The Hamas attack on Israel, celebrated on the streets of Berlin, shows that Germany has allowed too many foreigners into the country, said former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
“It was a serious mistake to accept so many people of completely different cultures, religions and concepts, because it creates an interest group in every country that does that,” said the 100-year-old former top American diplomat in an interview with Axel Springer boss Mathias Döpfner for Welt TV.
German-born Holocaust survivor Kissinger – who later became the architect of American foreign policy during the Vietnam War – responded that it was “painful” when asked if he had seen Arabs in Berlin end the attack on Israel last year celebrated at the weekend.
In a surprise attack that began Saturday morning, Hamas militants stormed the Gaza Strip, killing more than 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping dozens more while firing rockets at cities including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Since then, Israel has retaliated by beginning a siege of the Gaza Strip and firing its own barrage of retaliatory rockets, killing hundreds of Palestinians.
Hamas’s “open act of aggression” must be met with “some punishment,” said Kissinger – and at the same time warned of the possibility of a dangerous escalation in the region.
“The Middle East conflict risks escalating and other Arab countries coming under pressure from public opinion,” Kissinger warned, pointing to the lessons of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which saw an Arab coalition led by Egypt and Egypt’s fought Syria attacked Israel.
The real goal of Hamas and its supporters “can only be to mobilize the Arab world against Israel and to abandon peaceful negotiations,” Kissinger said.
It is also “possible” that Israel could take action against Iran if it believes Tehran was involved in the attack, the former top diplomat added.
More broadly, Kissinger said, Russia’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine, coupled with Hamas’ attack on Israel, represents a “fundamental attack on the international system.”