Nigeria has canceled a planned visit by Prime Minister Fiala on his week-long tour of African countries amid speculation the government’s foreign policy of supporting Israel against the monstrous terrorist attacks by the Hamas movement.
In critical comments, criticism from the opposition is not surprising. She always criticizes the government inconsistently for everything. Now he cannot shout that the government is a stooge of Brussels without his own opinion, so this time it is wrong for a change that the government has its own and clearly morally profiled opinion on the attacks in Israel. If the SPD or ANO talk like this in order to please their voter groups, it is not surprising. These parties have nothing better to do. From political scientists, however, considerations prioritizing economic interests over value interests or calling for turning a blind eye to terrorist atrocities in the name of “pragmatism” are a surprise.
The political scientists who were contacted probably did not notice that after a long period of darkness, we finally have a clearly morally profiled foreign policy, which we do not need to be ashamed of. And that we are finally not whispering like a downtrodden nameless country somewhere in the middle east of Europe, trembling in fear of every eastern despotism, but we are speaking as a confident actor in world events. Similar to the time of Václav Havel, when for a long time our foreign policy also had a global touch.
As much as the government makes some mistakes in domestic politics, it manages the international one with an understated number one. Examples? PS President Pekarová Adamová followed up on Miloš Vystrčilo by visiting Taiwan without worrying about the threats of the Chinese dictatorship. Prime Minister Fiala was in the first group of statesmen who visited Kyiv after the attack by Russia, while in Europe we have been one of the leaders in humanitarian aid to the attacked Ukraine since the beginning. The same applies to the uncompromising condemnation of the monstrous terrorism of the Hamas movement in Israel, while Minister Lipavský was the very first statesman to visit Israel after the Hamas attacks. And it was again Prime Minister Fiala who convinced the European Commission of the need to end financial aid to the Gaza Strip, and promised the Israelis full support even for their demonstration in Prague. Minister Černochová then she expressed her indignation at the insufficient condemnation of Palestinian violence by the UN in a very controversial way, but it is still a smaller mistake than if she approved the content of the adopted resolution as fair. Aren’t these attitudes much more important for the government’s business card than how much Nutella costs here?
That oppositional “pragmatism” is nothing but a euphemistic name for profiteering. It is opposed to value politics, which is based on moral attitudes, with the good being encouraged and the bad being condemned. Pragmatism, on the other hand, says that we should do what subjectively benefits us, regardless of what we objectively support. In other words, feel free to bow down to murderous regimes, only if they give us cheaper gas or oil. Turning a blind eye to Islamic terrorism just to please wealthy Muslim theocracies like Saudi Arabia. And Taiwan, of course, should be taken as a “necessary sacrifice”, because China is, after all, a great power, and it is not advisable to anger it. What if, for example, she stopped supplying us with chips. There is nothing more spineless than such a “gardening” approach, according to which “the real politics of interests, cynical, pragmatic, Kissingerian, is still absent here”.
In the microcosm, we condemn murderers and rapists both legally and morally. Is it supposed to be different in the macro world? If the supporters of the Hamas movement are hung with gold like the Emir of Qatar, are we suddenly to bow and flatter them? Should we despise the poor murderers, but bow our backs to the rich? Just to drop us a few gold coins? Disgusting to think about.
Apparently, this is still not enough for the Czech supporters of pragmatism, shoemaking and hunched backs in front of all the azimuths. We are supposed to bow down to developing countries such as Nigeria, because our Czech Trade representative office is there. In other words, Nigeria can vote as she wants in the UN, but we better keep our mouths shut so as not to provoke her? And by the way, how can anyone be surprised that Nigeria supported the UN resolution on the events in Israel, when Sharia law applies to a large part of its territory? Should we adapt to this as part of “economic diplomacy”?
The policy of bending the back leads to nothing other than the fact that we won’t even be able to straighten up from a slouched position. MEP Zahradil and ex-president Zeman are the masters of Chinese leaning, before he finally took a political rest. The fervent bowing before every stick or bag of gold is, in addition to being morally objectionable, also hopelessly ridiculous.
Do we really want to be represented by politicians who themselves fit our country into the role of insignificant extras in world events, or are they willing to tolerate any moral perversion for a few pennies in their own pockets? After all, nothing much worse than the atrocities of the Hamas movement can be imagined. And the reaction of every civilized country should correspond to this, which is a position also held by the Czech government, and there is not the slightest reason to change anything.
Last but not least, it must be remembered that the more the smaller states play on the “pragmatic note”, the more powerful the concert of arbitrariness will be played by the world powers. Where there is no criticism and pressure for changes, there is no reason to approach them. If the entire West, out of eternal fear of nuclear weapons, “pragmatically” tolerated Russia even after its invasion of Ukraine, the barrel of a Russian tank would already be sticking out across the Schengen border. And the local pragmatists may already be from the Russian singer Shaman eagerly teaches to sing, how wonderful it is to be Russian.
And let’s not forget that the Munich Agreement was also “pragmatic”. Leaving aside its brutal immorality, we all know very well where it led not only us as “pragmatically” dumped victims, but also its signatories. Tolerance of evil eventually catches up with everyone. Even those who think they can save themselves from him by “pragmatically” bowing to dictators.
