Meeting the Challenge of Poland

Meeting the Challenge in Poland When ​ELNET​ decided to open an office in Poland five years ago, skeptics asked, "Why Poland? Is it important to Israel? Doesn't Poland have a dark history of antisemitism?" And since the populist/nationalist Law and Justice party gained control of the government in 2015, questions about Poland have continued. Yet Poland has become one of the most important countries in the European Union for Israel. It is the giant of Eastern Europe, with a population and GDP larger than all its neighbors combined. A former Polish President, Donald Tusk, is now the President of the European Council, the top body of the European Union. Israel looks to Poland as one of the friendliest countries in the European Union. Today, Poland helps to improve the language of EU resolutions affecting Israeli interests, and its voting record at the United Nations is also better than many EU member states. On November 29, Polish officials assured Israel that it can count on Polish support at the UN Security Council, where it will be a

non-permanent member for the 2018-12019 term. Recently, Anna Fotyga, former Polish Foreign Minister and now Chair of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Security and Defense, wrote to the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini to urge that "no public funds go to organizations calling for a boycott of the State of Israel, and to instruct agencies not to engage with companies, organizations or other entities involved with the BDS movement." In a meeting with East European leaders in Budapest on July 19, Prime Minister Netanyahu asked Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło and her pro-Israel East European counterparts to "communicate to your colleagues in other parts of Europe" to stop "attacking Israel, undermining the one western country in the Middle East that defends European values and European interests and prevents another mass migration to Europe." Poland's help is needed because "only" the European Union "conditions relations with Israel on political demands....There is no logic here. Europe ends in Israel; East of Israel, there is no more Europe." Sandwiched between Germany and Russia, today's Poland is firmly anchored to the West and NATO, and to Israel. Ted Taube, a leading American philanthropist with extensive experience in Poland, observed ten years ago that, "No country on the European continent today is both as strongly pro-American and pro-Israeli as Poland. It has close military and intelligence ties with Israel, and votes in the U.N. more sympathetically than most of the EU." Poland's primary national security concern is the revival of Russian expansionism, a concern that has become more acute since Putin's invasion of

Ukraine's Crimea in 2014. Poland's alliance with Israel is regarded as a pillar of its relations with the United States. Poland values Israel's military, counter-terror, and cybersecurity expertise, and it shares Israel's concern with the twin threats of Islamic extremism and Iranian aggression. Defense ties between Israel and Poland are growing significantly. In November 2017, Polish Air Force F-16s joined forces from four other NATO countries and India in the largest joint air force exercise ever held in Israel, called Blue Flag. In July 2017, the Polish Defense ministry decided to procure the David Sling interceptor missile system from Israel's Raphael for about $1 billion, one of the largest orders the company ever received. The Polish and Israeli governments held a joint cabinet meeting in Jerusalem last year, including their respective Prime, Foreign, Defense, Economic, and other ministers. The two governments committed themselves to enhancing their Strategic Partnership and bolstering economic, science & technology, cyber, defense, security and cultural cooperation. Israeli investors play a significant role in the Polish economy. Israeli investments include: an Egged subsidiary operating 1,500 Polish buses; Eden, is the second-largest distributor of bottled water; ASBUD buider of 2000 apartments; Super-Pharm operating 33 Polish pharmacies; and Cinema City operating 40% of Poland's multiplexes. Non-military trade between Poland and Israel is approaching $1 billion per year. In January 2017, on his second visit to Israel in four months, Polish President Andrzej Duda, said, "Jewish culture is popular in Poland today because it raises positive memories...Kippa-wearers in

every Polish city are much safer today than in Western Europe - France, for example." Duda's father-in-law Julian Kornhauser is a well-known Polish-Jewish poet and literary critic. However, Duda denied his country's collective guilt for the atrocities of the Holocaust, saying Poles also suffered under the Nazi regime. "We did not make the Holocaust. We were conquered by the Germans. We had no free choice." In denial over the role of Polish citizens in the murder of millions of Polish Jews during the Holocaust, Poland's nationalistic Law and Justice (PiS) government passed a law criminalizing statements that Poles or Poland were co-responsible for the crimes committed by Nazi Germany on Polish soil. Use of the phrase "Polish Death Camps" is now a crime punishable by fines and up to three years in prison. The Union of Jewish Communities in Poland and the European Jewish Congress report that there has been a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Poland since the populist and nationalist Law and Justice Party gained control of the government in 2015. However, the TSKZ cultural organization of Polish Jews, which has 1,200 members in 15 cities, believes these reports are exaggerated and that the current government is friendly to Jews and Israel. The University of Warsaw's Centre for Research on Prejudice found that 37 percent of those surveyed voiced negative attitudes towards Jews in 2016, up from 32 percent the previous year, while 56 percent said they would not accept a Jewish person in their family, an increase of nearly 10 percent from 2014. In a gesture of reassurance, leader of the ruling Law and Justice Party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, met with Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich and the president of the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland, Leslaw Piszewski, on November 17. In

August, Kaczynski also met with the TSKZ and the leaders of Polish Chabad organizations. ELNET-Poland​ is certainly alert to threats to Poland's small Jewish community and to denial of responsibility for the role of Poles in the Holocaust. But ELNET is committed to the proposition that Europe is not lost. We believe that conducting effective, professionally led pro-Israel advocacy, and building contacts with key European governments, can help to expand European ties with Israel and contribute to the security and prosperity of European Jewish communities. In Poland's parliament, ELNET-Poland has built one of the largest pro-Israel caucuses in in Europe, comprising 70 parliamentarians. Under the leadership of its extraordinary director, Jacek Olejnik, ELNET-Poland has also developed relations with the new government, including officials like Paweł Soloch, head of the Prime Minister's National Security Bureau. Among other initiatives, ELNET is in communication with Grzegorz Małecki, who formerly headed Poland's Foreign Intelligence and now is advising the Prime Minister on National Cybersecurity Strategy and restructuring Poland's intelligence community. Malecki is a strong advocate of cooperation with Israel. For four years, ELNET-Poland has sponsored and organized the annual Poland-Israel Strategic Dialogues. This year the dialogue has risen to a new level, because the Polish Government's National Security Council has joined ELNET as a convening partner. ELNET-Poland is also an active participant in the Warsaw Security Forum, where Israel will play a major role in 2018. It will be a unique opportunity

for Israeli companies in the defense and security sector to present to key Polish/East European decision makers. Eyes wide open, ​ELNET-Poland​ is well aware of the dangers, but also the opportunities, in that country's new era.

Support Friends of ELNET ​donate here​. ABOUT ELNET ELNET (European Leadership Network)​ is building Israel Advocacy in Europe. The mission is to: educate leaders and citizens from Europe about Israel, promote an exchange of ideas between leaders and citizens with Israelis, and increase knowledge about Israel thereby improving the diplomatic and cultural relations between the entities. In each country, the affiliates raise funds, find and establish relationships with local citizens and leaders, cultivate relationships with them, and invite them to activities, seminars and events in which they are educated about Israel. Each affiliate also hosts delegations of leaders from Israel and Europe, encouraging cultural exchange and exchange of ideas. ELNET​ has offices in France, Germany, Poland, Belgium and Israel, as well as working in Spain and the UK. ELNET was the initiator and co-sponsor of two landmark summits in Brussels: The first ever NATO-Israel Cooperation Event and the first EU-Israel Strategic Dialogue. Friends of ELNET (FELNET)​ is a non-profit organization that is tax exempt under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3). Federal Tax ID # 45-2212393.

FELNET Chairman and Co-Founder Larry J. Hochberg

FELNET Advisory Board Mark Kirk​ - former U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman​ - former FELNET Vice Chairman and U.S. Senator Treasurer Norman Coleman​ - former Ken Ruby U.S. Senator Howard Berman​ - former FELNET Board of Director U.S. Representative ​Joseph Feinberg Shelley Berkley​ - former John Fishel U.S. Representative Leonard A. Foxman Elliott Abrams​ - former Andrew Hochberg National Security David Jonas Council Jerome Rosenberg Advisor ​

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT US: Lee Rosenblum (National Executive Director) [email protected] Jonathan Boyer (West Coast Director) ​[email protected]

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