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It is not the ambition of Czechast to provide you listeners with news and current affairs analysis on a regular basis. However, I thought it might be useful to give you some background information about this country and its peoples relationship with Israel and the Middle East in general, because its impossible to ignore whats been going on in Israel and the Gaza Strip since October 7th, 2023.

Irena Kalhousov is theDirector of the Herzl Center for Israeli Studies at Charles University in Prague. Among other things, we discuss thatCzechoslovakia was the only country willing to send arms to Israel when it was fighting for its survival in 1948. But as soon as the Communists consolidated their power after the coup d'etat of 1948, they made a ruthless U-turn in the official policy towards the Jewish state.

Irena Kalhousov|Photo: Michal Novotn, Charles University

Irena explainsthe Slnsk trial in 1952, which was a part of the Czechoslovak version of the Stalinist purges and trials in the Soviet Union. Just to explain briefly the context: Rudolf Slnsk who had been the General Secretary of the Communist Party, was arrested as the alleged leader of a conspiracy against Czechoslovakia. He and 13 other co defendants were also accused of Zionism, planning sabotage and it resulted in 14 executions, including Slnsk. Eleven of the executed were Jewish.

In February 1990, literally weeks after the fall of Communism, Czechoslovakia and Israel resumed diplomatic relations. Has it been a kind of smooth sailing ever since? Or were there some disagreements, quarrels? Those are some of the questions that Irena Kalhousov answers in this episode of Czechast.

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Czechast with Irena Kalhousov, Director of the Herzl Center for ... - Radio Prague International