I read with great interest the speeches of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor Zbigniew Rau, on the priorities of Polish foreign policy. It was addressed to all Poles in Poland and abroad. That's why this column was created.
The war in Ukraine and the sense of threat made Polish diplomacy more active. The nations of the eastern flank behave in a similar way, and the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO only confirms the fact that we are not alone in our assessments when it comes to the threat of aggression from imperialist Russia. Therefore, the most important priority of Polish diplomacy is to ensure security for Poland and Poles. Security being understood in its every aspect: in the international space, energy security, food security and military security.
The essence of constructing security is the alliance with the United States and our membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The policy of strengthening the alliance and the policy of strengthening the American presence in Europe, and in particular on NATO's eastern flank, is Poland's raison d'état today. To this end, cooperation with all friends of Poland in the United States is essential.
The White House, Washington, D.C. (Source: Wikipedia)
Israel, as one of the greatest allies of the USA, has the best lobbying in the world, which strives daily to make Israel the most important ally of the USA. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is the largest professional lobbying organization dedicated to influencing American policy and legislation to make it friendly to Israel. As The Guardian editor Chris McGreal writes in the article "Pro-Israel lobbying group Aipac secretly pouring millions into defeating progressive Democrats", AIPAC has blocked progressive Democrats sympathetic to Palestine.
This is what professional lobbying that cares about the interests of its country looks like and it is worth learning from them. It is worth noting that the most important American politicians, including American presidents, congressmen and senators, make pilgrimages to the AIPAC conventions.
What Polish interests could the Polish lobby protect if it existed? In the USA, about 10 million American citizens still voluntarily identify themselves as Polish ethnic group, and this is much more than the group of American Jews, which is estimated at 7.6 million US citizens. The difference, however, is that it is the government of Israel that encourages its diaspora to act, and not only declaratively.
In his expose, our minister did not mention anything about lobbying in the US. In Warsaw, Polish lobbying does not function as a priority or takes ridiculous forms.
The Prime Minister Morawiecki said, in turn:
Our relationship is the best ever…. We are talking about strengthening our military, political and economic cooperation. Polish nuclear in cooperation with American suppliers will strengthen our energy security. Our goal is a strategic partnership with the United States.
The end of the conflict in Ukraine, analysts say, is close. What will the Americans do? Will they abandon the eastern flank or will they entrust the leadership of Europe to Germany? It is important to ask ourselves this question: shouldn't we Poles have a group similar to AIPAC in the United States?
The text was originally published in «Tygodnik Solidarność».
Translated from Polish by Andrew Woźniewicz.
