Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, over the weekend, spoke with Czech Republic Prime Minister Petr Necas and thanked him for his country’s courageous UN vote against the Palestinian Authority’s request to be recognized as a nonvoting member state.

Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed with his Czech counterpart that Netanyahu would stop in Prague this Wednesday – en route to his planned visit to Germany – and personally thank him for standing up for the truth and for peace.

“The history of Israel and the Czech Republic has taught us that one must cling to the truth even if the majority is not with you. Your vote must serve as an example for all those who support peace, which can be achieved only via direct negotiations without preconditions. The Palestinian Authority’s decision to go to the UN constitutes a fundamental violation of the agreements with Israel and only pushes peace further away,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu was referring to the way in which the West sacrificed Czechoslovakia in order to appease Adolf Hitler in 1938. Ariel Sharon warned after he was elected Prime Minister in 2001 that Israel “will not be Czechoslovakia”: “I turn to the western democracies, first and foremost the leader of the free world, the United States,” he said. “Do not repeat the dreadful mistake of 1938, when the enlightened democracies of Europe decided to sacrifice Czechoslovakia for the sake of a temporary, convenient solution. Don’t try to appease the Arabs at our expense. We will not accept this. Israel will not be Czechoslovakia. “