Germany welcomes Israeli Air Force for first joint exercise

NOERVENICH, Germany — Germany welcomes military aircraft from Israel into its airspace, in their first joint combat exercises in German territory, as both air forces praised the intensive cooperation between the two countries.

“It was very emotional for us when, one after the other, the first Israeli jets arrived here in German airspace,” a spokesman for the German Luftwaffe tells the German news agency dpa.

“Nowadays, we have a very intense partnership with the Israelis,” spokesman Thorsten Weber says. “We work closely together, we do exercises together, German soldiers are being trained in Israel.”

Israeli Air Force pilot Lt. Colonel O., who doesn’t give his full name in line with the military branch’s regulations, says that during the exercises he remembered the difficult past of Germans and Jews while also looking to the future.

During the Third Reich, Nazi Germany murdered 6 million European Jews and others in the Holocaust. Relations between Israel and Germany were difficult in the first decades after the end of the war, but have been growing closer together over the years.

“I think all of us are feeling it right in the heart, how deep the past is,” O. tells The Associated Press. “But we’re looking into the future and are happy for the opportunity of flying together.”

He adds that the cooperation of the two air forces was a good thing for both countries.

Nowadays, Germany is one of Israel’s staunchest supporters.

Still, most interactions between the two nations carry a deeper symbolic significance because of the horrors of the Holocaust, which ended 75 years ago when Germany surrendered in World War II.

— AP