at Masaryk University in Brno in the Czech Republic. This is after a chair in the name of Thomas Masaryk was dedicated last January at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.
The Herzl chair will deal with research into leadership, research of the Zionist idea and the State of Israel's place in the family of nations.The establishment of the chair was agreed upon during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meetings with Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas during the 17 May 2012 consultative meeting between the Israeli and Czech governments.
Prime Minister Netanyahu noted that cooperation in establishing chairs in the name of the countries' leaders strengthens the ties between peoples, especially in culture and academia: "Both Herzl and Masaryk were statesmen, journalists and men of letters who acted to realize the national dreams of their peoples and to establish sovereign states. There can be no greater symbol of cooperation than establishing a chair in the Czech Republic in Herzl's name after a chair in Masaryk's name was established in Israel, in order to express the friendly relations and shared history between our peoples.
The cooperation in establishing the chair is an additional expression of the deep friendship between the two countries. On 5 December 2012, Prime Minister Netanyahu visited Prague and thanked Czech Prime Minister Necas for his country's opposition to the Palestinians' unilateral declaration at the UN
Prime Minister Netanyahu told his Czech counterpart: "In 1938, in Munich, leading powers of the world forced this proud democracy to sacrifice its vital interests. The international community applauded almost uniformly without exception. They hailed this as something that would bring peace, peace in our time they said. But rather than bring peace, those forced concessions from Czechoslovakia paved the way to the worst war in history. I know that your country has learned the lessons of history. So has my country, Israel." Prime Minister Netanyahu added: "In my entry at the airport, a bust of Tomáš Masaryk, the great leader of this country, of this nation, and I believe that Tomáš Masaryk would have been very proud of the stand that your country took last week at the United Nations."
