Is Germany ready to help keep peace on Israel's border?

BERLIN — It's a prospect loaded with historical baggage: German troops joining a proposed international force in Lebanon to police the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he likes the idea. But Berlin, mindful of the Nazi past, seems in no hurry.

For Germany, keeping the peace in Lebanon would represent a big opportunity to bury the Hitler demon and project itself as a force for world peace. But are Jews with memories of the Holocaust ready for German soldiers patrolling their border? What if German troops were forced into conflict with Israeli soldiers?

"We as Germans should approach this region with the greatest caution," warns Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Olmert says he told Merkel that Israel had "absolutely no problem with German soldiers in southern Lebanon."

"There is at the moment no nation that is behaving in a more friendly way toward Israel than Germany," Olmert told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily. "If Germany can contribute to the security of the Israeli people, that would be a worthwhile task for your country. I would be very happy if Germany participated."

But Joseph Lapid, an Israeli Holocaust survivor and former justice minister, thinks differently.

"I think that for us it would be difficult to face German soldiers, but even more so I think that for the Germans it would not be advisable to get involved in a border incident in which they could shoot an Israeli soldier. This would raise hell," he said.

"So I think that for both sides the best advice would be to leave it alone."

However, what's striking about the Israeli reaction is how little there has been. In the past, the very thought of German military uniforms anywhere near Israel would have caused an uproar. Yet Israeli historian Tom Segev thinks German peacekeepers, contained within a European force, "won't touch on Israeli nerves."

"Everyone knows that Germany is the most important country for Israel after the United States, both militarily and economically," he said.

Indeed, Germany has gone out of its way to show it is a friend of Israel.

Berlin has avoided directly criticizing Israel since fighting erupted, repeatedly underscoring the Jewish state's right to exist and its right to self-defense. It has called for a cease-fire "as quickly as possible" rather than immediately.

In that position, Germany appears to be tacitly backing the U.S. and British position that Hezbollah must be weakened.

While many see that as part of Merkel's efforts to warm relations with the White House that chilled under her predecessor — Gerhard Schroeder, a fierce critic of the Iraq war — the main factor in the German approach appears to be the loaded past.

Berlin is not ruling out troops for Lebanon, but also has other reasons to be cautious: Its military is stretched by peacekeeping missions elsewhere, and opinion polls show a strong majority of Germans oppose committing troops to a Mideast force.