Summit is cancelled after fears that he is about the Holocaust

A battle which first seemed to originate in interpretations of Hebrew and Polish grammar grew into a diplomatic storbråk of a few days.

the Result: a foreign-policy triumph for Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned into a fiasco.

cultivated friendship with the countries of central europe, with the aim of driving a wedge in the EU. The four countries all have nationalist governments, and can stop a united EU front, for example, when it comes to criticism of Israel's treatment of palestinians.

In may 2018, when the united states announced its plans to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, it was just Hungary and the Czech republic, which stopped a joint condemnation of the EU statement on the measure.

And this week, a summit meeting with the four so-called V4 countries – Poland, the Czech republic, Slovakia and Hungary – for the first time held outside Europe, in Jerusalem, with Netanyahu as the proud host.

relations between Poland and Israel is a complicating factor: the Holocaust.

the Poles are often, rightly, upset when foreigners talk about ”Polish death camps” or claim that it was the Polish nation that was behind the mass extermination of Europe's jews during the second world war – which of course was a German, nazi project.

Poland is often pointed out that more poles have been awarded the israeli title of ”Righteous among the nations” than any other nation. The award goes to the non-jews who protected jews during the war. It is mentioned so often that not a single pole was a volunteer in the nazi SS, unlike many other european nationalities.

regular attempts from the Polish side to deny that any pole at all participated in the murder of the jews. In the last year adopted the so-called Förintelselagen, which in its first version gave the prison for those who claimed such a thing. It made it basically illegal to mention the pogroms in Kielce and Kraków, which took place after Nazi germany had been defeated.

Israel and Netanyahu then objected loudly.

since Then, the Polish and the Israeli governments have made efforts to smooth over differences of opinion around the story.

Read more: Controversial Polish law provides for the anti-semitism free rein.

broke the quarrel resolved again, then Netanyahu during a visit in Warsaw, said to an israeli journalist that ”the poles collaborated with the nazis” during the Holocaust.

Or what he said? The israeli newspaper the Jerusalem Post changed since his quotes from ”poles” to the ”poles”. A significant change, as the definite form indicates that it was all the poles who took part, while the second means that some did it.

the Definite article, the corresponding Swedish suffix -na, is in Hebrew, but not in Polish.

and prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki reacted anyway strong on the Netanyahu statement, and indicated that Jerusalemresan could be cancelled, or that the minister had to go in place of their parent.

But just when the storm showed signs of blow over said Israel Katz, the newly appointed israeli minister of foreign affairs. He said as late as Monday morning that ”anti-semitism was innate” of the poles and referred to former prime minister Yitzhak Shamir:

" what was it he said? In his opinion, got the poles, in itself, anti-semitism with the breast milk.

for the Polish government, which called the israeli ambassador for the sermon. At lunchtime on Monday, it was announced that no Polish representative go to the V4 meeting that would have begun on Monday.

Israel, on its part, announced that the meeting is cancelled, and that Netanyahu will hold bilateral meetings with his colleagues from Hungary, the Czech republic and Slovakia. Later, the Czech government that it allow be to travel to Jerusalem in solidarity with Poland.