Czech president wants 'systematic' fight against Islamic terrorism

The president of the Czech Republic, Miloš Zeman, recalled on Monday that the attempt to reestablish an Islamic Caliphate should not be discounted as unachievable insanity.

“Adolf Hitler was also a madman, but [within 10 years of becoming Chancellor] he occupied almost all of Europe.”

Zeman proposed “a systematic and coordinated fight against Islamic terrorism.”

“There is a growing wave of so-called international terrorism, but I always say Islamic terrorism,” he added.

Zeman told 16,000 delegates at AIPAC’s policy conference in Washington that the Czech Republic was Israel’s best friend in Europe, with a common cause that stretches back many years.

Like Israel, the Czechs were “surrounded by enemies, by dictatorships — it wasn’t only Hitler in Germany,” he said.

With the Czech Republic an island of democracy in central Europe and Israel an island of democracy in the Middle East, “there must be solidarity between those islands against the oceans of dictatorships,” he said. 

“We know the phrase, ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ (“I am a Berliner”),” Zeman recalled. Now, in the wake of the anti-Semitic tide sweeping Europe, he said that “we must all say, ‘I am a Jew’.”

After a pause, he added, “Ani Yehudi.”