When even Czech Radio starts referring to the situation in Gaza as "starvation," it's clear that the pressure on the Czech government is rising. Foreign Min. Jan Lipavský emphasizes that the CR takes humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians seriously, but he and his ambassador to Israel, Veronika Kuchyňová Šmigolová, avoid using the S-word. Not so their main ally in terms of Israel, Donald Trump, who said that "it's real starvation stuff." Or Keir Starmer, who spoke of the "intolerable situation, including images of starvation." Thomas Friedman of the New York Times went even further, calling it a "policy of starvation" and asking how a Jewish democratic state, descended in part from the Holocaust, can be engaged in such a policy. The Czech government finds itself caught between its loyal support for Israel and its vow to renew the tradition of Václav Havel's foreign policy in terms of the promotion of democracy, human rights and civil society. In the case of Gaza, the Havelian policy of "humanitarian bombing" in defense of Kosovo is getting dangerously close to a policy of "humanitarian starvation" in defense of Israel. [ Czech Republic Serbia UK U.K. United States president PM ]
Glossary of difficult words
S-word - "starvation" (in this context); modeled on the "F-word," which is used as a euphemism for the word "fuck" because of that word's taboo status.