In 1938, naive Western leaders fell for Adolf Hitler’s pretextual “land for peace” ruse.\u00a0 Is the same delusion afflicting Barack Obama today?<\/p>\n
Hitler had used the Sudetenland<\/a>, an ethnically German region ceded to Czechoslovakia following World War I, as a synthetic grievance to justify his program of expansionism and rearmament.\u00a0 Credulous leaders like Britain’s Neville Chamberlain believed that satisfying Hitler’s ethnic territorial grievance could resolve simmering European disaccord, so they agreed to allow annexation by Hitler.\u00a0 In a lasting monument to weakness in the face of tyranny<\/a>, Chamberlain waved the treaty proclaiming “peace in our time.”<\/p>\n Some things don’t change, despite cautionary pleas of “never again.”<\/p>\n Today, Israel stands in a position similar to Czechoslovakia in 1938, and Western leaders suffer a similar “land for peace” delusion.\u00a0 Israel’s enemies want nothing less than Israel’s annihilation, but people like Obama somehow believe that the key to Middle East peace is forcing Israel to cede territory to its Palestinian antagonists.\u00a0 Obama expresses more anger<\/a> toward Israeli construction of apartments within its own territory than he does toward terrorist rocket attacks<\/a> against Israeli schoolyards, sadly.\u00a0 Just last week, Obama claimed<\/a> that, “when conflict breaks out … that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure.”<\/p>\n The reality?\u00a0 America has never once sent troops to shed blood for Israel, which has done quite well defending itself, thank you very much.\u00a0 Moreover, Israeli surrender of strategic land will only embolden those bent on its destruction.<\/p>\n