Olmert Apologizes to German Lawmakers (over IDF/German Navy incident)

Washington Post ^

[Michael81Dus]

BERLIN -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday apologized for "misunderstandings" involving German forces and Israeli jets off the Lebanese coast and pledged that they would not be repeated. The German government said Chancellor Angela Merkel had "expressed her concern over the incidents" of the past week in a telephone conversation with Olmert, who earlier Sunday met with a delegation from her party in Israel. In mid-October, Germany took charge of the multinational naval force patrolling Lebanon's coastline to prevent arms shipments from reaching Hezbollah guerrillas following the recent conflict with Israel.

Last week, German officials have said, Israeli jets fired in the air over a German intelligence-gathering ship in international waters. Israel denies that shots were fired and said the planes approached a helicopter after it took off Tuesday from a German ship without notifying Israeli forces.

The Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported that a German naval helicopter was approached on Thursday night by Israeli jets. The German Defense Ministry confirmed that the incident occurred, but said it was not a threatening situation. At the meeting with lawmakers from Merkel's party, Olmert "apologized for the misunderstandings of last week," his office said in a statement. It added that he "noted to the Germans that there would be direct communication between the German force and Israeli forces in order to ensure that a similar event would not happen again." Merkel and Olmert then spoke by phone.

A German government statement said Olmert had repeated his assurance that such incidents would not recur, and added that he said "Israel would in the future better coordinate the movements of its air force with UNIFIL," the U.N. force in Lebanon.

[Michael81Dus]

Ping

[glorgau]

Honest mistake, they thought the Liberty was back.

[CrazyIvan]

"apologized for "misunderstandings" involving German forces and Israeli jets off the Lebanese coast and pledged that they would not be repeated."

"We apologize for firing warning shots. It will not happen again."

[Dallas59]

Waaah.

[Michael81Dus]

Is that ´wishful thinking´ or just a bad joke?

[Leisler]

I'm not aware of Israelis having a seagoing history. Let's help the poor visually challenged pilots out. Cut out and stick to note cards. Quiz fellow pilot.

SAILBOAT
MOTORYACHT

WARSHIP
Not known to be in possession of Hezbahlla, Syria, Lebanon, Switzerland...Some warship of some countries carry nuclear weapons. Best call higher headquarters when ID doubted.

[glorgau]

Is that ´wishful thinking´ or just a bad joke?

Joke, but meant to be a rip on the Israelis. They zealously act in their own self interest no matter _who_ is involved.

[AZRepublican]

Israelis are trigger happy, which isn't a bad thing in that part of the world.

[Michael81Dus]

When the story came up first here, I learned a lot about the history and fate of the USS Liberty...

[Atlantic Bridge]

The question is if the IDF will listen to Ehud Olmert? Since the whole affair is for sure not in the well known self interest of Israel, I suppose personal animosity (for understandable reasons) of Israeli pilots against German troops. Maybe it would have been a better decision for our gouvernment to keep our forces out. There are enough other places where they could help.

The direct confrontation between forces of Germany and Israel is necessarily difficult. Imagine a real clash because somebody can not keep his hands from the trigger. The political damage would be disastrous .

[Leisler]

Israel forces have like zero experience operating in conjunction with other military. From grunts to pilots to General officers. It is an us or them mentality. Throw in fighter pilot balls, mix with hubris and spice heavily with warping history of defeat of third and fourth world air forces and this is what you get.
Anyways, not much should be made of this. US fighter pilots shoot down US Black Hawk helicopters and Canadian soldiers at pratice ranges. Cooks drop eggs, mechanics break bolts, doctors kill patients, lawyers get their clients convicted and military kill.
Also, I get the notion that the German Navy might be depending on the UN to work with the Israelis about who is where with what. Knowing what we do about UN operations, it might behoove the Navy to have a small discrete detachment of officers in an Israeli operations center. I imagine the paperwork informing the Israelis about the Alster is worming it's way through the UN, to New York and God knows where. It should be in the IDF hands in a month or so.
The German Navy Ship, Alster.

Maybe someone can send the IDF a used copy of Jane's Navy Ships.

[SJackson]

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[Ready4Freddy]

Bigger pic:

So where's the flight deck on this pup? Nothing I've read says that this class carries helicopters.

[Ready4Freddy]

I noted that the article mentioned that "Germany did not send front-line ground troops to Lebanon, partly because of worries that they might risk coming into conflict with Israeli troops..."