Israelis not satisfied with Swiss deal
Israel, Politics, 8/17/1998

Israel again found itself shoved aside in an affair that touches world Jewry and Israeli officials expressed criticism of the fact that such isolation was in fact the seed of the government itself.

Officials in the Foreign Ministry said Friday that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu erred when it chose to keep out of talks that American Jewry held with the Swiss government over compensation for Holocaust survivors. The decision made by the government, ministry sources said, had given US representatives a chance to be directly involved in the talks with the Swiss authorities while Israeli ambassadors did not take any part in those contacts.

According to an Israel radio report, officials are now seeking ways to participate in discussions about the allocation of the compensation settlement, with recommendations to be submitted to the prime minister.

A deal was reached Thursday by which Swiss banks were to pay Jewish organizations and Holocaust survivors an amount of US $ 1.25 billion. Some part of the money will be divided among Holocaust survivors around the world while the remainder will be used to memorialize victims of the Holocaust and to foster Jewish heritage throughout the world.

Not only does the payment settle a class action lawsuit, but according to a report on the US PBS "Newshour" program, "the agreement calls for an end to threat of sanctions against the Swiss by numerous American states and cities." Senator Alfonse D'Amato had also threatened sanctions against the Swiss government.

The talks between Jewish organizations and the Swiss government started in 1995 following a series of articles that appeared in world press and dealt with the question of Jewish property. Israeli sources in Tel Aviv said that four months after the Swiss had been contacted in 1995, they said they discovered some 800 sleeping accounts, worth US $32 million.

In the process of negotiations, US officials joined the effort and governors of a number of states threatened to close their bank accounts in Swiss banks by the start of next September. Now that the case is closed, Jewish and Swiss officials will still have to sit down and allocate the distribution of those compensations.

Robert O'Brien of Credit Suisse told "Newshour" that many people and organizations over the past 50 years, "if they're honest with themselves, will see things that they should have done and things that they should not have done, and I think that we fall within that general category" referring to treatment of Jews by different countries.

In an article in Israel's largest circulation daily, Yediot Ahronot, Noah Klieger wrote that in the final analysis, "Switzerland has not exonerated itself, in terms of its shady past and relations with Nazi Germany." She said that "the so-called neutral Switzerland is trying to purge itself of accusations of plundering the 'sleeping accounts,' that is the money deposited in Swiss bank vaults by Jews, who were subsequently slaughtered by the Nazis."

"The truth is, it's not a large sum, designed to cleanse the image and restore the prestige of the Swiss. The sum, which has been decided upon, will not suffice even to calm emotions which have been stirred," she concluded.

This negotiation episode have stirred resentment from many Swiss citizens who looked on this settlement as a form of extortion. Anti-Defamation league official Abraham Foxman told NewsHour in an interview "the sad part is it took 50 years, it took 50 years of denial. It is true that there are a lot of good people in the last several years who wanted to face up to history, who realized that it's history that was an enemy of Switzerland and not the Jewish people."

Foxman told NewsHour "It was a painful process for the Swiss. Again, I believe a lesson for the future is accountability, responsibility, that if you do evil, if you do wrong, if you engage in improper activities, as that which was engaged in during the war years by some members of the Swiss establishment, there is a price to pay, regardless whether it takes 50 years." Foxman added "I think that's a very important lesson for us today and in the future, whether we're talking about Bosnia, whether we're talking about Albania, whether we're talking about Africa, that this society will not tolerate evil activity, and there's a price to be paid."

Abraham Foxman told NewsHour "There is an image out there that this was done because of bludgeoning or blackmail or pressure. I think some of the pressures moved the process closer to conclusion, but the fact is there's a need to educate the Swiss public that this is a moral debt, that this was done for the name and the history and for the moral name and good name of Switzerland."

Previous Stories:
  House demolished again, the saga continues   (8/4/1998)
  Rabbi speaks against immoral Israeli practice, other Israelis help   (8/3/1998)
  Mahmoud Darwish's speech at the occasion of the 50th anniversary of al-Nakba (the Catastrophe)   (5/14/1998)

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