In July, Mr. Orban flew to Israel, praying at the Western Wall and visiting Yad Vashem, the memorial to the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust.
Mr. Netanyahu has had greater difficulty finessing the relationship with Poland.
A year ago, the Polish government made it a crime to accuse the Polish nation of complicity in the Holocaust, setting off a diplomatic crisis after Israeli officials likened it to Holocaust denial. Israel raised concerns about a resurgence of anti-Semitism in Poland and demanded “zero tolerance” from the Warsaw government.
Under pressure from the United States, Poland backtracked by removing criminal penalties for provisions that critics said would distort history and hamper discussion of the Holocaust. Since then, Poland has sought to repair relations with Israel, and in July, Mr. Netanyahu and Prime Minister Morawiecki issued a joint statement meant to resolve the rift.
The Polish government saw the Warsaw conference this past week as an opportunity to demonstrate Poland’s commitment to Israel. On Thursday, Mr. Netanyahu joined Vice President Mike Pence and Mr. Morawiecki to honor the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943, laying flowers at the foot of the memorial.
But the relationship stumbled again this past week when Mr. Netanyahu was asked by an Israeli reporter about the Polish law allowing lawsuits against those who ascribe complicity in the Holocaust to the Polish people. His reply in Hebrew — “Poles collaborated with the Nazis, and I don’t know anyone who was ever sued for such a statement” — was translated by The Jerusalem Post as “the Polish nation collaborated.”
Mr. Morawiecki protested on Twitter, and Poland’s president suggested that Israel might not be the right place to hold the gathering. In a phone call between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Morawiecki, the Polish leader said “the issue had caused a lot of pain in Poland,” according to an account of the conversation by Deputy Foreign Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek.
While Mr. Netanyahu’s challengers in the coming election were quick to seize on his latest troubles, other critics took a longer view, saying they regretted his inability to curtail what antagonizes the European Union most about Israel: its steady expansion of settlements on the West Bank.
“If he were less beholden to the settlers,” said Einat Wilf, a former Israeli lawmaker from the Labor Party, “maybe he could get a few countries on our side that are not looking to be paid for in glossing over their World War II records.”
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