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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, June 27, 1980
Page 25
lot quicker than he or anyone else thinks.
Nevertheless, he is correct
in the assertion that "the machinery now exists for making European as
distinct from U.S. policy. The nine did it at Venice. This may be only
the first step of the toddler learning to walk, but what has been done
once can be done more easily the next time. That first step is always the
hardest. And the first step has been taken."
Europe's Arab friends in the Middle East apparently are anxious to see a
few more positive steps in their direction. Saudi Arabia's King Khalid,
for example, has called on the German people to help Arab Palestinians to
regain control of Jerusalem. The king, on a state visit to West Germany,
made his appeal at a ceremony in his honor at West Berlin's Charlottenburg
Castle.
As reported in the Religious News Service, King Khalid's appeal came less
than a week after the European Common Market countries issued a declaration
backing full self-determination for the Palestinians and urging that the
Palestine Liberation Organization be ''associated with" current negotia
tions for a peace settlement in the Middle East.
King Khalid compared the situation in West Berlin--110 miles inside East
Germany--to that of Jerusalem. He said he was convinced that Berliners
had greater understanding than other peoples "for the feelings of the
Islamic community that has suffered the loss of Jerusalem and for the
Palestinian people who were driven out of their homeland."
The Arab leader added that he hoped that "our holy city of Jerusalem will
once again be integrated into the Arab territory," thanks to the efforts
of Palestinians, Arab states "and the support of those nations who be
friend us, in the first place the great German nation."
King Khalid's appeal went a bit far. A Bonn official afterwards noted
that no European country, least of all West Germany, is prepared "to come
out against Israel's claim to Jerusalem" or to favor "an Arab holy war
over that city.
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--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau