With interest and relief, I recently read an interview with our Ambassador to Israel, Mrs. Veronika Kuchyňová-Šmigolová, in the 43rd issue of Echo. Her views and opinions are different from what we read in the mainstream liberal media, but they are consistent with what I have seen during my several trips to Israel and what my Israeli friends confirm to me.
President Trump’s peace plan envisages that a kind of interim government will take over the authority over Gaza – to fully replace Hamas. I am afraid that Hamas will not give up power. It would have to renounce the reason for its existence, which it clearly articulates in its charter: Its goal continues to be the total destruction of Israel “from the river to the sea.”
When I was in Israel for the first time – it was on the Feast of Tabernacles and on the eve of the first Gulf War – I asked our Israeli guide, with whom we became so close that he visited us before the division of Czechoslovakia, if there were any Arabs who wanted peace with Israel. He replied laconically, a little cynically, but apparently truthfully: “Yes, our graveyards are full of them.”
Let’s put it in context: After the last ceasefire, we heard on the news how many Jews were shot by Islamists and how many Palestinians were killed by Jews. Less noticed was what we could also read or hear, namely that Hamas executed “collaborators”, has been somewhat forgotten. At first, I thought Hamas was executing only those who openly collaborated with the Israelis. That’s how news initially reported about it. However, it is possible that the reason for the execution was not only cooperation with Israel, but also the fact that some clans tried to act independently, of the decimated Hamas. But what may surprise us: Some were apparently executed because they were more radical than Hamas.
What message does this send to those Palestinians who would consider participating in a possible future government? What would happen to those who would even just support such a government?
I will mention another problematic point. The peace plan envisages installing some kind of neutral troops to maintain order. Unfortunately, past experience with similar “peace” corps is not very encouraging, but it is not surprising. Soldiers have motivation when they defend their homeland. They have motivation there. In Gaza, however, the “peace troops” are supposed to separate highly motivated Hamas fighters and the highly motivated soldiers of the Israeli army. But what motivation would the soldiers of the potential peacekeepers have? In the Balkans, where the situation is much simpler than in the Middle East, the Srebrenica massacre took place. The Dutch soldiers did not have enough motivation, and I was not surprised that they refuse to fight. I wish peace to the Balkans and to the Middle East, but I have great doubts about the meaningfulness of a “peacekeeping force” without a clear mandate and without a clear motivation. I wish I were wrong.
Our ambassador to Israel points out that the Palestinians need the Middle Eastern equivalent of denazification. As long as children are instilled with hatred of Jews from kindergarten, the situation will hardly change. But such denazification is a long run.
I don’t see any human solution yet. If we want to reach a viable solution, it does not help to promote the blind alleys that both sides know are dead-ends.
I hope Mrs. Veronika Kuchyňová-Šmigolová will not lose the courage to tell the truth where there are so many conscious and unconscious lies. And I am very glad that a wise woman represents us in Israel.
November 1, 2025