20 Arab-Israeli War (1948) his two predecessors had cultivated He believed that the continued consent of changes to the Treaty of Versailles could prevent another war with Germany To that end, Chamberlain, France’s Édouard Daladier, and Italy’s Benito Mussolini met with Hitler in Munich, Germany, in September 1938 to settle a dispute over the Germanspeaking Sudetenland, which both Czechoslovakia and Germany claimed Hitler claimed that the Czech government was mistreating Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia, despite no evidence of such treatment and adamant denials from government officials; the same argument was made for German minorities living in Hungary and Poland Exploiting ethnic tensions as a pretext to gain a foothold in eastern Europe, Germany demanded the incorporation of the region into Nazi Germany The Allies urged the Czech government to comply In what is known as the Munich Pact, the parties agreed on September 29, 1938, without Czech representation, to the transfer of the Sudetenland to German control Terms of the agreement included the allowance of German settlements in the region, with Germany exacting no further claims of Czech lands Triumphant that the situation had been resolved and war resoundingly avoided, Chamberlain and Daladier returned to England and France, declaring that the peace had been preserved Feeling abandoned by its allies, particularly France, Czechoslovakia had no choice but to capitulate to Hitler As German troops moved into the newly acquired territory, the Czech population fled to central Czechoslovakia Six months later Germany violated the Munich agreement by invading Czechoslovakia itself Despite an alliance with France and the Soviet Union, neither came to Czechoslovakia’s aid Hitler’s main motivation for the invasion involved the seizure of Czech industrial facilities However, Hitler’s intentions to invade Poland following the breakdown of negotiations over territorial concessions deemed it necessary that he eliminate Czechoslovakia first Accordingly, on March 15, 1939, German forces entered the Czech capital of Prague, proclaiming the regions of Bohemia and Moravia as German protectorates Chamberlain and the Allied nations now faced a major international impasse They had granted concessions to Hitler, with no repercussions when Germany violated the agreements If Hitler were to continue that course of action, the Allies would find themselves in a difficult position in regard to other international commitments In particular, both Great Britain and France pledged aid to Poland were Germany to invade it The scenario became a reality when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939 In a final attempt to avert war Great Britain and France lodged formal warnings and diplomatic protests against the invasion, to no avail As a result, notwithstanding the Soviet-German agreement, both countries were forced to declare war on Germany See also World War II Further reading: Churchill, Winston S The Second World War: The Gathering Storm Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1948; Clements, Peter “The Making of Enemies: Deteriorating Relationships Between Britain and Germany, 1933–1939.” History Review March 2000; Kennedy, John F Why England Slept New York: Wilfred Funk, Inc., 1940; McDonough, Frank Neville Chamberlain, Appeasement, and the Road to War New York: Manchester University Press, 1998; Shirer, William L The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960 Steve Sagarra Arab-Israeli War (1948) After World War II Great Britain was no longer able economically, politically, or militarily to control Palestine The Labour government was elected to power in 1945, and the new foreign minister, Ernest Bevin, attempted to placate mounting Arab opposition to a Jewish state by enforcing limitations on Jewish immigration into Palestine Even during World War II some Revisionist Zionist groups had begun attacking British officials and forces in attempts to force the British to vacate Palestine The Irgun, led by Menachem Begin, and LEHI (Stern Gang) both attempted to kill Sir Harold MacMichael, the British high commissioner in Palestine, and in 1944 LEHI killed Lord Moyne, the British minister of state for the Middle East In 1946 the Irgun bombed the King David Hotel, the British headquarters in Jerusalem, killing over 90 people The British branded the Irgun a terrorist organization and arrested many of its members The Irgun retaliated by kidnapping British soldiers; British arms depots were also raided Although the United States was reluctant to ease its own immigration quotas, it pressured Britain to allow increased Jewish immigration into Palestine In the aftermath of the Holocaust, the forced return or imprisonment on Cyprus of illegal Jewish immigrants fleeing Europe was an untenable moral and political position From the Zionist perspective there was no such thing as an “illegal” Jewish immigrant into Pales-