Ayalon said at the opening session. Israeli settlements Ayalon slammed the claims that settlements were the cause of violence, citing the pre-state 1929 Arab killing of Jews in Hebron. He has criticized world leaders who accuse Israel of destroying the peace process by building in East Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Gilo. In 2005, as Israel's representative to the United States, Ayalon supported Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, in which all Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip were evacuated. However, as a Member of the Knesset, Ayalon explained that he feels the disengagement was a mistake and, "in hindsight we shouldn't have done it because it was excruciatingly painful". Israeli–Palestinian conflict According to Ayalon, "the real obstacle to peace is Palestinian rejection of Israel and the self-determination of the Jewish people". He has condemned Palestinian claims which "deny the Jewish people's connection with its homeland", and the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Information's false claims that the Jews have no past connections to the Western Wall of the ancient Temple of Jerusalem and to the Tomb of Rachel the Matriarch. Ayalon called the Gaza flotilla raid of May 2010, in which nine activists were killed and many injured a "provocation", stating: "On the deck we found weapons which were used against the forces. The organizers' intent was violent and the results were unfortunate. Israel regrets the loss of life. We called the organizers once again the [sic] stop the provocations". He has criticized claims that the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip are in the midst of a humanitarian crisis as a result of Israel's blockade citing that, "Gaza receives equivalent of 40% of goods imported by Israel. It's absurd for Israel to take care of Gazans while Hamas fires rockets." Iran At the Munich Security Conference in February 2011, Ayalon, emphasizing Germany's crucial part in crushing the Iranian threat, stated: "The Iranian regime today is just as dangerous to the world as Hitler was in the 1930s. We don't have the luxury of waiting for the results of the sanctions on Iran; we must immediately put heavy pressure on Iran until it cracks. Germany, as the strongest country in the European Union, must provide an answer to the needs of the European states that get oil from Iran, so that they will no longer be dependent on Iranian oil." He also made an appeal to Office of the High Commissioner for Human