by Smadar Bat Adam
Like Israel, the Czech Republic is a small country that understands the dangers of negotiating with terrorist entities and it is standing up against anti-Israeli sentiment in Europe.
Amid the media attention about the
president of Chad's visit last week, another leader – Czech President
Miloš Zeman – also visited Israel. "I'm Israel's best friend," Zeman told the Knesset plenum,
whose members were busy locking down deals ahead of the expected
dissolution of the Knesset. Which is a shame – it would be worthwhile if
small-scale politics stopped in honor of him.
For the most part, declarations of love and
friendship by national leaders are suspect. Remember Charles de
Gaulle's response to David Ben-Gurion, who praised France as "Israel's
greatest friend" – "France has no friends and no enemies. France has
interests," the head of the republic decreed. But the Czech Republic is a
different story; it is a sister nation.
There is no way of knowing how the 1948 War
of Independence would have ended without the aid that only
then-Czechoslovakia provided to Israel by sending weapons and training
paratroopers and other combat soldiers and pilots, and sending combat
aircraft. Czech aid played a key role in Operation Nachshon (the Mauser
Karabiner 98k became known locally as the "Czech rifle.")
Such comradeship and love is sealed in
blood. Czechoslovakia, the first victim of Nazism, was betrayed by
Britain and France, who believed that they could make peace with the
axis of evil, and was torn away from the Sudetenland by the disgraceful
Munich Agreement. The Czechs internalized the lessons of the war. In an
interview to Haaretz in 2002, Zeman said that Hitler was the biggest
terrorist in the world in the 1930s, and no one should have negotiated
with him then, just like no one should negotiate with terrorists today.
It is clear to the Czech Republic – unlike
other countries – that the Palestinians, who waged war against the
Jewish population, have no right to return to the State of Israel. The
Czechs have learned from experience: The German minority there that
joined Hitler were deported after the war is now demanding to come back.
A small country is taking a determined
stance against anti-Israeli sentiment in Europe. During Operation Cast
Lead (2008-2009), when the Czech Republic was head of the European
Union, it defined Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip as defensive rather
than offensive. After the ill-fated protest flotilla to Gaza in 2010,
the head of the Czech parliament expressed solidarity with Israeli
democracy and a commitment to fight Hamas terrorism out of the
understanding that "we in the Czech Republic could find ourselves in the
same situation."
The Czech Republic voted against the
Palestinian Authority being accepted into the U.N. as an observer
nation. And now, 50 years after Jerusalem was reunified, the Czech
Parliament has recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and has
promised to relocate its embassy. They are on our side. They have
learned firsthand what happens when countries align themselves with an
axis of evil out of weakness. Who understands better than the Czechs the
pointlessness of the idea that giving up territory will lead to peace?
Smadar Bat Adam
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/a-bond-sealed-in-blood/
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