Israel’s ‘Best Friend,’ Czech President Miloš Zeman, Calls for European Solidarity With Jewish State in Knesset Address

Algemeiner Staff

Czech President Miloš Zeman delivers a speech during a special session held in his honor at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Nov. 26, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Ammar Awad.

Addressing the Knesset on Monday during a visit to Jerusalem, Czech President Miloš Zeman delivered a message of “solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people.”

“[Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu said the Czech Republic is Israel’s best friend in Europe,” Zeman noted. “I wonder, why only Europe? Anyway, I am the best friend of Israel in my whole country.”

“We Europeans… I speak about the EU, in fact, are sometimes hesitating,” Zeman said. “We sometimes are cowards. It is very impolite, isn’t it? But I am afraid it is frank. And that’s why it is necessary all the time the solidarity with Israel. Because [if we] betray Israel, we betray ourselves.”

Zeman criticized “political correctness,” and emphasized that he purposely used the term “Islamic terrorism.”

The Czech president also reiterated his support for moving his country’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

“I am no dictator unfortunately, but I promise I’ll do my best,” he said in an oblique reference to opposition he has faced — both in his own country and the rest of Europe — on the matter.

In 2017, Zeman was honored with a honored with a “Warrior for Truth” award  at The Algemeiner’s annual gala in New York City.

Watch a video of Zeman’s Knesset speech below: