Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu observed Holocaust Remembrance Day with a warning about the lessons of history. Don’t appease evil. Excerpts from his speech at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem:

“In the years before World War II, the free world tried to appease the Nazi regime, to gain its trust, to curry its favor through gestures. There were those who warned that this concessionary policy would only whet Hitler’s appetite, but these warnings were ignored due to the natural human desire for calm at all costs.

"And indeed, the price was exacted not long after, and it was too heavy to bear — six million of our people were slaughtered in the Holocaust, and millions of others were killed in this terrible inferno.

"Just as the Nazis aspired to crush civilization and to establish a ‘master race’ to replace it and control the world while annihilating the Jewish people, so too does Iran strive to gain control over the region, from which it would spread further, with the explicit intent of obliterating the Jewish state. …

"The determination and lessons that were acquired through blood 70 years ago are now dissipating, and the darkness and fog of denying reality are taking their place. The bad deal that is being made with Iran demonstrates that the historic lesson has not been internalized.

"The West is yielding in the face of Iran’s aggressive actions. … The superpowers turn a deaf ear to the crowds in Iran shouting: ‘Death to America; Death to Israel.’ …

"Democratic governments made a critical mistake before World War II, and we are convinced … that they are making a grave mistake now too.”