Israel Opens First Permanent Embassy in Ljubljana. Delo Explains What Made Slovenia Valuable to Netanyahu

Israel's first permanent embassy in Slovenia opened in Ljubljana on Wednesday. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar attended the opening — the head of Israeli diplomacy had last been in Ljubljana sixteen years ago. Slovenian Minister Tone Kajzer described it as a "180-degree turn" in bilateral relations. This came a day after twelve Western countries announced restrictions on trade with Israeli settlements, and Israel retaliated by closing the British consulate in East Jerusalem. RTV Slovenija ↗

What Delo Says

The newspaper Delo gave the whole event a headline that's hard to overlook: "Slovenia Against the Current." According to it, Ljubljana is deepening ties with Israel at exactly the moment the rest of the West is toughening its stance. The ministers signed a bilateral cooperation program in education, science, culture, youth and sport for 2026 to 2030, and an accompanying business forum with more than fifty companies was held behind closed doors. Sa'ar called the opening of the embassy a "historic day" and added that "Israel does not forget its friends." Delo ↗ Delo ↗

More significant, however, is the question Delo posed in a separate analysis: why does Netanyahu need the support of a country of two million people at all? It got the answer from an Israeli academic. "From Netanyahu's perspective, Slovenia's value lies not in its size, but in its place within the EU's decision-making system. A small member state can gain considerable influence whenever unanimity is required," Sharon Pardo, professor of European Studies and International Relations at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, told the newspaper. According to him, Israeli governments have long and deliberately built bilateral relations with far-right parties and governments of individual member states precisely because of how foreign policy is decided within the Union. Delo ↗

In this context, Delo recalls the end of August. At that time, Slovenia vetoed a joint statement by the Union and its twenty-seven members that was meant to condemn Israel's tender for 1,200 housing units in the contested E1 settlement project. As a result, the text could only be issued as a communiqué by High Representative Kaja Kallas, not as a joint statement by all members. Slovenia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs justified this by saying the statement "would not add value at this moment." Netanyahu publicly thanked Janša for the veto. bne IntelliNews ↗ ANSA ↗

What Slovak and Czech Media Are Missing

The sanctions imposed by twelve countries were picked up by wire services and newspapers here. Slovenia was also written about over the past month, but almost exclusively in connection with Pogačar, the condemnation of the glorification of Mladić, and the parliament stripping former Prime Minister Robert Golob of immunity. The fact that one member state had blocked a joint European statement on the settlements did not come up in that coverage.

Yet the contrast is stark. The previous Golob government recognized Palestine, described Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide, and in July 2025 banned far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich from entering the country. The Janša government scrapped these measures and announced it would no longer condemn Israel. Meanwhile, in a 2024 recording, Netanyahu described Golob as probably the "most hostile" European prime minister. Al Jazeera ↗ Delo ↗

At home, it did not go unnoticed. President Nataša Pirc Musar, along with the opposition, objected to the August veto, and the Social Democrats announced an interpellation of Minister Kajzer. On Wednesday evening, opponents then called a protest right on Dimičeva Street, where the embassy is located, and proposed to the city commission that it be renamed Palestinian Street. ANSA ↗ RTV Slovenija ↗

Limits of This Perspective

Delo is a liberal-leaning newspaper that was critical of Janša during his previous governments as well, and the "against the current" framing is its own. The government explains it differently: as a return to normal relations after a period it considers ideological. Also worth noting is something that comes up less often in the Slovenian debate — Israel was among the first states to recognize independent Slovenia, and bilateral trade grew fourteen percent year-on-year last year. Moreover, the argument about unanimity comes from a single Israeli academic, not from any document, and Delo presents it as an interpretation, not as proof of intent.

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*Photo: Trg Republike in Ljubljana, home to the Slovenian parliament, in an archive image. Author: Palickap / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0. The image has been resized.*