Jerusalem • The decision to hold the annual “V4” summit in Jerusalem - the first time the bloc of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia had met outside Europe - was intended to build on the growing bonds between Israel and Central European nations.
Instead, it was called off amid a spat over the role Poles played in the Holocaust, highlighting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's awkward alliances with countries accused of seeking to gloss over their history during World War II.
Poland officially pulled out of the summit Monday after comments by Israel's acting foreign minister, Israel Katz, who quoted a former Israeli prime minister as saying that Poles "suckle anti-Semitism from their mother's breast.