Been There – Done That…writes Michael Kuttner
Like some horror movie from the past but no surprise for anyone attuned to the siren sound of appeasement emanating from the corridors of power in Washington, London, Europe and the UN and the chorus of hallelujahs from the usual useful idiots in the media, academia and politics, the curtain has gone up on the latest production to be concocted by the heirs of Chamberlain and friends.
Michael Kuttner
The cast may have changed but the script is identical.
Those who have learnt the lessons of history know that what is to come will be disastrous. The result of appeasement policies in the 1930’s impacted with cataclysmic devastation on the Jewish People in particular and this fact alone should be ringing loud warning bells throughout Israel and the Diaspora. Unfortunately the political ostriches are still alive and well which means that anyone sounding the alarm is denigrated as warmongers and enemies of peace.
From 1933 to 1939 while Hitler was successfully hoodwinking Britain and the democracies of Europe (forget about the USA because they were blissfully isolationist) those in power in Berlin could hardly believe their luck as time after time the appeasers let them literally get away with murder. Even the International Olympic Committee was seduced and thus despite the fact that Jews were already being excluded, delegitimised and isolated, the 1936 Games took place as though nothing was amiss.
This state of affairs reportedly caused Hitler and his closest henchmen to comment in Latin…” MUNDUS VULT DECIPI, ERGO DECEPIATOR…” which translated into English means “THE WORLD WANTS TO BE DECEIVED, THEREFORE LET IT BE DECEIVED…”
Back then massed rallies took place in Nuremberg where the assembled citizens after listening to rousing speeches by Hitler who accused Jews of being the source of all evil would scream..”death to the Jews…”.
Last week the real ruler in Iran. Ayatollah Khomeini, addressed similar adoring crowds and called the Zionist regime illegitimate led by untouchable rabid dogs.
This was followed by mass chanting of death to America and death to Israel.
After the Nuremberg rallies the world yawned and Chamberlain redoubled his efforts to appease Hitler and sell out the democratic State of Czechoslovakia. After the Iranian rallies the world again yawned and only a day after comments from Israeli politicians did the USA issue a limp statement. This was then followed a few days later by the latest version of the recycled Munich agreement. Is this not a classic case of history repeating itself?
One of the few voices to be raised in warning during the 1930’s was Winston Churchill but he was dismissed by the political establishment as a warmonger, alarmist and enemy of peace. In an eerily similar scenario today, the Israeli Prime Minister has for many years now been warning the international community of the dangers of Iran’s march to nuclear weaponry. He and others have pointed out that the Iranian regime continues to delegitimise Israel and threaten its very existence. The same allegations that were made about Churchill are now made about Netanyahu. The Israeli PM is accused of being an enemy of peace and the appeasers led by Obama and Kerry issue dire predictions about what will happen if Iran is tackled in any other way.
To add insult to injury Neville Chamberlain’s heirs now assure everyone that this Geneva agreement, the bastard child of a Munich agreement, guarantees Israel’s and Gulf States security. Anyone who believes that piece of nonsense and there are undoubtedly many who do, suffer from the same blinkered dementia which afflicted all and sundry a generation ago. We are once again asked to put our trust in international guarantees which are not worth the paper they are written on. The tyrant of North Korea must be laughing non stop and no doubt congratulating the Iranian leadership on a job well done. The stampede by nations to trade with Iran and destroy the sanctions is no doubt already under way, The UN and associated bodies will be patting themselves on the back, William Hague and others will mouth sanctimonious hypocritical statements, the media will print a frenzy of congratulatory editorials, the usual “astronauts” will herald the dawn of a new age of peace and brotherhood, all of them blind and oblivious to the gathering storm clouds.
Iran, meanwhile will build new facilities, expand existing ones and continue to fool the inspectors. Its agenda for the destruction of the Jewish State and the domination of the Gulf States and Middle East plus its support for terror groups worldwide will develop unabated. No pathetic piece of paper signed in Geneva will avoid the inevitable and just as the Munich sellout guaranteed war & genocide so this latest example of moral bankruptcy will lead to the same destination.
It is instructive to read an excerpt of Chamberlain’s speech to the House of Commons after his return from Munich:
All the elements were present on the spot for the outbreak of a conflict which might have precipitated the catastrophe. We had populations inflamed to a high degree; we had extremists on both sides ready to work up and provoke incidents; we had considerable quantities of arms which were by no means confined to regularly organised forces. Therefore, it was essential that we should quickly reach a conclusion, so that this painful and difficult operation of transfer might be carried out at the earliest possible moment and concluded as soon as was consistent, with orderly procedure, in order that we might avoid the possibility of something that might have rendered all our attempts at peaceful solution useless. . . .
. . . To those who dislike an ultimatum, but who were anxious for a reasonable and orderly procedure, every one of [the] modifications [of the Godesberg Memorandum by the Munich Agreement] is a step in the right direction. It is no longer an ultimatum, but is a method which is carried out largely under the supervision of an international body.
Before giving a verdict upon this arrangement, we should do well to avoid describing it as a personal or a national triumph for anyone. The real triumph is that it has shown that representatives of four great Powers can find it possible to agree on a way of carrying out a difficult and delicate operation by discussion instead of by force of arms, and thereby they have averted a catastrophe which would have ended civilisation as we have known it. The relief that our escape from this great peril of war has, I think, everywhere been mingled in this country with a profound feeling of sympathy.
It is my hope and my belief, that under the new system of guarantees, the new Czechoslovakia will find a greater security than she has ever enjoyed in the past. . . .
I pass from that subject, and I would like to say a few words in respect of the various other participants, besides ourselves, in the Munich Agreement. After everything that has been said about the German Chancellor today and in the past, I do feel that the House ought to recognise the difficulty for a man in that position to take back such emphatic declarations as he had already made amidst the enthusiastic cheers of his supporters, and to recognise that in consenting, even though it were only at the last moment, to discuss with the representatives of other Powers those things which he had declared he had already decided once for all, was a real and a substantial contribution on his part. With regard to Signor Mussolini, . . . I think that Europe and the world have reason to be grateful to the head of the Italian government for his work in contributing to a peaceful solution.
In my view the strongest force of all, one which grew and took fresh shapes and forms every day war, the force not of any one individual, but was that unmistakable sense of unanimity among the peoples of the world that war must somehow be averted. The peoples of the British Empire were at one with those of Germany, of France and of Italy, and their anxiety, their intense desire for peace, pervaded the whole atmosphere of the conference, and I believe that that, and not threats, made possible the concessions that were made. I know the House will want to hear what I am sure it does not doubt, that throughout these discussions the Dominions, the Governments of the Dominions, have been kept in the closest touch with the march of events by telegraph and by personal contact, and I would like to say how greatly I was encouraged on each of the journeys I made to Germany by the knowledge that I went with the good wishes of the Governments of the Dominions. They shared all our anxieties and all our hopes. They rejoiced with us that peace was preserved, and with us they look forward to further efforts to consolidate what has been done.
Ever since I assumed my present office my main purpose has been to work for the pacification of Europe, for the removal of those suspicions and those animosities which have so long poisoned the air. The path which leads to appeasement is long and bristles with obstacles. The question of Czechoslovakia is the latest and perhaps the most dangerous. Now that we have got past it, I feel that it may be possible to make further progress along the road to sanity.
From Great Britain, Parliamentary Debates, Commons, Vol. 339 (October 3, 1938)
Need one say more? The lessons are self evident except to those who are oblivious to reality.
Israel hopefully will not only know what to do but will actually do it. There are 6 million reasons for not acquiescing to our own demise.
Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel where he is J-Wire’s regional correspondent.
