ISRAEL @ WAR: How do you say "Never Again" in French?

One question that has been asked countless times throughout the last 60+ years has been how was it that the nations of the world stood idly by while Hitler and Nazi Germany exterminated six million Jews? Didn't they know what was happening? Didn't they care?

History has provided the answer to these questions. The nations of the world did know; and no, they didn't care.

Which is what the slogan "Never Again", in the eyes of the nations of the world, who so enjoy bandying it about, is supposed to be all about.

Never again will the nations of the world sit idly by in the face of such terrible atrocities.

Unsurprisingly, it took France to remind us, that in fact, "Never Again" is merely that, an empty slogan, which should not be taken too seriously.

Iran Foreign Minister meets with French counterpart in Beirut

Iran is a significant, respected player in the Middle East which is playing a stabilizing role, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said earlier Monday in Beirut.

"It was clear that we could never accept a destabilization of Lebanon, which could lead to a destabilization of the region," Douste-Blazy said in Beirut.

"In the region there is of course a country such as Iran - a great country, a great people and a great civilization which is respected and which plays a stabilizing role in the region," he told a news conference.

Now, consider that Iran is the ideological, military and financial sponsor of both Hezbollah and Hamas, two terror organizations with who Israel is presently at war, and who seek the destruction of the Jewish State, and has close to ties to Syria, another sponsor and base for Islamic terror.

Consider further, that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has openly called for the Jewish State to be wiped off the map (or at the very least, its relocation to somewhere in Europe) and is in the process of developing nuclear weapons to enable him to do just that.

But, in reality, this shouldn't come as a surprise.

Consider the following quotes from British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, in the wake of the Munich Agreement of 1938, who sought to appease Hitler and Nazi Germany, and thus avoid war, by forcing Czechoslovakia to cede to Hitler the Sudetenland region (the country's defensive frontier, thus leaving its industrial and economic core within a day's reach of Hitler's Nazi storm troopers) - all in the name of peace.

In reference to the Sudetenland and trenches being dug in a London central park, Chamberlain famously declared in a September 1938 radio broadcast:

How horrible, fantastic it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing. I am myself a man of peace from the depths of my soul.

Upon Chamberlain's return from signing the Munich Agreement, he had this to say about Hitler:

After everything that has been said about the German Chancellor today and in the past, I do feel that the House ought to recognize 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 recognize 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.

And the British Prime Minister had this to say about the significance of the Munich Agreement with Hitler:

My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time.

Of course, within the year, as could be expected, Hitler and Nazi Germany had invaded Czechoslovakia, thus negating the Munich Agreement and marking the start of World War II.

I imagine that France, as was the case with Britain, would like nothing more than to believe that if they throw Iran a bone (namely, Israel), as Britain did with Hitler (Czechoslovakia), then everything will be ok - Iran will no longer pose a threat to the Western world, and everyone will go on living their nice, peaceful lives. After all, why should France have to suffer over a country like Israel, that is so far away, and about whom they know nothing about?

Unfortunately for Czechoslovakia, much of Europe, and six million Jews, it didn't quite work out.

Hopefully, the Jewish State has learned that lesson, even if France hasn't.

And consider this last point:

It is France who has volunteered to provide the bulk of the troops that will make up the multi-national force that will be expected to ensure that Hezbollah does not deploy along Israel's northern border, as well ensuring that Hezbollah will not have the ability to re-arm itself through the aid of Syria and Iran - that great country and stabilizing force in the region.

What a comforting thought.

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