75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz: January 27, 2020

[wyevale]

^In this video HRH passed by two people, a Woman [possibly Mrs Pence] and Mr Pence.. it is inconceivable to me that he would deliberately snub them [he's never behaved in this manner before], so I think it likely they had shaken hands beforehand.

[Lumutqueen]

Originally Posted by duchessrachel

Prince Charles attends an Auschwitz Memorial in Israel. There is no excuse for this behavior from Prince Charles in not shaking Vice President Mike Pence's hand. I don't accept that this is just an oversight on his part. He is seasoned at events like this and should not be political as a member of the Royal Family.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ds-Israel.html

It wasn't an oversight, Mike Pence and Prince Charles had met privately just before this meeting. In the video you can hear Mike Pence respond to the Prince by saying "again". Listeners can infer that the Prince said something along the lines of them meeting again.

He wasn't being political, he just wasn't shaking hands again with someone he had just shaken hands with. The article even shows a warm meeting between the two after the event.

What's more likely, if Charles didn't shake everyones hand is that these events run to a schedule and it's simply impossible to greet everyone whilst going to your seat. Mr Putin I see chooses to get up after all guests are seated and shake the princes hand.

[An Ard Ri]

King Felipe VI of Spain attends the International Leader's Forum in Tel Aviv.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-ratB34xP0

HRH The Prince of Wales meets British Holocaust Survivors in Jerusalem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1-njolujEA

HRH The Prince of Wales meets with the Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9jIH9eWUPs

[Nico]

Originally Posted by duchessrachel

Prince Charles attends an Auschwitz Memorial in Israel. There is no excuse for this behavior from Prince Charles in not shaking Vice President Mike Pence's hand. I don't accept that this is just an oversight on his part. He is seasoned at events like this and should not be political as a member of the Royal Family.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ds-Israel.html

And i dont accept that the Vice President of the US was not briefed on the fact that you only greet a Royal once ...

[Durham]

Moving speech by The Prince of Wales. Beautifully delivered in his usual considered gracious style.

"every human being is in the image of God, a single human life is like an entire universe"

He received applause when talking about his maternal grandmother & when he spoke Hebrew.

[Camsterlaird]

Originally Posted by duchessrachel

Prince Charles attends an Auschwitz Memorial in Israel. There is no excuse for this behavior from Prince Charles in not shaking Vice President Mike Pence's hand. I don't accept that this is just an oversight on his part. He is seasoned at events like this and should not be political as a member of the Royal Family.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ds-Israel.html

He can't shake hands with just anyone.

[An Ard Ri]

The Dutch and Spanish kings with the President of Israel Reuven Rivlin.

https://www.ppe-agency.com/preview.p...20%20President

https://www.ppe-agency.com/show.php?...2020%20Spanish

[Mbruno]

Originally Posted by Durham

Moving speech by The Prince of Wales. Beautifully delivered in his usual considered gracious style.

"every human being is in the image of God, a single human life is like an entire universe"

He received applause when talking about his maternal grandmother & when he spoke Hebrew.

His speech was definitely the best one compared to Macron's and Pence's (unfortunately I couldn't understand Putin's as I do not speak Russian). It was totally inappropriate IMHO, in an event like this, for VP Pence to use his speech to attack Iran or for Macron to use it to praise the European Union (albeit indirectly).



It is interesting that Prince Charles referred to his grandmother as "Princess Alice of Greece". Maybe the Brits are finally giving up arcane naming conventions such as "Princess Andrew of Greece".

[Lady Daly]

I'm giving Prince Charles a pass even though I didn't watch the ceremony live having only access to the DM article/video clips. The article did show Prince Charles engaged and laughing with VP Pence and his wife apparently just prior to the ceremony. As for snubbing others my thought is in the past week Prince Charles flew to Oman then overnight back home to attend the family meeting regarding the Sussexes. Then off to Davos to give a major speech on climate change and economic impact. Now, he's in Israel attending the Auschwitz Memorial another huge international event with most of the major world powers in attendance. I'm giving him a break, maybe he's a bit worn out which might come off as arrogant vs basic energy conservation.

[QueenPenny]

Originally Posted by Alison H

Princess Alice/Princess Andrew was a fascinating person. I read a very good biography of her a few years ago. I assume Prince Charles'll visit her grave on the Mount of Olives whilst he's in Jerusalem, like William did when he was there. I don't know whether she ever spoke about it to Charles and Anne, but I hope she did.

Charles visited his grandmother's grave a few years ago while in Israel for a former PM's funeral (can't remember whose off-hand; perhaps Shimon Peres?). Hopefully he will have an opportunity to visit it again on this trip.

[Durham]

Originally Posted by Mbruno

His speech was definitely the best one compared to Macron's and Pence's (unfortunately I couldn't understand Putin's as I do not speak Russian). It was totally inappropriate IMHO, in an event like this, for VP Pence to use his speech to attack Iran or for Macron to use it to praise the European Union (albeit indirectly).

I shall have to listen to VP Pence. I have to confess I just listened to HRH. My French is rather rusty but I will have a go at Macron's speech.

I guess events like these showcase the advantages of having non politicians to represent a country.

[Alison H]

I think the press are making a fuss over nothing with Prince Charles and Mike Pence: the Palace have made it very clear that they'd already spoken. There's no way Charles would want to offend the US.


I'm not impressed with any of the politicians. Macron just had to harp on about the EU, Pence and Netanyahu both talked about Iran, Putin had a dig at some of Russia's neighbours ... it was the hardly the time or place for it. The Royals did much better.

[Mbruno]

Originally Posted by Durham

I shall have to listen to VP Pence. I have to confess I just listened to HRH. My French is rather rusty but I will have a go at Macron's speech.

I guess events like these showcase the advantages of having non politicians to represent a country.

VP Pence used the topic of anti-Semitism to say that the world should "stand against the Islamic Republic of Iran" , the logic being of course that Iranian leaders have denied the Holocaust in the past and called for the destruction of Israel.


Macron, very discreetly, at one point mentioned how he felt about being in the room with so many European leaders, including the president of the Federal Republic of Germany, whom he addressed as "Dear Frank" or something like that (I don't remember exactly), and then took the cue to say how important it was for Europe to be united and that Europe should never be disunited again (or something like that), which I interpret as a veiled reference to Brexit (Prince Charles was in the audience) and to Eurofederalism.


I am not questioning the validity of those remarks (Iran is indeed anti-Semitic and, of course, a united Europe makes war in the continent less likely). My complaint is that both Pence and Macron were making political statements related to current events that are of interest to their respective governments and I don't think it is appropriate to hijack an event like that and the memory of the Holocaust victims and survivors for that purpose.



To be fair, those were two short lines in both speeches. Overall, however, I think Charles' delivery was better than Pence's for example and his speech was better structured .

[wartenberg7]

Originally Posted by Alison H

I think the press are making a fuss over nothing with Prince Charles and Mike Pence: the Palace have made it very clear that they'd already spoken. There's no way Charles would want to offend the US.

I'm not impressed with any of the politicians. Macron just had to harp on about the EU, Pence and Netanyahu both talked about Iran, Putin had a dig at some of Russia's neighbours ... it was the hardly the time or place for it. The Royals did much better.

Yes, especially Netanyahu and Putin received a rather bad press following their speeches, their coming late when the remembrance event has already begun, their making political deals behind closed doors without including others (or using this anniversary to do such a thing at all) here in Germany. Their behaviour was appauling.

[Dalriada]

Originally Posted by Minister of Court

I watched the ceremony live and thought Charles behaved very arrogantly when arriving. Vice President Pence wasn’t the only one snubbed by him. The President of Italy too received cold shoulder. Charles seemed also in a great hurry to get away from the President of Germany. I was truly surprised by his arrogant manner. He’s usually such a gentleman.

Nothing surprises me about Charles. He is his own man with his own opinions. Thankfully his taxpayers agree with him on most things.

[wartenberg7]

Originally Posted by duchessrachel

Prince Charles attends an Auschwitz Memorial in Israel. There is no excuse for this behavior from Prince Charles in not shaking Vice President Mike Pence's hand. I don't accept that this is just an oversight on his part. He is seasoned at events like this and should not be political as a member of the Royal Family.

The Prince of Wales did nothing wrong here. There was no snub nor anything like it - he is too much a professionalist to act like this!

I have quite another question: At the end of the remembrance ceremony there was a group photograph been taken. But the only ones not included was the PM of Israel, Putin and Prince Charles. Have they left before?

I thought it was very disappointing that there was no royal representation from Denmark - "only" the PM attended...

And why did no royal ladies like the Queens or Camilla escort their husbands?

[Iluvbertie]

Camilla is scheduled to attend the events in Poland on Monday ... well the FE of the PoW website had her attending until a few days ago but that has now been removed.

[HereditaryPrincess]

It didn't seem like Charles so obviously "snubbed" Pence and his wife. I think this is just the tabloids overreacting - let's keep in mind that newspapers like the Daily Fail and Express support Trump and his government, so it's no surprise they would react in such a manner. Charles is too much of a gentleman to snub a high ranking member of the American government (no matter what we all think of him - I personally am not a fan, but that's not the discussion for this thread) so publicly and at such an important, solemn occasion.

[JR76]

It says a lot about our time when the big issue here isn't the 12 million victims of Nazi racial policies but whether Prince Charles snubbed Vice President Pence or not...

[Ista]

Originally Posted by JR76

It says a lot about our time when the big issue here isn't the 12 million victims of Nazi racial policies but whether Prince Charles snubbed Vice President Pence or not...

I agree, especially since even a small amount of research shows that there was no snub, they had met and greeted each other previously. I get so tired sometimes.