BERLIN – Dr. Shimon Samuels, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s director for
international relations, has called for the resignation of Austria’s Defense
Minister Norbert Darabos.
The minister has been playing down the Iranian
nuclear threat against Arab Gulf countries and Israel and singling out Israel
for biased treatment, he said.
Darabos “should resign” because “he has
discredited Austrian impartiality in terms of Iran, especially as Austria is
host to the International Atomic Energy Agency and this is extremely dangerous,”
Samuels told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview on
Tuesday.
Samuels “finds it very strange” that Darabos continues to be
defense minister, because the “Austrian government has disassociated itself from
the minister, and logically he should have no standing on defense.
“It is
extremely worrisome to see Austria take any role in Iran negotiations through
this mouthpiece,” he added.
At the EU human rights agency in Vienna,
Samuels said Darabos’s attacks on Israel meet the EU’s definition of modern
anti-Semitism, and they are even more disturbing “when you take into context his
statement playing down the Iranian threat.”
In an interview with the the
Vienna-based Die Presse over the weekend, Darabos called Foreign Minister
Avigdor Liberman “unbearable,” downplayed the Iranian threat, and accused Israel
of using it – and the Palestinian issue – to sidetrack attention from domestic
problems.
“Mr. Liberman is unbearable for me as a member of the Israeli
government,” Darabos said in the interview. In connection with Iran, he said
that Israel’s “threats” were “unnecessary” because “Iran is not ready to build
the bomb.”
When asked if Darabos plans to resign, Stefan Hirsch, a
spokesman for the Austrian Defense Ministry, wrote the Post by email on
Wednesday that the “call to resign is ridiculous. A resignation is not
being discussed in Austria. The minister has, in contrast, received
support.”
Chancellor Werner Faymann and Foreign Minister Michael
Spindelegger have, however, distanced themselves from Darabos’s statements,
saying his comments do not reflect the position of the Austrian government.
Austria’s largest daily, Kronen Zeitung, slammed Darabos in a commentary by the
popular columnist Michael Jeannée. He compared Darabos to the former Waffen SS
member and writer Günter Grass and his anti-Israel tirades. Darabos has “damaged
Austria’s official policies,” Jeannée wrote.
Darabos remained defiant on
Wednesday. He told the Post that Liberman is an “ultra-right politician” and in
an interview with an Austrian paper earlier in the week, he said he stands “100
percent” behind his criticism of the Jewish state.
Yacov Stiassny, from
the Israel-based Central Committee for Jews in Austria, wrote the Post by email
on Wednesday that in connection with Darabos that though anti- Semitism is no
longer respectable in Europe since the end of the Third Reich (and legally
prohibited in Austria), “criticism of Israel is popular. Therefore, the
new anti-Semites dress themselves up as critics of Israel and guardians of the
Palestinians.”
He added, “I do not want to contend that Darabos is anti-
Semitic, but he is certainly no friend of Israel.”
Abraham H. Foxman,
national director, Anti-Defamation League, wrote to the Post on Tuesday, “The
Austrian government did the difficult but right thing of publicly criticizing
one of its ministers. We had been in contact with the Austrian government and
received a similar response.”
Deidre Berger, the head of the American
Jewish Committee office in Berlin, told the Post on Wednesday, “Castigating the
work of an Israeli cabinet minister as insufferable is an attack on core values
of dignity and civility. Denouncing the foreign minister of an allied country in
this manner is irresponsible, manifesting double standards and raising troubling
questions of perceptions of Israel in Europe. Those who dabble in anti-Semitic
imagery by delegitimizing the officials of a democratic government should not be
surprised at the results.”
She continued, “Foreign Minister Avigdor
Liberman is a staunch supporter of German- Israeli relations. He has made a
praiseworthy contribution to strengthening this important relationship. One can
only hope that his efforts to create a deeper level of German-European- Israeli
understanding would be recognized and not condemned by European
counterparts.”
Oskar Deutsch, the head of Austria’s Jewish community,
told the Post on Tuesday that Darabos’s statements were “unnecessary” and that
he was pleased that Austria’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the remarks as not
reflecting the positions of its government.
According to Die Presse,
Israel’s Ambassador Aviv Shir-On said, “What we wanted to say, the Austrian
Foreign Ministry has already said.”