The US ambassador to Poland has been encountering consistent rhetorical attacks from those associated with the Polish far-right and ardent nationalists, employing classic antisemitic tropes, due to her alleged infringing on domestic Polish politics.
The ambassador, Georgette Mosbacher, who was chosen as the US envoy to Poland in 2018, has been fiercely criticised due to a recent Twitter exchange in which she referred to a former Polish defence minister as “disgusting and deplorable” amid the recent presidential election campaign that saw incumbent Andrzej Duda reelected.
The comments by the ambassador were made in reference to Antoni Macierewicz, who posted a message on Twitter condemning the opposition Civic Platform Party over its support of LGBT+ rights, and its defence of liberal-oriented media outlets disliked by the Polish far-right.
Allies of Macierewicz attacked Mosbacher via Twitter and public statements. Tomasz Sommer, a far-right journalist, while discussing the personal life of the ambassador, said that she came from a family of German Jews who converted to Protestantism, adding that “they baptized themselves as Protestants; there are many baptized Jews among Protestants,” hinting to the concept of a racial Jewish identity used in Nazi Germany.
Addressing the topic of property restitution for the three million Polish Jews murdered in the Holocaust, Sommer said: “The JUST Act is meant to squeeze money out of Poland just like she got money from her divorces,” a reference to the Ambassador’s support of legislation passed by the US Congress that requires the State Department to monitor Holocaust-era compensation.
In response, Mosbacher defended her criticisms of Macierewicz, saying on Twitter “When I took my oath as Ambassador, I didn’t give up my ethics, values, or sense of right and wrong. When I see history being distorted or interpreted for malign reasons, I speak out regardless of being Ambassador or not.”
Other allies, such as Krzysztof Bosak, a far-right parliamentarian, suggested that Mosbacher be made a persona non-grata, while Robert Winnicki, also on the far-right, said that she had violated diplomatic protocols.
