'Americans should use more convincing arguments than the miserable threats Kerry alluded to'
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Israel's security is no illusion
Op-ed: Kerry should be reminded of what happened to terrorists who murdered our athletes in Munich – Israel settled score with every single one of them
MUNICH - I sit at the departures hall in Munich's international airport, waiting to board an El Al plane together with the other passengers to Tel Aviv. The hall is located in the airport's isolated and remote area. Police officers are stationed around our compound and the security check of those entering is strict. No one escapes it.
You may call me petty, say that I am being oversensitive, that I am forgetting that Munich is the place where our athletes who arrived to compete in the Olympics were slaughtered by Palestinians.
But after hearing John Kerry two days ago at the Munich Security Conference,
directing an implicit threat towards Israel that it will pay a heavy price if it refuses to accept his outline for an agreement with the Palestinians, I reached the conviction that we are not just being paranoid.
The German aviation authorities have good intentions – they want to protect us, to prevent any harm to us. Ironically, the passengers from Arab and Muslim countries enter the main terminal without any separation.
Boycott Threats
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The American secretary of state spoke about the "security illusion" we enjoy. Mr. Kerry, our security is not based on illusions. It's enough to remind you what happened to the villains who murdered our athletes in Munich. Israel settled the score with them down to the very last of them.
John Kerry spoke five months ago about the international community's duty to punish Bashar Assad, after it was revealed that he had used chemical weapons against civilians. "This is a Munich moment," Kerry stated, intending to say that before World War II the international community had tried to appease Adolf Hitler; the world did not pass the "Munich moment" test at the time.
As a matter of fact, at the end of the day the Obama administration failed the test Kerry spoke about, and Bashar Assad was not punished. The American planes did not did not take off to attack the targets already marked in Syria. Moreover, Kerry and the Europeans are not pointing an accusing finger at the Palestinians and are not taking a strict approach towards the Iranians. They are fervently courting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif and are embracing the Palestinians.
Kerry, who was deeply offended by Israel's blatant reaction to his implicit threat, implied that the Israelis would be hit in their pockets. Some hundreds of kilometers away from the venue of the Munich Security Conference stands a huge monument commemorating Kristallnacht – the night between November 9 and 10, 1938, during which Jews' synagogues, businesses and property were plundered and destroyed. It should be stressed that the Germans have not forgotten the atrocities they inflicted on the Jewish people, and they constantly find ways to preserve the memory.
In order to leave room for doubt, I'll say that John Kerry was not careful with his words. There are many reasons to criticize our conduct towards the Palestinians, yet our American friends should approach us with more convincing arguments than miserable threats of the type Kerry alluded to.
In the meantime, our plane is ready to take off to Israel. A blue flag with a Star of David at its center covers the plane's tail. And I'm so glad to go back home.
