Germany's powerful pro-Israel lobby has to be confronted by critics of the Jewish state, said a leading US political scientist here Wednesday evening.
Malcolm Sylvers stressed in a speech about the role of the American
pro-Israel lobby that the German pro-Israel lobby was also an "importantissue." "One has to be active and one needs to study how the German pro-Israel lobby acts," said the retired professor who taught American history at Italy's Venice University for over three decades.
"We don't know whether the German Central Council of Jews is a religious or a political organization and how it functions. And we may even be accused of being anti-Semitic," Sylvers added.
German Jewish critics of Israel have reportedly accused the Central Council of Jews of being a mouthpiece of the Israeli embassy in Berlin and of being more loyal to the Jewish state than Germany.
Sylvers went on to say it was unavoidable for German critics of Israel to explain exactly what anti-Semitism is and what Zionism is.
He pointed out merely talking about Germany's pro-Israel lobby remains a "big taboo" as the political careers of scores of people were destroyed for addressing the issue after they were defamed of being anti-Semitic.
There has been widespread concern among Germans about the growing political power of the highly organized pro-Israel lobby and their blind support for Israeli atrocities in the West Bank and Gaza.
Unlike the majority of Germans, the pro-Israel lobby strongly backed the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and the Israeli military onslaught in Lebanon in 2006.
A major focus of the German pro-Israel lobby is to improve the negative image which Germans have about Israel as a result of countless human rights violations in the Palestinian-run territories and the massacres in Gaza and Lebanon.
Germany's pro-Israel lobby has also expressed concern over the fact that the country's 3.5 million Muslims, of whom 50 percent are younger than 20, have a totally negative stance towards Israel.
Leading the anti-Israel campaign in Germany is the daughter of the late German Jewish leader Heinz Galinski who has lambasted Israel's "murderous war of aggression" in Gaza and Lebanon.
Evelyn Hecht-Galinski said Palestinians were facing an "unthinkable terror state" in Israel.
The German-Jewish activist also voiced "deep shame" over Germany's unconditional support of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, singling out especially Chancellor Angela Merkel.
She added Merkel's position on the Gaza conflict was almost totally identical to that of the illegal Jewish state.
Hecht-Galinski said the Nazi Holocaust should not be used as an excuse by Germany to give green light to Israeli human rights breaching.
"Israel's human rights violations have nothing to do with the Holocaust," she said.
She added western countries, notably Germany, were ignoring the plight of the Palestinian people, fearing they might be branded anti-Semitic by the pro-Israel lobby.
She had in the past likened the situation of Palestinians under the Israeli occupying regime to that of Jews during the Nazi era.
Hecht-Galinski has repeatedly lashed out at Germany's powerful Central Council of Jews, accusing it of being nothing more than a mouthpiece of Israel.
She had also expressed her outrage over continued attempts by the Central Council of Jews to stifle any criticism of Israel in Germany.
The German-Jewish dissident who is a member of the German section of a group calling itself 'European Jews for a Just Peace', said it was "unbearable" for her to see the Central Council of Jews act repeatedly as a loudspeaker of the Israeli government.
Instead, she urged the Central Council of Jews to address the urgent social needs of Jews in Germany.
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