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When the World Looks Away
In the summer of 1938, Hitler claimed that the Sudetenland, a border region of Czechoslovakia with a German-speaking majority, needed to be saved by Germany and threatened war if his demand was not met.
On September 30, 1938, the British and French leaders, hoping to avoid a war, agreed to this act of appeasement, officially allowing Germany to annex the Sudetenland, without Czechoslovakian input.
If this illegal and outrageous land grab sounds familiar, well, you know the old saying: "History has a way of repeating itself."
Less than one year later, on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. On September 7, 1940, Germany began conducting mass air attacks against British cities, starting with London.
While Hitler was advancing through Europe, Charles Lindbergh and the America First isolation movement believed that there was no American interest in stopping Hitler and that Hitler's sworn policy to harass and persecute Jews was an internal German issue.
Lindbergh was the leading opposition voice to the U.S. involvement in World War II—until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and Hitler's declaration of war against the United States.
The defeat of Hitler and the horrors of Jewish genocide brought about the recognition of the State of Israel through the United Nations Partition Plan in 1947. The Partition Plan proposed to divide Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem designated as an international zone.
The Jews agreed, but the Palestinian Arabs and surrounding Arab states (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq) rejected the plan, leading to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the subsequent creation of the State of Israel.
And now, here we are with Russia and its dictator, Putin, invading Ukraine—the first invasion of a sovereign European nation since the end of World War II. Putin's justification for his Ukrainian land grab was eerily similar to Hitler's annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland.
The terrorist organization Hamas declared war by invading the sovereign state of Israel with a sneak attack, slaughtering men, women, and children, and causing the highest number of Jewish deaths since World War II.
Hamas's justification for their war against Israel was the rejection of Israel's existence, to improve its domestic popularity among Palestinians, which had seen some decline due to deteriorating living conditions under its governance in Gaza, and religious fundamentalism.
At a time when Ukraine and Israel are fighting for their very survival, it is shocking that no one has learned from the past and the lessons of World War II.
Instead of standing united against the Russian aggression toward Ukraine and Hamas's murderous attack and threat to annihilate Israel and its people, isolationists like Tucker Carlson and Candice Own, along with their sycophants, praise and enable Putin, and disparage Ukraine, the Ukrainians, Israel, and the Jews.
And while Europe has stood steadfast with Ukraine against Russia, most countries have turned their backs on Israel, the Israelis, and the Jewish diaspora by making excuses for the terrorist organization, Hamas.
Both conflicts began with cross-border aggression against internationally recognized sovereign states, which is the most basic violation of international law.
Both of these declarations of war by vicious dictatorships and authoritarian regimes against Ukraine and Israel had a clearly stated goal: to wipe Ukraine and Israel off the face of the earth.
The terrorist organization Hamas against Israel and the dictator Putin against Ukraine both assert that Israel and Ukraine have no right to exist, and too many around the world agree with these murderous regimes.
The wars in Gaza and Ukraine have affected the world in significant ways, including deepening political divisions and exacerbating political polarization, causing mass protests worldwide.
Both wars have strained the world's economy through inflation and high aid costs, and have significantly influenced elections, both here in the United States and around the world.
The failure to learn from past mistakes and allowing history to repeat itself is due to factors like insufficient critical thinking, generational gaps in experience, or a lack of comprehensive knowledge about previous events.
The wars against Ukraine and Israel are what happen when so many around the world look away.
