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From: "DuBow Digest" <dubowdigest@optonline.net>To: <edubow@optonline.net>Subject: The Govt., the States & the HolidaysDate: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 1:21 PMTo view this email online, paste this link into your browser:http://e2ma.net/map/view=CampaignPublic/id=26295.2517536173/rid=60605f04e6ca7764e931afff30ef163c___________________________________AMERICAN EDITIONOctober 26, 2009Dear friends:I thought I would wait with my next newsletter until after my trip to Washingtonto hear Chancellor Merkels speech at the Congress. However, there ismuch toreportso Ive decided to go ahead earlier.You'll have towaitfora report ontheMerkeleventuntil the next edition.It willbe e-mailedto you sometime after November9th. That date is a particularly important one in Germany and I wouldnt want tolet it go by without commenting.November 9th is a double-edged sword day in the Federal Republic. On this date the20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall will be celebrated an occurrencethat lead to the re-unification of the two Germanys and freedom for 17 millionpeople living under communist rule.In additionNov. 9this the 71st anniversary of Kristallnacht, a date when in1938synagogues all over Germany were destroyed and many Jews killed. I guess it isone of those peculiar tricks of fate that what is a happy date in Germanywillforever be tinged with great sorrow.IN THIS EDITIONTHE NEW GERMAN GOVERNMENT Whos in and whos out.GERMAN STATE ELECTIONS Whos in in what kinds of coalitions?THE BISHOP WHO COULDNT KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT So he put his foot in it.HOLIDAYS Will all Germans celebrate Yom Kippur?MORE WARSHIPS FOR ISRAEL Who will pay for them? A troubling question.CHANGES IN JEWISH ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE A contested election? Wow!THE NEW GERMAN GOVERNMENTTo most Americans the new German government will look pretty much like the one itreplaces. Angela Merkel (CDU) will remain as Chancellor. However, the SocialDemocrats (SPD) are out of the governing coalition and the business oriented FreeDemocrats (FDP) are now in so the Foreign Minister and Deputy Chancellor will beFDPs Guido Westerwelle. He has very little international experience so I cannottell you too much about him. Well have to see who he appoints as his top advisors(State Secretaries) and what policies he pursues. Of course, in foreign affairsthe voice of the Chancellor is not unimportant (Actually its the most important)so I do not foresee any dramatic changes.One thing I can tell you is that Minister Westerwelle, the No. 2 person in thegovernment, is openly gay and that says a lot in my book about how much moreforward thinking on sexual matters the Germans are than we Americans. You can readmore about him by clicking here: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4822073,00.html( http://e2ma.net/go/2517536173/2295991/86521420/26295/goto:https://app2.e2ma.net/tiny_mce/plugins/paste/pasteword.htm#_top )The new Defense Minister will be Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg of the Christian
 
Social Union Party (CSU, the Bavarian sister of the CDU). Guttenberg has mostrecently been Finance Minister. We think very highly of him. He has visited AJC inNew York and met with the AJC Adenauer Exchange delegation a couple of years ago.Wolfgang Schaeuble, the Interior Minister (who we think is great) unhappily (forus) moves over to the Finance Ministry and is replaced by Thomas de Maiziere, theformer head of the Chancellery and a close associate of the Chancellor. We fullyunderstand that the Finance Ministry, at this moment in history, is the morecritical for Germanys well being. However, the Interior post oversees extremismand anti-Semitism so that is important for us. We certainly wish Minister deMaiziere well and look forward to a vigorous pursuit on those matters.TheLocal.de in commenting on the new government says, In foreign policy, Merkel'sconservative CDU/CSU alliance and the FDP want to press for the Afghan governmentto assume more responsibilities so that Germany's 4,400 troops can come home.The FDP succeeded in softening somewhat Merkel's position on Turkish membership ofthe European Union, meaning that the door will remain open, while stressing thatTurkish membership is neither automatic nor guaranteed.In terms of ministerial appointments, wheelchair-bound CDU veteran WolfgangSchuble, 67, current interior minister and the former right hand man of ex-chancellor Helmut Kohl, was set to become finance minister.The aristocratic Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, 37, economy minister and Germany'smost popular politician, was set to move to defence. Rainer Brderle, 64, deputychairman of the FDP moves to the economy.Thomas de Maizire, 54, Merkel's trusted lieutenant since 2005 as her chief ofstaff, has been rewarded for his loyalty with the post of interior minister. Hismain tasks will be tackling the threat of Islamic extremism and fostering betterintegration of ethnic minorities.Interestingly, there is no mention of Iran or the Israel-Palestinian situation. Itis the former that concerns me. The FDP is business oriented. Does that mean aless strong stand regarding Iran than the Chancellors? Well just have to wait andsee. .GERMAN STATE ELECTIONSTo fully understand German politics an understanding of state elections iscrucial. Germany is a federal nation made up of states. So what happens locallyhas great impact on the national scene. The state governments, like the nationalone, are parliamentary. That means that there must be a majority party or partiesin each state in order for there to be a government that can rule. Coalitions ofparties in a government are the most frequent outcome.Some years ago there were only 3 parties that had realistic chances of being ineither the national coalition or those of the states if, indeed, a coalition in anindividual state was needed. In some states the CDU, CSU or SPD was able to win anoutright majority so a coalition was not needed but that rarely happened.The Christian Democrats (CDU) or the Social Democrats (SPD) were the major partiesand one usually came out on top. It was given the right to form a government. Thewinner linked up with the smaller FDP (Free Democrats) and was able to form a 50%or better coalition or, if very strong, was able to win an outright majority. Thenin the 1980s and 90s the Greens (formally known as Alliance 90/The Greens) camealong and more recently The Left Party (Linke), a left wing split off from the SPDjoined up with the former East German communists (PDS) to make it 6 partiesincluding the Christian Social Union (CSU) in Bavaria (See below). Voters havemany more choices these days.So, things got a little more complicated. Now in the states there were morecoalition possibilities. In Thuringia, a former East German state, the CDU, notable to gain a majority with the preferred FDP, had to settle for a GrandCoalition with the SPD. The Left Party folks are bitterly complaining because theyfeel the more natural linking would be with them as SPD and the Left are bothleftist. By the way, Thuringia will have a woman as Minster President (Governor)for the first time. Incidentally, a Grand Coalition of the two big parties isusually a prescription for gridlock.
 
Berlin, which is a state as well as a city, has for some time had an SPD Linkestate government which seems to work.Brandenburg, another former East German state, had a Grand Coalition with the SPDbeing strongest party. Coming out on top again, the SPD has decided to turn to theLinke this time around to see whether a coalition with them can work. The SPDnationally is opposed to joining with the Linke because the former East Germancommunist party is a major element of the Linke. However, local politics, as wecan see, can differ greatly from national ones.In Schleswig Holstein, Germanys most northern state, the CDU, which had been aswell in a Grand Coalition with the SPD, was able to join with its more naturalpartner, the FDP and push its major rival (SPD) out of the government.Earlier this year in Hesse another Grand Coalition came to an end when the SPD didbadly and a CDU FDP government was established.A different sort of change took place in the Saarland, Germanys smallest state.Saarland has been governed by the rightist Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since1999. In the most recent elections in 2009, the CDU lost its absolute majority andwas not able to even form a government with the right of center Free Democrats(FDP). The left of center Social Democrats, the left-wing, post-communist LeftParty, and the Greens together had a majority of seats, however, on the 11 ofOctober 2009, the Greens announced their intention to form a coalition with theCDU and the FDP. Such a coalition is highly experimental. It could potentiallyshape future coalition governments on both a regional and national scale.The SPD really took it on the chin both nationally and locally. Elements in theparty have sworn never to join forces with the Linke because of the both the factthat the latter is partially made up of former communists. In addition, one of theleaders of the party is Oscar LaFontaine, who broke away from the SPD to form theLinke and is hated by many in the SPD. However, many others who want more leftistpolicies and decry Grand Coalitions would love to join up with the Linke and toprove its viability point out that the Berlin experiment of SPD and Linke seems tobe working.The Greens, though considered leftist, eschewed a left wing coalition in Saarlandand could feel that its agenda stressing environmental issues would have a betterchance in a center-right coalition. This may be an indication of that partysmovement to the middle away from its leftist orientation.The CDU, while not always showing great strength this year, was able to amalgamateitself with the business oriented FDP which did very well in most places.In Bavaria where the CSU (It is the sister party of the CDU There is no CDU inBavaria) had a lock on politics, they did less well this time and had to join withthe FDP to form a state coalition.I know its confusing so why am I telling you all this? The reason is that youshould know there is great change blowing in the German political winds. Whatlooks permanent, solid and well grounded today may not look that way in the nottoo distant future. What happens in the states has major implications for thenational scene. The stability and national direction of the German government isenormously important to Israel and Jewish interests so it behooves us to staytuned and be up on what transpires there.THE BISHOP WHO COULDNT KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUTDo you remember the Holocaust denying Catholic Bishop who got kicked out ofArgentina for his views and got re-instated from his excommunicated status as aCatholic by the Pope? Well, Bishop Richard Williamson couldnt keep his mouth shutand it might cost him $17,000 plus. As Spiegel On-Line reports, Denying theHolocaust can be expensive. That, at least, could be the lesson facing BishopRichard Williamson, the ultra-conservative Catholic cleric who plunged the Vaticaninto crisis in January by telling Swedish television that he believed "there wereno gas chambers."Last week, public prosecutors in the southern German city of Regensburg, whereWilliamson was when he filmed the interview, have formally requested that thebishop be fined 12,000 ($17,860) for incitement. Denying the Holocaust is against
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