Germany made a ‘grave mistake’ by letting in too many migrants, says Henry Kissinger
Pro-Palestinian celebrations of the Hamas attack on Israel in Berlin are an indication that Germany has let too many foreigners into the country, Henry Kissinger has said.
“It was a grave mistake to let in so many people of totally different culture and religion and concepts, because it creates a pressure group inside each country that does that,” the former US Secretary of State said in an interview with Axel Springer, the German media group.
He added that it was “painful” to see people in Berlin celebrating Hamas’ assault on Israel at the weekend.
Mr Kissinger, who is 100 years old, was born in Germany and fled the Nazis in 1938 with his family. He later became America’s top diplomat under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and oversaw US foreign policy during the Vietnam war.
On Saturday morning, Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, with its gunmen storming communities near the Gaza Strip. They killed at least 1,300 people and took scores of hostages.
Images emerged of some people celebrating the attack in Berlin. Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor, later said that anyone who glorified the crimes of Hamas, used its symbols, condoned murder, called for criminal acts or burned Israeli flags could be prosecuted.
Mr Kissinger said Hamas’s “aggression” must be met with “some penalty” and warned about the potential for dangerous escalation in the region.
“The Middle East conflict has the danger of escalating and bringing in other Arab countries under the pressure of their public opinion,” Mr Kissinger said. He then pointed to the 1973 Yom Kippur War, during which an Arab coalition led by Egypt and Syria attacked Israel.
It is also “possible” that Israel could take action against Iran, if it considers Tehran to have had a hand in perpetrating the attack, Mr Kissinger added.
Some areas are no-go zones for Jews
The attacks have laid bare the vast gulf in attitudes to the Israel-Palestine conflict between Germany and its immigrant communities, which have arrived in large numbers from the Middle East since 2015.
Israeli flags, raised over town halls in solidarity, have been ripped down in several German towns with large migrant populations, while graffiti has appeared on Berlin streets glorifying the Hamas terror attack.
In the south of the capital, police have spent the week trying to snuff out wildcat protests by Arab youths after city authorities banned pro-Palestine marches over security fears.
Meanwhile, footage of a woman in a hijab telling a journalist she celebrated the attack at home with her family has gone viral as Germany vexes over whether it can integrate communities so willing to celebrate the murder of Jews.
Susanne Schröter, an expert on modern Islam at Frankfurt’s Goethe University, said that the country had “a huge problem” on its hands.
“We’ve let hundreds of thousands of people with an anti-Semitic worldview into Germany who grew up with this inhuman ideology,” she told Bild newspaper, adding that politicians had “downplayed” the problem for too long.
In recent days Jews have been warned against entering certain migrant neighbourhoods while wearing kippahs due to fears for their safety, leading to commentaries in German newspapers expressing outrage that, 80 years after the Holocaust, there are once again parts of the country too dangerous for Jews to enter.
Police presence around synagogues and other Jewish public buildings has been reinforced throughout the week, and Jewish community leaders have warned of threats to target religious buildings.
Samidoun, an organisation with links to Hamas, took to the streets of Berlin at the weekend to hand out sweets and celebrate the attack.
Israel’s ambassador to Berlin, Ron Prosor, subsequently warned that the group could turn Berlin “into a second Gaza.”
