I wrote yesterday about how a major foreign policy speech on Monday by Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the Republican House majority leader, was a shot across the bow at isolationists.

A major focus of Cantor’s speech was on Middle East policy. So it’s notable that within 48 hours, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel delivered essentially the same warning, at Beth El synagogue in Bethesda, Md.

Both men cite pre-World War II isolationism as the precedent to avoid. Both focus on the Middle East, and both cast it in a Jewish context: Cantor by referring to his recent trip to Auschwitz, Hagel, in a synagogue.

Here’s Cantor, at the Virginia Military Institute:

Many Americans, and politicians from both parties, want to believe the tide of war has receded. As was the case in the wake of World War I, many want to believe the costly foreign interventions of recent years can simply be put behind us. That we can simply choose not to be involved. However, we mustn’t let ourselves be lulled into complacency again or forget the lessons of history. I recently led a congressional delegation to the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau to commemorate the 69th anniversary of their liberation. As an American and a Jew, I was struck by a torrent of emotions filled with horror, pride and regret.

Here’s Hagel, who was explaining why the United States continues to engage with Egypt, however problematic its government is: