Daily Freeman (Kingston, NY)

Israeli leader’s Nazi comments derail European summit

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JERUSALEM >> Poland on Monday withdrew from a European summit in Jerusalem, derailing the meeting and embarrassi­ng its Israeli hosts, to protest claims by Israel’s acting foreign minister that Poles collaborat­ed with the Nazis and “suckled anti-Semitism with their mothers’ milk.”

The abrupt cancellati­on marked a new low in a bitter and long-running conflict between Poland and Israel over how to characteri­ze Polish actions toward its Jewish community during World War II.

It also was a diplomatic setback for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He has courted these countries to counter the criticism Israel typically faces in internatio­nal forums.

Today’s meeting of the leaders of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic — known as the Visegrad group — was to be the first time the summit has been held outside of Europe.

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