AMERICAN EDITION

AN AMERICAN JEWISH GERMAN INFORMATION & OPINION NEWSLETTER dubowdigest@optonline.netAMERICAN EDITION

December 9, 2011Dear Friends:As 2011 comes to an end and as an incurable optimist, I got to thinking about it. In sum, I believe it was a pretty good year. No Holocaust and both our wars are coming to an end. Jewish security worldwide is still a question but what else is new?

I frequently think about you, my readers. It occurs to me that if youre reading this Ill assume youre alive and that alone is something to be grateful for. I would miss you if that wasnt the case. Of course, in reality the world is a mess but that seems to be its normal state. I cant remember a time when everything was going right.If our economy is in trouble, Europe is in worse shape. The one solid country, Germany should be receiving kudos and applause from their Euro confreres. However, more and more one reads that Europeans are worried about German hegemony. If you dont believe me click here to read Spiegel On-Line on the subject. http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,801982,00.html#ref=nlintTo make things worse, the financial ratings agencies are on the cusp of downgrading the Euro countries. Maybe were getting near another depression. I was born during the last one. Times were tough but my mother wasnt daunted by having another mouth to feed. You have to look at the bright side as she always did.Enough of this foolishness. No matter what the world situation is, were getting close to Hanukkah and Christmas both great holidays. 2012 is on the horizon with all the goodness a New Year brings.My thanks to all of you who read my scratchings I wish you good health and all good things in the coming year. Incidentally, Im taking a brief writing holiday so I wont be back to you until next year. So, Happy New Year!

In the meantime on to the newsIN THIS EDITIONA GERMAN EUROPE? Military might doesnt count any longer only economic power. Germanys got it.JEWISH FUNDING RISES German government funding for the Jewish community gets a boost.TRANSATLANTIC TROUBLE Is the relationship between the U.S. and Europe falling apart? Is it bad for the Jews?NEO-NAZI TERROR GANG & ITS FALLOUT Its a black mark against Germany. Are they on top of it now?SHOULD THE NPD BE BANNED? What about the legal neo-Nazi party? Should it remain legal?DAVID DUKE: WHATS HE DOING IN GERMANY? Our own homegrown KKK/neo-Nazi travels abroad. With the NPD who needs him?

THE SUB: FINALLY BUT AT WHAT PRICE? - Israel finally receives it but not without a political cost.

A GERMAN EUROPE?With Germany unquestionably being Europes largest and most dynamic economy, it is not surprising that some Europeans are worrying whether their continent will come under Germany hegemony. No boots, tanks or blitzkrieg this time. Just plain money!

A posting on the FP (Foreign Policy) by the magazines Associate Editor Joshua Keating noted, British MEP Nigel Farage, of the U.K. Independence Party, got up in Herman Van Rompuy's face [Editors Note: Hermann von Rompuy is President of the European Council] last week with an epic rant on the floor of the European Parliament that was also something of a victory lap for the longtime euroskeptic:While Farage's speech probably provides some catharsis for fed-up Europeans, the non-subtlety of his anti-German remarks was striking:

We are now living in a German-dominated Europe. Something that the European project was supposed to stop. Something that those who went before us actually paid a heavy price in blood to prevent. I dont want to live in a German-dominated Europe and nor do the citizens or Europe.

Farage's comments are the latest manifestation of the recent bout of Germanophobia that's been provoked by Angel Merkel's government's new status as Europe's lender of last resort. It's a sentiment that hasn't really been seen in Europe since the reunification of Germany, which Margaret Thatcher feared "would undermine the whole international situation and could endanger our security."

Farage may be something of an extremist, but Thatcher's Tory successors have been getting in on the latest handwringing as well. Here's London mayor and Conservative heavyweight Boris Johnson in a recent interview with the Telegraph:

What I dont think you can do, is just pretend that you can create an economic government of Europe, effectively run by Germany. Thats no thats not meant to be provocative towards Germany. Germanys just thrust into that position, by sheer economic weight and political necessity. Im not saying the Germans are being hegemonic in this. But I dont think its right for us; its not right for Europe.There's been some pushback against the notion. For instance the left-leaning New Statesman ran a piece this week dismissing fears of a "Fourth Reich" and arguing for the necessity of Germany's role in responding to the crisis. But it's a general rule that when magazines have to run stories denying that German economic policy is driven by a hidden Nazi agenda and do it with a great big swastika on the cover, it's not so good for Germany.

This isn't just limited to Britain. In once Nazi-occupied Greece, the media This is something of a can't-win situation for Germany. When it approves loans to struggling Southern European countries and imposes conditions on debtor governments, it's accused of trying to redominate Europe. When it's reluctant to give those loans, Greek lawmakers demand the money as reparations for wartime atrocities and commentators suggest that the Germans are being stingy because they're sick of atoning for its past and "are convinced that their country's foreign policy has been driven by servile submission for too long." Other outside commentators argue that the German government's antipathy toward deficit spending is a result of the "1920s hyperinflation seared into German psyche."

Unfair as these attacks may be, it's understandable that Europeans are resentful and confused about what seems like a rapid loss of national sovereignty. Plus there's a certain element of Godwin's Law at work. If America's most popular radio host can compare the policies of an African-American president to Nazism, it's not the surprising that actual former victims of Nazism would reach for the same analogy.

He has targeted the unfortunately named European Task Force, Horst Reichenbach, with tabloids dubbing him the "Third Reichenbach" and running photos of his office with the tagline, "The New Gestapo Headquarters." Protesters routinely don Nazi uniforms to protest what is seen as a new German imposition on Greek sovereignty. This is something of a can't-win situation for Germany. When it approves loans to struggling Southern European countries and imposes conditions on debtor governments, it's accused of trying to redominate Europe. When it's reluctant to give those loans, Greek lawmakers demand the money as reparations for wartime atrocities and commentators suggest that the Germans are being stingy because they're sick of atoning for its past and "are convinced that their country's foreign policy has been driven by servile submission for too long." Other outside commentators argue that the German government's antipathy toward deficit spending is a result of the "1920s hyperinflation seared into German psyche."

Unfair as these attacks may be, it's understandable that Europeans are resentful and confused about what seems like a rapid loss of national sovereignty. Plus there's a certain element of Godwin's Law at work. If America's most popular radio host can compare the policies of an African-American president to Nazism, it's not the surprising that actual former victims of Nazism would reach for the same analogy.

I tend to agree with Joshua Keating its a no win situation for Germany. Proud nations do not like the idea of getting handouts. Any country that gives them is always is a prime target to get bitten on the helping hand especially if the handout itself is seen as a benefit to the benefactor. The prime example, of course, in none other than the United States. How many times has it seemed that the countries receiving our beneficence have turned on us and has pointed to us as a prime enemy? It is true that nations mostly act in their own self-interest and the dispensing of aid usually has something in it for themselves. Its the way of the world so Germany better get used to the criticism. However, it should be said on Germanys behalf that Euro hegemony does not seem to be its economic aim. European unity seems to be much more their goal.

You will have to make up your own mind on the issue. JEWISH FUNDING RISES

As most of you know by now (if youve been reading DuBow Digest), the funding for the Jewish community in Germany does not come from individual contributions but from the government. You also know that Germany Jewry has grown in numbers to more than 110,000 registered and many more that are not (200,000? 250,000?). The costs are rising.

JTA recently reported, Germany reportedly will double its funding to the Central Council of Jews in Germany.

The decision, which broke last week in the mainstream news before being publicly announced, follows negotiations that began a year ago with the election of Dieter Graumann, a businessman based in Frankfurt, to head the council.

The German federal government will raise its allocation to the Central Council to 10 million euro, or about $13 million, from about 5 million euro, or $6.7 million.

Speaking with young Jews at a youth congress in Weimarover theweekend, Graumann, 61, said he hopes especially to use the new funding tohelp the younger generation. He said that despite Europe's difficult economic climate, the timing was evidently right -- with the current government of Chancellor Angela Merkel still in power -- to ask for additional help.

Graumann said the council represents 110,000 Jews who are members of communities. According to the council, another 140,000 people who identify as Jews do not belong to communities. The great majority -- some 85 percent -- cameto Germanyfrom the former Soviet Union after German unification in 1990.

Germany's Jewish population is more thanfive times as large as before fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Before Hitler came to power in 1933, there were about 500,000 Jews in Germany.

In 2003, the German government signed its first contract with the Central Council, putting it on a legal par with the Catholic and Protestant communities. At the time, the government pledged 3 million euro, or about $4 million,per year to help the Jewish community meet its infrastructure needs, before raising the allotment to its current levels in 2008.

In recent years, as the community has grown, there have been increasing demands on the council to fund additional programs, such as those that train teachers and rabbis for communities.

Graumann has said his main concern as head of the council is to promote the continuity of Jewish life in Germany, with a special focus on youth and on the integration of former Soviet Jews in the communities.

For those of us who were around in the 1930s and 1940s the re-birth of Jewish life in Germany today is one of those unbelievable happenings. Much credit, of course, goes to those in Germany who in the first instance encouraged it and who now stand behind the Governments willingness to financially support it. Needless to say, the growth of the Jewish community is also good for Germany. It is one of their answers to the Holocaust. Credit should also be given to those Jews who remained in Germany post 1945 and helped create a viable (though small) German Jewish community so that those coming in after the fall of the Berlin Wall would have a structure to receive them. It wasnt easy for Jews in Germany between 1945 and 1990. They were criticized and ridiculed for even thinking that there could be Jewish life in Germany after the Holocaust. They prevailed! A word should also be said about Judaism the religion. For thousands of years it has had its ups and downs. However, it is never extinguished and keeps rising after the critics have declared it dead. Its nice to be connected to such a durable entity.TRANSATLANTIC TROUBLEI think it goes without saying that the interests of the Jewish people are intimately tied up with European culture, European history, European politics and many other things European. The security and economic situation of Israel is also tied closely to Europe.

Therefore, it is in the interest of Jews worldwide to see to it that a close relationship continues between the United States and Europe. Some see that connection beginning to fray.D-W World, in article entitled by Christina Bergmann, The trials and tribulations of transatlantic ties notes, the Europeans are worried that the US is increasingly orientating itself towards Asia. After all, the US president just completed a 10-day trip through the region and said that the 21st century would be America's Pacific century. The Europeans are particularly pleased that the summit hasn't been combined with other appointments, but rather stands alone. They want to put things into perspective from their point of view.

Europeans are needlessly worried, though, said Daniel Hamilton, executive director of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. The extensive economic relations showed how closely the two sides are intertwined.

"We are just as much a Pacific as we are an Atlantic power and this has been the case for a couple of decades already," Hamilton said.

Hamilton is one of the publishers of a study by the German foundation Heinrich Bll Stiftung called "Transatlantic 20/20: The US and Europe in an Interpolar World." It presents four possible scenarios for a transatlantic future: An expanded, influential Atlantic network that includes Africa and Latin America; an isolated America which has lost influence; a Europe that has fallen behind and finally: a Europe and US which have fallen behind newly industrialized countries due to their financial problems and aging population."Politically, the alliance is no longer what is once was," Hamilton said. But this should be viewed as a positive development, as the stability of Europe is no longer the main problem for the Americans as it was during the 20th century, when Europe was a "source of danger" for the world. Now, he said, it's about whether "the Europeans are capable of acting as a partner of the Americans to together face issues such as climate change, Afghanistan or the challenges in the Arab world or not." A further question is whether the Americans are capable of working with partners when this cooperation proves to be frustrating and difficult from a US perspective.

Hamilton says it's now up to the politicians to show the way ahead. How they deal with the economic crisis, which is also very much a political one, is decisive. In order to maintain global influence those governments will have to convince the public that they stand to gain from a healthy economy. And there must be a clear emphasis on the strengths of a transatlantic community, says Hamilton.

"Whenever we have transatlantic consensus, we are the vanguard of a global coalition pursuing a clear aim, whatever that may be." However, he warns, in the absence of such unity there is no other coalition that can achieve those aims. Hamilton himself is optimistic that the problems can be solved and that there is a future for transatlantic ties.

Stephen Szabo, director of the Transatlantic Academy in Washington is more pessimistic than Hamilton.

"I think the Americans are losing confidence in the EU as the voice of Europe based on what they've been seeing in the past year or two in Europe," Szabo said. "I think they would like to see the EU be cohesive and speak for Europe, but I think there's growing skepticism that that's the case."

Szabo says the Washington mindset is such that Germany is perceived as the center of power in Europe and that the continent is seen as a problem rather than a partner. As a result, he says, a historical change is taking place in which the West's influence is waning and emerging Pacific-region countries are gaining in stature.

"That's the big danger, that we are seeing a serious decline of the West, both North America and Europe. We may be seeing one of these pivot points in history where the shift will move away from the West towards some of the rising powers in the Pacific and elsewhere. So I think we are facing the real prospect that there is going to be a fundamental shift in the balance of power in the world."

The political polarization in the US coupled with Europe's inability to form a common consensus on crucial decisions is a recipe for disaster, says Szabo.

"So we're losing control over our own fate," he said.

Regardless of which camp turns out to be right, the upheavals in the transatlantic partnership can't be rolled back. However there is still time and scope to give those changes the desired direction.Its hard to know whether to be an optimistic or pessimist. The Jewish community in the United States should do what it can to make sure that our own country does not give short shrift to Europe. Asia may produce economically for us but it is Europe where we have our connections. Programs that promote transatlantic understanding and cooperation are critical and are worth our interest and financial investment. Nuff said!NEO-NAZI TERROR GANG & ITS FALLOUT

In the last edition I wrote about the discovery in Germany of a neo-Nazi terror group that had been operating under the noses of the authorities for more than a decade murdering people they thought to be non-Germans (mostly Turkish store keepers) and robbing banks to support their activities. In the U.S. if such a thing happened we would have had some press coverage, some outraged criticism and even the rolling of a few heads of the agencies that didnt adequately do their jobs. In Germany it has reached the level of being a national disgrace. The Guardian (UK) ran a story reporting, The German parliament has passed a cross-party resolution expressing "deep shame" that a neo-Nazi terror cell was left unchecked to murder 10 people during 13 years on the run.

In a rare show of unity, all five parties in the Bundestag voted to pass the motion on Tuesday, which also asked for forgiveness from the victims of the National Socialist Underground.

The terrorists are also suspected of at least 14 bank robberies and two nail-bomb attacks.

According to Der Spiegel, police believe at least 20 people helped the three core members of the NSU, who went on the run in 1998 after police discovered their bomb-making factory in their home town of Jena, eastern Germany.

In parliament on Tuesday, Hans-Peter Friedrich, the minister of the interior, said his department was looking into the possibility of banning the NPD, a legal far-right party believed to have links to the NSU. Friedrich also said about 300 investigators were looking into the activities of the neo-Nazi terrorists.The resolution passed in the Bundestag on Tuesday said: "We feel for the friends and families of the victims, those who lost their loved ones. The incomprehension of such acts, the years of not knowing who was responsible and why, are a heavy burden for these people to bear.

"We are deeply ashamed that the monstrous crimes of the National Socialist Underground and their rightwing extremist ideology have created a bloody trail of unimaginable murders throughout our country. We expect the murders and their consequences to be explained as quickly as possible. That much we owe the victims, their friends and families.

"At the same time we expect a thorough investigation into the links between the murders and the rightwing extremist milieu from which they emerged, as well as any other crimes which can be linked to the group."

It continued: "We believe in a country in which everyone can feel safe, despite their differences a land in which freedom and respect, diversity and openness are a reality."The furor caused by this matter will not go away soon. I think most Germans understand what sort of destruction the 20th Century Nazis brought not only on the rest of the world but on Germany itself. They are not looking forward to a repeat. As mentioned above by Minister Friedrich, there is a move afoot to ban the neo-Nazi NPD Party. Whether that can be achieved is an open question. See the article that follows.SHOULD THE NPD BE BANNED?The NPD (National Democratic Party), though a legal political party, is generally known in Germany as being neo-Nazi. In Germany, as in the U.S., outlawing political parties, especially if they do not act unlawfully, is impossible. However, though the NPD sticks to the rules, there is a question about their philosophy and what its purposes are. The outlawing of the NPD has been tried before. It failed. However, new attempts are on the horizon with some of the finest legal minds now saying that it is a possibility.The Local published an article indicating that the former Chief Judge of the Constitutional Court was looking into that matter. It noted, A new legal effort to ban Germany's far-right NPD party should be considered, according to the former high court judge that presided over the last failed attempt.But those behind a new petition should take care not to re-create the mistakes made in the earlier case, Winfried Hassemer, the ex-head of the Germany's Constitutional Court, told the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper Saturday.A recent poll showed that more than three-quarters of those surveyed want the NPD outlawed.Hassemer led the court when it ruled in 2003 that the NPD could not be banned because the German government had used party members as informers. A minority of three of seven judges voted against the ban because they couldnt be sure that neo-Nazi material had been produced by actual party members, Hassemer said.The evidence wasnt clean, Hassemer said. It was possible that some NPD writings that were a violation of the constitution were not written by NPD members, but by informers. This muddiness eliminates the chance of a fair proceeding.But the former judge said the court back then did not categorically rule out an NPD ban. He refused to outline in detail what needed to be in a new application saying, Im not the federal governments legal advisor. But given what went wrong last time, those behind a new petition should take care to separate out the involvement of government informers from other party members.Asked whether he, as a citizen, would favour a ban, Hassemer said, I personally am not a fan of legal methods that have only a symbolic effect. The ability to ban a party is an indispensable, but long-term concept that wont immediately change the problems that we find ourselves in at the moment.Of course, Judge Hassemer is correct. The real problem is not whether the NPD is legal or not. Even if it was found to be illegal it would rebound under another name with its leaders being a little bit more careful about what they said or did. The real problem for Germany is what is resident in the hearts and minds of those, especially in the Eastern States who are susceptible to this sort of ideology and who find that their lives presently are at a dead end. Education and economics are the obvious answers. Legality (or lack thereof) wont do much to solve the neo-Nazi problem.

You can also read a wrap up by clicking here. http://www.thelocal.de/politics/20111125-39119.html

DAVID DUKE: WHATS HE DOING IN GERMANY?

Since were on the subject of neo-Nazis and the kind of creeps that are similar, one of our own (American, that is), David Duke was arrested in Germany and is to be deported. John Rudolf writing in the Huffington Post reported, David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader, white supremacist and Louisiana politician, was arrested and taken into custody in Cologne on Friday, prior to a planned speech to a right-wing extremist group, German police said Monday.

The statement by the Cologne police department said that Duke, 61, is "obliged to leave German territory without delay." In a message on his website, Duke said he had been released from jail and requested financial assistance from his followers to fight the deportation.

"To fight this case will cost a lot of money, time and effort," he wrote.

The arrest appears to be tied to Duke's expulsion from the Czech Republic in 2009, following his detention there on suspicion of denying the Holocaust, a crime in many European countries, including Germany. The Cologne police statement said that Duke "was not entitled to stay in Germany" because of a travel ban against him in another, unspecified European country.Duke, a former Neo-Nazi who unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. presidency in 1988 and 1992, served a year in prison in 2003 and 2004 after pleading guilty to tax fraud and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from supporters to pay gambling debts.

Since his release from prison, Duke has traveled and lectured widely, including a 2006 appearance at a Holocaust denial conference in Tehran, Iran. The conference featured numerous speeches denouncing the Holocaust as a "myth." At the conference, Duke voiced support for discredited, fringe scholars imprisoned in Europe for denying the use of gas chambers against Jews during the Holocaust.

"We all have a responsibility to ensure that extreme-right, nationalistic and anti-Semitic groups and networks are not able to again come together," Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, the German justice minister, said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.My guess is that Duke will eventually be kicked out of Germany which has enough trouble with its own right wing extremists. However, unless Im way off base, hell make a showy defense about democratic rights and raise some money for his defense and to keep himself in food and clothing. The problem is, of course, that when he is deported hell come right back to the good old USA. As my grandmother would say, we need him like a Loch im Kopf. THE SUB: FINALLY BUT AT WHAT PRICE?You will remember that the delivery of the 6th submarine that was to come from Germany and is so badly needed for Israels defense had hit a snag over Israels building policies in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo.It is now reported (Jerusalem Post) Germany will build and pay up to one-third of the cost of a sixth Dolphin-class submarine to be delivered to the navy, a German government official said on Wednesday.The agreement in principle to provide the submarine, which foreign reports say enhances Israels second strike capability since it can carry nuclear warheads, comes a month after reports that Germany was reconsidering the deal because of anger at the announcement of plans to build some 1,100 housing units in the capitals Gilo neighborhood, over the Green Line.

Israel already has three Dolphin-class subs; another two are currently under construction in Germany with expected delivery dates of 2012 and 2013. These submarines are considered Israels most sophisticated and strategic weapon. The deal for these submarines was agreed upon in 2005, under the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.Germany gave Israel the first two submarines of this class after the First Gulf War in 1991, and according to the German press split the cost of the third.O.K. they got the sub but at what cost? According to several websites but unconfirmed, (This from Albawaba, an Arab website) Last week, the Israeli government decided to release US100 million from tax collection to the Palestinian Authority. This transfer was approved after Germany exerted pressure on the Israeli leadership, claiming that the money transfer would pave the way for completing the sale of a German submarine, "Dolphin" to Israel, the German newspaper "The Welt am Sonntag" reported on Sunday.

The German newspaper added that Germany informed Israel that it won't be able to continue with the submarine deal, unless Israel releases the Palestinian funds. According to the newspaper, the German parliament approved the deal on Wednesday, only after Israel informed Germany that it is willing to reach a compromise with the Palestinians. On that day, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the funds, which were frozen will be transferred to the PA.

According to media reports, Berlin has confirmed it had agreed to sell a submarine to Israel for only one third of its original price. The German parliament has approved a payment of 135 million Euro for the submarine, in next year's budget.

Without doubt, Israel was going to release the funds anyway (It had to!). So, in this case it got the sub and alls well that ends well.***********************************************************************************************

DuBow Digest is written and published by Eugene DuBow who can be contacted by clicking here.Both the American and Germanyeditions are posted at www.dubowdigest.typepad.com Click here to connect

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