TOI reports that Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė called Israel’s defenses “the best antidote against Iranian weapons,” in a speech in Tel Aviv Sunday, outlining security interests shared by Israel and other Western democracies in light of Russian-Iranian cooperation against Ukraine.

The remarks, delivered to an American Jewish Committee gathering, But Šimonytė also did not mention Lithuanians’ role in persecuting Jews during the Holocaust, instead describing the Nazi’s systemic killing machine as a horror visited equally on Jews and Gentiles alike.

Šimonytė told the hundreds of Jewish leaders and activists at the Global Forum summit about certain aspects of the centuries-long presence of Jews in Lithuania, which she described in positive terms and as a bridge that unites Lithuanian-Israeli bilateral relations.

Both speeches underlined a well-documented split over Israel in the EU which often requires consensus for major foreign policy actions. Israel has forged warm relations with some of the bloc’s eastern member states – Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic –as well as with Greece and Cyprus, which reportedly helps block critical EU moves.

Source - TOI/Twitter - Image - Courtesy/AJC