Netanyahu praises Hungary as Israel’s ally
July 20th, 2017A liberal columnist suggests that what visiting Israeli Prime Minister has in common with Mr Orbán is that both of them are nationalists. A pro-Israeli author praises both governments for protecting national, religious and cultural traditions.
In a statement after meeting his host in Budapest, the Israeli Prime Minister praised Hungary for being ‘at the forefront of those states that are opposed to anti-Israeli politics’, which are a new form of anti-Semitism. PM Orbán acknowledged that the Hungarian government had sinned during World War Two by ‘opting for collaborating with Nazi Germany instead of protecting Hungary’s Jews’. He added that Hungary would never allow that to happen again.
On hvg.hu, Sándor Révész accuses Mr Netanyahu of putting Israel first, which, he thinks, automatically means disregarding the interests of Jews. He describes the Israeli leader as being of the same breed as President Trump of the United States, who puts ‘America first’, which in his mind adds up to dismissing universal values. That is precisely, Révész adds, what Trump and Netanyahu have in common with the Hungarian Prime Minister. Where universal values are secondary, he concludes, nobody can feel safe.
On Hetek online, former Liberal MP István Mészáros, a prominent member of the Congregation of the Faith, an evangelical denomination thinks Hungary and Israel are natural allies. They both resist the expansion of Islamist terrorism and defend their common Judeo-Christian values, Mészáros adds. He praises Israel for building a wall to protect itself from terror attacks, and Hungary for erecting a fence to prevent an invasion, in defiance of ‘insensate international pressures’. Mészáros also hails both countries for defying an international trend ‘aimed at destroying national, religious and cultural frameworks’.
Tags: anti-Semitism, Netanyahu