In his gut reaction, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid was right. What type of law would negate the return of property to Polish Jews? Sometimes, however, you need to be smart, not just right. It isn't just the Holocaust, which ended 76 years ago, that defines our identity; Israeli governments also have some sort of obligation to prevent future Holocausts and ensure the future and security of Israel. We needn't only be preoccupied with the Nazi and Polish antisemitism of several generations ago, there is also current antisemitism. Antisemitism we can identify even in our own streets, and in the propaganda put forth by at least one important component of the coalition that Lapid is overseeing. This is not a reference to Mansour Abbas.
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There's also no need to employ such slogans as "a different Poland," as a certain Israeli prime minister did 70 and 60 years ago regarding Germany. There is Germany and there is Nazi Germany, and Israel made deals with Konrad Adenauer and cooperated with Germany to strengthen its strategic and security footing. At the same time, very important individuals in the West German and East German governments were former SS members. Has Poland done any introspection and gone through the "process" of processing its history of guilt? No, it hasn't. But Poland is also not Germany. And Poland's resistance to efforts to partially blame it for the Holocaust, through emphasizing the death camps established on Polish soil, is right.
The important thing though, it that the Poland of today, despite its nationalism, is a type of ally, until elements in Israel decided to gradually destroy relations with it. The cooperation with it in terms of military aviation is a cornerstone of our national security. The Poles also buy weapons and other systems from us. Poland is an important potential partner for Israel, together with the member countries of the Visegrad Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia) in its effort to crack the Western-European bloc that holds anti-Israel views. Despite the desecration of Jewish gravestones in Poland, we can dare say that the Jews living there today are safer than the Jews living in France and some parts of the United States.
Lapid simply jumped on the issue of the new Polish law to undermine one of Netanyahu's primary legacies. He also loathes Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban because he once complimented former Hungarian Admiral Miklós Horthy. All the denigration of Orban and Horthy, however, won't cloud the collaboration between the leadership of Hungarian Jewry in the moment of truth.
One gets the sense that the Biden administration and Bennett-Lapid government are trying to destroy the Trump-Netanyahu diplomatic legacy. The Biden administration is adhering to a document circulated by Robert Malley's International Crisis Group organization, whereby the goal should be to erase Trump's entire strategic legacy. This includes Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the nuclear deal, and certainly Trump's peace plan. Lapid is making a mistake by repeating his blunt and righteous sentiments, instead of noticing that the Poles are inviting him to a dialogue on the legislation issue.
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