Israel’s strategic affairs minister accused some Europeans of being
willing to see the Jewish state destroyed by Iran. Avigdor Lieberman
said Wednesday that there were unspecified “political elements” in
Europe that were resisting U.S. calls for effective sanctions against
Iran’s nuclear program, and compared this to Western leaders who
capitulated to Nazi Germany’s conquest of Czechoslovakia in 1938.
“There are elements in Europe that are willing to sacrifice Israel in
exchange for their security, for their trade interests,” Lieberman told
Israel Radio, recapping a speech he gave earlier in the day to a
visiting American Jewish Committee delegation. “We have seen this
phenomenon once before, in the run-up to World War II. It is the same
way they sacrificed Czechoslovakia and the same way they ignored the
Jews’ predicament even though it was clear to all the heads of states
what was happening to the Jews,” he said.An E.U. official
rejected the charge, saying the European Union was dedicated through negotiations to preventing Iran
from attaining nuclear weapons.
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