refused to apologize despite Mr. Spiegel's insistence that an apology 
is the price of a resumption of normal relations between his group 
and the FDP.

On Monday night, the North Rhine-Westphalia FDP executive committee, 
joined by the national party chairman, Guido Westerwelle, and party 
grandees including former Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, 
was meeting to decide whether to expel Mr. Karsli from the party's 
parliamentary group.

No decision was immediately announced, but Mr. Westerwelle said ahead 
of the closed-door session that there was no room for the Syrian-born 
Mr. Karsli in the FDP or one of its parliamentary groups. He also 
said that he still hoped to meet with the Central Council of Jews in 
Germany to stress his party's friendship and support.

Chancellor Gerhard Schr=F6der, of the Social Democrats, urged Mr. 
M=F6llemann to apologize for "overshooting the mark so terribly" in his 
comments to Mr. Friedman, but said it appeared that the Free Democrat 
was not "big enough as a person" to do so.


June 3, 2002
=46rankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

[END]

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

"Go, M=F6llem=E4nnchen, go!"

(Letter to the Zundelsite)