Skopje Mayor Orce Gjorgjievski<\/a> came to Israel for MUNI EXPO 2026, where he spoke to the Post about drawing on Israeli experience in municipal resilience, emergency preparedness, water management, and innovation.<\/p>\nAsked whether that tempo represented a deliberate change, Mucunski said it reflected a policy emanating from the top of the Macedonian government.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrime Minister Mickoski himself believes that stronger collaboration with Israel is a necessity for our country to also be successful,\u201d he said of ties between two countries with diplomatic relations since 1995.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many things that we can learn from you. There are many common values that we share, both on a domestic as well as international level. And in that sense, since the formation of our government, we have made the bilateral relationship with Israel one of the priorities of our foreign policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although it took until his second year as foreign minister to make the journey himself, Mucunski said the lack of a visit should not be mistaken for a lack of contact, stressing that he and Sa\u2019ar confer often about issues that affect their countries.<\/p>\n
When Israel came to Kocani<\/p>\n
There is also a more personal and painful episode behind the warmth with which Mucunski talks about the relationship.<\/p>\n
On March 16, 2025, a fire tore through the Pulse nightclub in the eastern Macedonian city of Kocani, killing dozens and injuring scores more, many of them young people. The scale of the disaster overwhelmed a country of fewer than two million people and prompted offers of assistance from abroad.<\/p>\n
Among the first foreign ministers to telephone Mucunski was Sa\u2019ar.<\/p>\n
The call left a great impression on the Macedonians. Israel dispatched a medical delegation to the Balkan state, and within roughly a day of the disaster Israeli doctors were working alongside Macedonian teams, treating some of the badly injured.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin a day of the tragedy itself, they were performing surgery in our hospitals and helping our doctors, with their experience and their in-depth knowledge, and helping to save the lives of many young individuals,\u201d Mucunski recalled.<\/p>\n
For a foreign minister, bilateral relationships are ordinarily measured in agreements signed, diplomatic votes, trade figures, and official visits, but Mucunski repeatedly returned instead to what happened after Kocani as an example of what he believes the relationship looks like when it is tested away from conference rooms.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis situation was proof that Israel stands by my country,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
He sees Macedonia\u2019s diplomatic behavior toward Israel in recent years as the other side of that relationship. \u201cWe have also proven that we stand together with Israel in the many different challenges that it faces, as all nations face,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have collaborated very successfully in the multilateral forum in the last few years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sa\u2019ar publicly thanked him for precisely that during Monday\u2019s visit, praising North Macedonia for standing alongside Israel in international forums, particularly since the Hamas-led massacres in Israel on October 7, 2023, with Israel facing increased diplomatic pressures.<\/p>\n
\u201cNorth Macedonia has demonstrated its friendship by standing up to these attempts in the international arena,\u201d Sa\u2019ar said. \u201cWe appreciate its voting record and its support for Israel. Israel values its friends who stand by it in difficult times.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Mucunski, that relationship can be developed without changing the broader direction of Macedonian foreign policy. His country, a NATO member since 2020, is a candidate for European Union membership, and maintains a strategic partnership with the United States. He described those as the three pillars on which his government\u2019s foreign policy rests, with North Macedonia also maintaining full alignment with the EU\u2019s Common Foreign and Security Policy.<\/p>\n
Within that geopolitical framework, Mucunski regards Israel as a natural partner.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are thriving democracies, nations that promote the free market and capitalism,\u201d Mucunski said. \u201cMy nation and Israel \u2013 both on the basis of political ideology, but also on the basis of our global outlook \u2013 have more things that unite them rather than divide them.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a time when Israel\u2019s relationship with parts of Europe has become increasingly difficult, Mucunski declined to pass judgment on the bilateral relations of individual European governments with Jerusalem. North Macedonia, he said, works with other countries according to its national interests and according to what they can offer one another, provided that cooperation does not conflict with the three central pillars of its foreign policy.<\/p>\n
On Iran, however, he was considerably less circumspect.<\/p>\n
Iran is a European problem, too<\/p>\n
Mucunski places Tehran firmly among the authoritarian powers he believes threaten the democratic order with which the Balkan country identifies, and his assessment of the Iranian nuclear threat extends well beyond Israel and the Middle East.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran is, without a doubt, a nation that is part of this axis of countries that aims to destabilize democracy and the way of life that we cherish as peoples, as nations in the 21st century,\u201d Mucunski told the Post.<\/p>\n
North Macedonia, he said, had been steadfast in supporting the US-led military and diplomatic effort against Iran. It was among the countries that did so publicly at an early stage, he noted, because his government believes US President Donald Trump has taken the correct approach toward the long-term deterrence of Tehran.<\/p>\n
That deterrence, in Mucunski\u2019s view, cannot simply mean stopping Iran at the final point of assembling a nuclear weapon. The objective must be to prevent the Islamic Republic from reaching the threshold at which it has the capacity to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should not allow Iran, ever, to have the capacity \u2013 not to have a nuclear weapon, but to come close to having a nuclear weapon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His argument is partly geographical. Iran is often treated internationally as an Israeli, American, or Middle Eastern security problem. But Macedonia views the issue from inside NATO and from the southeastern edge of Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we saw, right after the conflict began, there is a substantial geographical proximity as well from Iran to the borders of NATO,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the risk is there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mucunski also pointed to the nature of the Iranian government itself, describing the Islamic Republic as an authoritarian regime that suppresses its own population. He pointed to the reaction of Iranians abroad during the conflict as evidence of the depth of opposition to the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no doubt that we will stand for democracy,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will stand for our common security. The threat of Iran having a nuclear weapon is not a threat to Israeli or American security. It is a threat to European security as well, and anyone who chooses to ignore that is not accepting the reality that we have on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
Macedonia, he added, would remain steadfast in its support for its NATO ally, the United States, and for Washington\u2019s role in the region.<\/p>\n
The discussion inevitably returned to what Israel itself has experienced over the past several years, from October 7 to the confrontation with Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne cannot even begin to imagine what you have gone through,\u201d Mucunski said. \u201cNot just the situation with Iran, but the horrific events of October 7.\u201d<\/p>\n
For him, those events fit within the same argument about the responsibility of democratic states to defend themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen someone chooses to use violence and terror to attack our democracies and our way of life, we have an obligation to react.\u201d<\/p>\n
Macedonia\u2019s Jewish past and present<\/p>\n
Another element to North Macedonia\u2019s relationship with Israel predates the governments of Mucunski, Mickoski, and Sa\u2019ar by centuries.<\/p>\n
Jewish life existed in the region long before the creation of the modern Macedonian state, but the community was almost annihilated during the Holocaust. In March 1943, more than 7,000 Jews from what is now North Macedonia were deported to Treblinka during the Bulgarian occupation, and virtually none returned.<\/p>\n
Today the Jewish community is tiny, but Mucunski was emphatic that its size does not diminish its place within Macedonian society or the country\u2019s understanding of its own history.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Jewish community is an integral part of our constitutional order as a nation,\u201d he said, also pointing to the Holocaust Memorial Center in Skopje. \u201cThe Jewish community is a very respected and valued part of our society. In that sense, we see this as a very relevant part of our national history.\u201d<\/p>\n
The issue, he added, reaches beyond whichever party happens to be in government.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Macedonian people will continue to cherish their relationships with the Jewish people,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will continue to do everything in our power to fight antisemitism in our country, but also everywhere else that we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was seen in action earlier this year following an incident in Skopje that the local Jewish community described at the time as the first attack of its kind in the country\u2019s modern history.<\/p>\n
On April 12, two men were captured on surveillance footage climbing a fence at a synagogue and Jewish community center before igniting a firebomb. A door and the courtyard were damaged in the blaze, and two men were subsequently charged with terrorism in connection with the attack, while seven people were detained during the investigation.<\/p>\n
The attack was all the more jarring because of the reputation North Macedonia had enjoyed among members of its Jewish community. Speaking to the Post in its immediate aftermath, Rahamim Mizrahi, the Jewish Community Board\u2019s deputy head, described the country as having long been a \u201cpearl in the Balkans,\u201d while warning that the worldwide rise in antisemitism following October 7 had not entirely passed the country by. He also stressed that most Macedonians had condemned the attack, with expressions of solidarity that included the chief mufti of the country\u2019s Muslim community.<\/p>\n
When the subject was raised with Mucunski in Jerusalem four months later, he recalled the shock caused by the attack, but also focused on the state\u2019s response.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe national security authorities reacted very promptly,\u201d he said, noting that the alleged perpetrators had been arrested and, to his understanding at the time of the interview, indicted.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo these types of actions, there must be an immediate reaction, both political and institutional,\u201d Mucunski continued. \u201cWithout that, you allow antisemitism to flourish within a society.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is a sentiment echoed by Gjorgjievski during his own visit to Israel in June. The Skopje mayor told the Post that the attack was an assault not only on a Jewish building or community but on \u201cthe values of Skopje, on peace, coexistence, and the dignity of all our citizens,\u201d while telling the country\u2019s Jews: \u201cYou are not alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prominence of both Gjorgjievski and MP Rashela Mizrahi in the recent exchanges with Israel also illustrates the different levels at which the relationship is developing. Mizrahi \u2013 a member of Mucunski and Mickoski\u2019s VMRO-DPMNE political party, and North Macedonia\u2019s first Jewish parliamentarian since independence \u2013 has been a prominent advocate of stronger ties with Israel, while Gjorgjievski has sought practical cooperation between Skopje and Israeli municipalities. Mucunski\u2019s visit brought that growing engagement to the level of the two foreign ministries.<\/p>\n
Yet on the question of antisemitism, Mucunski was careful not to speak for governments elsewhere in Europe, or to compare Macedonia\u2019s record with theirs. He confined himself to what he could promise about his own country, and after the events of April, his language left little room for ambiguity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our country, this will not be tolerated,\u201d he said. \u201cI cannot speak for other nations, but antisemitism will not be tolerated on the territory of our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mucunski\u2019s first journey to Israel ultimately lasted little more than a day, but it came after a year in which the relationship between Jerusalem and Skopje has reached new levels, and moved beyond ceremonial diplomacy. Parliamentary representatives have come to Israel, the mayor of the Macedonian capital has come looking for Israeli expertise, and now the foreign minister has arrived with an explicit mandate from his government to broaden the relationship.<\/p>\n
For Mucunski, the experience of Kocani already provided one answer about what he wants the relationship between the two countries to mean. When his country was struck by tragedy, Israeli doctors arrived and went to work alongside their Macedonian colleagues. His government, in turn, has chosen to stand with Israel diplomatically during some of its most difficult years.<\/p>\n
It is against that background that Mucunski viewed this week\u2019s visit less as the beginning of a relationship than as an opportunity to deepen one that has already gathered considerable momentum.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my first visit,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I am absolutely sure that it will not be my last.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Timco Mucunski had never been to Israel before this week, but North Macedonia\u2019s foreign minister arrived in Jerusalem…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[989,54,3748,5740,23977,1607,34,37,54698],"class_list":["post-268107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-diplomacy","tag-europe","tag-foreign-ministry","tag-gideon-saar","tag-innovation","tag-interview","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-macedonia"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117173323688046336","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}