15 Novemnber 2023. On Saturday, 11 November, the Jewish Museum Berlin awarded the “Prize for Understanding and Tolerance” to M100 Advisory Board member Prof. Dr Wolfgang Ischinger, President of the Board of Trustees of the Munich Security Conference Foundation. The laudatory speech was given by former ambassador Ronald S. Lauder. Congratulations!
In a recent interview with the German Handelsblatt (paywall), Ischinger warned of “wildfire-like developments” in the Middle East and that Israel was threatened with a two-front war with unforeseeable geopolitical consequences: “In the south against Hamas and in the north against Hezbollah, which is demonstrably many times more powerful than Hamas,” Ischinger said. “Measures by Israel against Iranian positions in Syria or against Iran itself can then no longer be ruled out. Iran will then resort to completely different means. What matters now, he says, is “that the government in Israel does not overstep the mark”.
He advises, however, that “given the dimensions of this terrorist tragedy, it would be best to refrain from giving cheap advice to the Israeli side from the German sofa at the moment. I am sure, however, that Israel knows that its imminent military action could lead it into a political trap set by Hamas: They want nothing more than as many Palestinian martyrs as possible and the bloodiest possible pictures from Gaza, so that they can whitewash their own terror by blaming Israel. As we can already see, this will not only resonate in the Arab world, but also in (Berlin-)Neukölln, for example, even if it is the height of cynicism. (…) These chants of joy by partly youthful Hamas supporters on German streets are unbearable.”
