The UN general assembly has voted overwhelmingly to back the Palestinian bid for full UN membership, in a move that signalled Israel’s growing isolation on the world stage amid global alarm over the war in Gaza and the extent of the humanitarian crisis in the strip. The move drew an immediate rebuke from Israel. Its envoy to the UN, Gilad Erdan, delivered a fiery denunciation of the resolution and its backers before the vote, and fed pages of the UN charter into a shredder. The Palestinian envoy, Riyad Mansour, highlighted that the vote was being held at a time when Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city that is the last haven for many people, faced attack from Israeli forces
Wonder why Czechia voted against the bill. Did I miss anything?
I’m Czech. No matter the party, our government always had Israel bootlickers. T. G. Masaryk, founder of Czechoslovakia, was anti-antisemitic. We share a prevailing fake feeling of tininess and vulnerability (in 1938, the Allies signed the Munich treaty, sacrificing us to Nazi Germany, and in 1968 our “partner” USSR invaded us for straying from hard Communism) even though we have strong allies and a decent standing in our respective regions. Our support mainly consists of shilling for Israel in international politics and preserving our Jewish sites while they provide tech investment and recently COVID vaccines. I think the government did send some aid but the average Czech does not care about Israel, as opposed to Ukraine, which was heavily donated to (and a huge number of its its refugees were accepted) thanks to our bad experience with Russia and a significant, well-behaved Ukrainian minority.
Thanks for the explainer!
I would say this has less to do with Israel bootlicking and more with US bootlicking (sure, not much difference but it’s always worth to remind that all this is because USA in the first place), Czech international politics look like made in Washington on all issues, which is visible especially lately when Visehrad group split on the Ukraine issue.
Sounds plausible
Yup, we are trying really hard to stop being associated with the Soviet Union. Our Senate meets to celebrate Israel‘s birthday and promises to fulfill NATO obligations while Israel representatives order a radar system from a Czech company and promise to shout “Czechia is in Central Europe!” at anyone suggesting we’re in the East.
That’s kinda visible tbh. The time I was in Prague for two months in 2020 made me feel like “alright, alright, I know already about the bloody Soviets and how cool is Václav Havel, could you please stop”
From that perspective, it makes sense how it could turn to serve NATO.
Typical. Prague is the most liberal, pro-West part of the Czech Republic, and they don’t spare tourists from their views. There is undeniably a portion of tourists that could genuinely use a Czech history lesson beyond “look at all this stuff Charles IV built in the 1300s” but I get why unsolicited ones can get annoying on a longer stay. You can always retreat to the countryside far from any attractions to get a hillbilly’s perspective but good luck finding one who speaks English well enough and is willing to talk.
Certainly wish there would be more of something in between Charles IV era and XX century, at least among something known and popular.
I myself am Russian, and know a bit of Interslavic (and learned a bit of basic Czech while there), so hopes are we’d figure communication out without English should we need to :D
At least I managed it with some Czechs (and also Slovaks) who don’t speak English in Prague. Btw, I don’t know what makes the difference, exactly, but I can better understand Slovaks, even though languages should be nearly identical.
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and why Hungary?