Who's one of Israel's best friends? The answer is surprising - Poland
By: Tad Taube SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 6 (JTA)
The newly elected president of an European country, in his first interview for that country's largest newspaper, compared himself to Ariel Sharon to explain the policies he
intends to pursue.
His country has troops on the ground in Iraq, close military ties with
Israel and a voting pattern on Middle Eastern issues in the United Nations
that rests halfway between those of the European Union and the United
States.
Over the last 15 years, each of its presidents paid state visits to
Israel, reciprocated by his Israeli counterparts, as have several of its prime
ministers and foreign ministers. Israel events at this country's major
universities draw large and positive audiences, while the rare
anti-Israeli demonstrations are so small they do not even make it to the local media.
And in that European country, the United States retains its position of
"most-liked" in all public opinion polls.
That country is Britain, right? But when was the last time that a British
college had an Israel day? And come to think of it, don't they have a
queen, not a president?
That country is Poland. Ever since the fall of communism, the country so
many Jews love to hate has consistently pursued a pro-American and
pro-Israel policy. In fact, this - and economic liberalism - has been the
only consistent feature of Polish politics, with its dizzying swings of
public mood.
In the latest about-turn this fall, the Poles voted into office a
conservative, nationalist and strongly pro-Catholic party, with ties to
the right. And yet it was that party's victorious presidential candidate, Lech
Kaczynski, who compared himself to Ariel Sharon - probably the only
European leader ever to do so.
The declarations made by Kaczynski - who makes his first official state
visit to Washington this week - did not come out of the blue. Previously,
as mayor of Warsaw, he was instrumental in the city's decision to allot
substantial municipal funds to the building of a Museum of the History of
Polish Jews in Warsaw, intended to become one of the continent's largest
Jewish museums. He also brought about close cooperation between the Polish
capital and Tel Aviv. As minister of justice in a previous conservative
government, he decisively pushed for the full disclosure of the World War
II-era massacre at Jedwabne, where a community of Polish Christians
murdered their Jewish neighbors. And at a recent meeting with Jewish leaders, top
advisers to the prime minister stated that the government's policy on
Jewish and Israeli issues will remain positive.
"We do not intend to give in to European political correctness on Israel,"
one of them said. Nor is there any talk of loosening ties with the United
States - even if Poland has been called "America's Trojan horse inside of
the European Union.
"Therefore it seems that the Kaczynski administration will follow in the
footsteps of previous post-Communism Polish governments. The first foreign
policy decision of the new democratic Polish Parliament in 1989 was to
re-establish diplomatic relations with Israel, broken off by Eastern Bloc
countries (excepted Romania) in 1967 on Moscow's orders. Though the
Czechs, not the Poles, became the first ex-Communist nation to send an ambassador
to Tel Aviv, this was due to the fallout from a statement by then prime
minister of Israel, Yitzhak Shamir, who had said that "Poles suckle
anti-Semitism with their mothers' milk" - hardly an encouraging gesture.
Still, Warsaw was second, after Prague - and in the meantime, became a
main transit point for Soviet Jews leaving Russia for Israel. The Hungarians
backed off after a terrorist attack. The Poles did not, though terrorist
threats were - and remain - aplenty.
In 1991, the mustachioed Solidarity hero-turned-president - Lech Walesa -
made a state visit to Israel, the first ever by a Polish leader, or by the
head of a former Soviet Bloc state. Addressing the Knesset, he asked
forgiveness for evils committed by Poles against Jews in the past, and
assured Israelis that modern Poland is a friend they can trust.
Thereafter, commercial and cultural relations boomed (Israeli investments
in Poland today amount to some $2 billion), youth exchange followed, and
military ties came soon after. Today the Polish army is buying Israeli
Spike missiles, while security services maintain a close cooperation. And though
expectations by some Israeli politicians that Poland, after joining the
European Union in 2004, would become "Israel's ambassador" to the
continental bloc may have been overly optimistic, statements by the Polish
ambassador to Israel condemning Palestinian terror have provoked howls of
outrage from some of his European colleagues - and denunciations sent
directly to Brussels.
Though sincere intent to compensate for evils of the past is a significant
motivation for this consistently pro-Israeli policy, it probably would not
have happened without the country's intense pro-Americanism.
Jews had reason aplenty to think bitterly of the Poland that was, and
therefore mistrust the Poland that is. There is indisputably still social
anti-Semitism in the country, even if local Jews say they feel safer
wearing a yarmulke on the streets of Warsaw than on the streets of Paris. But
mistrust is one thing, willful blindness another.
No country on the European continent today is both as strongly
pro-American and pro-Israeli as is Poland. Sure, the Poles do it partly because they
believe it is in their national interest. But one would be hard pressed to
find a sounder basis for a friendly partnership.
Tad Taube, a San Francisco businessman born in Poland, is president of the
Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture and of the Koret Foundation.
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