A chill has set in between much of Europe and Israel recently over its treatment of Palestinians, but the Alpine nation of Slovenia is bucking the trend.
Under nationalist Prime Minister Janez Jansa Slovenia is launching a diplomatic reset of its relationship with Israel, which will send its foreign minister to open its first embassy in Ljubljana on Wednesday.
It is an about-face from the policies of the previous centre-left government, which had been one of the EU's most critical voices on Israel's military offensive in Gaza, which it described as "genocide".
And it comes a day after the United Kingdom and other European countries provoked Israeli fury by banning imports from settlements in the occupied West Bank -- the latest move by European governments grappling with growing international condemnation of Israeli policies towards Palestinians.
But in Slovenia, Jansa -- who took office for the fourth time earlier this year, and who is often at loggerheads with the European Union -- has instead received Israeli accolades for defying the EU over the West Bank settlements.
