Israel Matzav: Samaria and the Sudentenland

Monday, June 04, 2012

Samaria and the Sudentenland

Shortly after 9/11, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon managed to infuriate US President George W. Bush (who would take a little longer to emerge from his father's shell and become pro-Israel for a while) with a speech that compared Israel to 1938 Czechoslovakia.

"The enlightened democracies of Europe decided then to sacrifice Czechoslovakia in favor of a convenient temporary solution" to the demands of Germany's Adolf Hitler, Sharon said. "We will be unable to accept that. Israel will not be Czechoslovakia. Israel will fight terrorism."

"Do not try to appease the Arabs at our expense," Sharon said.

Bush, as noted, was not pleased.

"The prime minister's comments are unacceptable," [then White House spokesman Ari] Fleischer said. "Israel has no stronger friend and ally in the world than the United States. President Bush is an especially close friend of Israel."

He added: "The United States has been working for months to press the parties to end the violence and return to a political dialogue. The United States will continue to press both Israel and the Palestinians to move forward."

Earlier [that] week, an unidentified administration official leaked to the news media that Bush's security team was working on a plan for a Palestinian state and that it would keep pushing its own proposals.

In the meantime, under prodding by [then-] Secretary of State Colin Powell, Israel and the Palestinian Authority resumed security talks without waiting for a period free of terrorist attacks, as demanded by Sharon.

Fleischer responded, "The United States is not doing anything to try to appease the Arabs at Israel's expense."

The Bush administration has tried to get Arab countries to support its counterterrorism campaign against the al-Qaida terrorist network in Afghanistan.

If this all sounds familiar, it should. But there are other parallels between Israel and Czechoslovakia, aside from the World's desire to sacrifice a small, vibrant democracy in order to maintain 'World Peace.' One important parallel is between Czechoslovakia's Sudentenland and Israel's Samarian mountains. Another is the parallel between the IDF and Czechoslovakia's army. Giulio Meotti explains.

On September 29, 1938, the Czechoslovak state was truncated and deprived of defensible borders by the “Munich agreement.” Six months later, abandoned by its allies England and France, and bullied by Adolf Hitler, Czechoslovakia lay down and died. Like Israel today, the Czechs were accused of “intransigence” and of being “disturbers of the peace.” They were so disheartened that in the end they chose not to fight, but to surrender. “Peace” meant capitulation.

Czechoslovakia’s situation in 1938 is in fact similar to Israel’s in 2012. Like Israel’s IDF, the Czechs had one of the strongest armies in Europe. Like Israel, Czechoslovakia was a very young and vibrant state. Like Israel, Czechoslovakia was the only liberal democracy in Eastern Europe. And like the Obama administration’s pressing Israel to give up its settlements to the Arabs, the Nazis demanded the annexation of the Sudeten Land, settled by three million Germans. And the Sudeten mountains, like Israel’s “occupied territories,” were the only position from which the Bohemian plain, and the capital Prague, was defensible.

Like Hitler’s demand of “land for peace,” in the name of “peace” Obama is pressing Israel to give up Judea and Samaria, the final line of defense before the Coastal Plain against a hostile Iranian proxy state seated high on the hills only 12 miles from Tel Aviv and just three miles from Israel’s only international airport. That’s why Israel’s legendary diplomat Abba Eban called the borders established following the 1967 Six-Day War “Auschwitz borders.” And does anyone remember how Lord Trenchard got up in the British parliament after Munich and declared that the Czechs didn’t need the Sudeten territories for security? “The best security border,” Trenchard said, “is peace.” Sound familiar?

Read the whole thing. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Labels: 1930's, Ariel Sharon, Barack Hussein Obama, George W. Bush, Neville Chamberlain, Samaria