There is a specific kind of arrogance that only grows in places that have not seen a war in eighty years. The weekend revolutionaries in the West, chanting for liberation from a safe distance of four thousand miles, have lost any connection to reality. I am in Jerusalem because the Czech Republic still remembers what it means to be surrounded by those who want you erased from the map.
Back in the day, when Israel was fighting the war for independence, we sent weapons. When the rest of the world looked away, Prague sent engines and iron.
Fast forward to today, the situation remains the same. When other countries speak of punishing Israel for defending itself against brutal terrorism, we stand in line to defend the attacked nation. When other countries stop military shipments to Israel, Czech arms export to Israel grows.
We have a tradition of acting while others talk. Today, that tradition is being tested by a new generation of professional victims in our university lecture halls.
The moral rot in Western academia has reached a point of spectacular absurdity. We see gender-fluid activists and queer-theory students marching in support of regimes that would not let them survive a single afternoon under their rule. In Gaza or Tehran, these protesters would not be celebrated; they would be eliminated.
Groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and their masters in Iran view these Western supporters exactly for what they are: useful idiots. They are tools for propaganda, meant to provide intellectual cover for a return to barbarism. It is a suicide cult masquerading as progressive activism. There is no nuance in a massacre, and there is no safe space in a tunnel built for terrorists.
Treating Jerusalem with dignity
Prague is not interested in offering empty words or participating in the diplomatic theater that usually follows these tragedies. You cannot defend a border with nostalgia or a scripted speech. While some European leaders are busy lecturing Israel from air-conditioned offices, we are looking for partners who actually understand the price of security.
Under my leadership, Czech diplomacy will no longer be an exporter of moralizing lectures and abstract values. This is not because we lack values, but because our partners need action. We are done with the era of finger-wagging from the sidelines. In a world that is rapidly becoming more dangerous, a true ally is defined by what he delivers, not by how many virtuous statements he signs in Brussels or New York.
This new approach also means that we will finally start treating Jerusalem with the dignity it deserves as the beating heart of this nation.
Our relationship is a high-performance engine fueled by common sense. We are two nations that refuse to be lectured by those who have never faced a real threat. We do not care about the opinions of those who have lost the ability to distinguish between an aggressor and its target.
The Czech Republic stands with Israel because it is the only rational choice for a civilized nation. We are finished with the academic fantasies. Reality is back and we are ready to face it together.
Petr Macinka is deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.
