A moment of truth

Diplomats, when representing their countries abroad, often have to defend policies with which they do not personally agree. It takes courage on the part of a diplomat to state what he or she believes to be the truth.

Polish Ambassador Marek Magierowski can be listed among such courageous diplomats, possibly because he was for many years a journalist before entering the foreign service. Last week he tweeted: 'Understanding the historical context helps us dispel misperceptions about the attitude of the Polish population towards Jews during the Holocaust. Undeniably, there were thousands of Poles who denounced their Jewish neighbors and perpetrated the most heinous atrocities.'

He went even further than this, possibly understanding the Jewish concept of repairing the world. If you don’t acknowledge what needs repairing, you can’t fix it.

Polish antisemitism before and during the war cannot be denied, but nor can Polish altruism, humanity and heroism that was directed toward the saving of thousands of Jews. Numerically, Poles stand head and shoulders above all other nationalities in the Righteous Among the Nations.

* CYPRUS FOREIGN Minister Nicos Christodoulides, in an interview with Mercury Global Reports, reiterated that his country’s relations with Israel 'are solid, and it is a priority to cultivate them further.

'Nobody can escape geography, but Cyprus and Israel are more than just neighbors. Beyond untapping the potential of our bilateral cooperation, we are setting up a permanent secretariat for all our trilateral cooperation mechanisms which will help to establish a solid framework for these mechanisms, and thus facilitate their expansion and deepening.'

* JUST AHEAD of International Women’s Day, yet another crack appeared in the glass ceiling when Tel Aviv University’s search committee unanimously recommended that TAU alumna Dafna Meitar-Nechmad be appointed as the next chairwoman of the TAU board of governors. After serving for three years as cochairwoman of the TAU Global Campaign, Meitar-Nechmad will replace Prof. Jacob A. Frenkel, who will be completing two four-year terms.

Her appointment, if ratified by the board of governors at its next meeting, will result in her being the first woman to hold this position at TAU, though a series of 11 women have been appointed to senior positions at TAU over the past year, including vice president for international academic...