Final Word from Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Just as China has chosen the CR as an intermediary for promoting its interests in the EU, so has Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu told Petr Nečas in 2012 that the CR was Israel's closest EU ally, and later that year Netanyahu visited Prague to thank Nečas for the way the CR was the only EU country to vote against upgrading Palestine to nonmember U.N. observer. High-level visits have accelerated since then, and Bohuslav Sobotka spent a day in Jerusalem on Sat. with seven of his ministers. Dep. Environment Min. Vladimír Dolejský has also mentioned Israel as a model for how to collect and recycle rainwater, and Finance Min. Andrej Babiš said with regard to the refugee crisis that the CR might need a fence with the kind of modern technology used by Israel to guard its border. Good bilateral relations can't be a one-way street, though, so Sobotka took Škoda Transportation on Sat. as part of his trade delegation. Just in case Israel needs an example of how a murky private company can be used to suck money out of state-owned entities with high-level semi-official support. [Czech Republic European Union prime minister PM]