ISRAEL: Starting Anew

As the blue and white Luftwaffe 707 jet landed at Lod airport, an Israeli band struck up a tune that 30 years ago began Deutschland über Alles*

But this time the song was played for a German Chancellor who had won the Nobel Peace Prize, and who wantedonly the friendship of the Jews. The symbolism of Willy Brandt's visit to Israel last week—the first by a West German Chancellor—was obvious, but almost unbearably poignant nonetheless.

Brandt, indeed, was quick to point out that the past—specifically the murder of 6,000,000 Jews by his countrymen during the Hitler era—could never be...