Viktor Orban in Israel: Netanyahu receives a difficult guest

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

By Tal Leder, Tel Aviv

With the visit of Hungarian Prime Minister Orban, Israeli Prime Minister Nethanjahu ignores the antisemitic propaganda of his counterpart. Israel has a tradition of working with authoritarian and even dictatorial regimes.

Whenever Israelis take to the streets against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Pedro Feldman is there. Last weekend, for example, when he demonstrated in Tel Aviv with peace activists against a controversial bill. It is planned to regulate that certain places can only be entered by Jews.

Today, he wants to demonstrate with friends during a protest march against the visit of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to Israel. "I am from Argentina and I myself experienced a dictatorship, as a student of 20, at the 1978 World Cup, I was arrested by the military junta in power and then tortured in the infamous Esma concentration camp ". "As a Jew, I am ashamed that Israel invites such a fascist to Jerusalem and rolls out the red carpet, an anti-Semitic man who flouts human rights," he said of the head of the Hungarian State

Orban is rebuilt by Nethanjahu on the 18th. Receive a state visit until July 20th. The visit is controversial. Several leftist parties have asked their Prime Minister to cancel the visit. Orban is making anti-Semitic propaganda during his election campaign this year, it is said. He demonized Jewish philanthropist George Soros and his liberal NGO. But also because of its xenophobic policy and the dismantling of democratic institutions, the Hungarian head of state is in criticism. Orban continues to make headlines about his policies against refugees and other migrants. "A recently pbaded law criminalizes people who help illegal immigrants."

"Israel often has no other choice"

The state visit to Israel was coordinated at a meeting of national security advisers of the Visegrad group . participated. This group includes Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. There, they also discussed the possibility of organizing a meeting in Israel. Jerusalem is trying to form new alliances, including European states with right-wing governments or those with antisemitic tendencies – like Hungary.

This is not new. Israel, like so many democracies, has a long history of cooperation with anti-Semitic and sometimes brutal dictators. In the early 1980s, Jerusalem had good relations with the Galtieri regime in Buenos Aires. This close military cooperation led to a confrontation with London during the Falklands War between Argentina and Britain in 1982.

The military junta was also involved in numerous attacks against the Jewish community in Argentina . Of the estimated 30,000 political opponents estimated to have disappeared during this period, 10% were Jews. "The main anti-Semites who identified with Hitler and Mussolini were responsible," says Pedro. "For almost three years, I've been tortured with Nazi methods at Esma."

"Israel often has no choice but to connect with undemocratic or authoritarian regimes," said Jonathan Schanzer, vice president of the Foundation for Democracy. JTA News Agency. "As a country isolated from its neighbors and sometimes shunned by Western Europe, Israel is forced to enter dictatorships."

"Government shakes both eyes"

Recently, a controversial law was pbaded in the Polish parliament that criminalizes anyone who accuses the Polish nation of complicity in Nazi crimes. This led to tensions in Israeli-Polish relations. Finally, Warsaw changed the project

Prime Minister Netanyahu and his Polish counterpart Matthias Morawiecki then issued a joint statement rejecting any move to turn the Polish nation as a whole into atrocities committed by the Nazis and their collaborators from various nations . to blame. Both governments vehemently condemn all forms of anti-Semitism, as well as hatred of Poland.

"Like Poland, Hungary denies its complicity in the Holocaust, sad that our government turns a blind eye to common economic and security interests" says Pedro disappointed,

Netanyahu's willingness to forgive the States in which anti-Semitism, or even revisionism of the Holocaust is experiencing a renaissance, can not be confined exclusively to Poland. His friendly relationship with Hungarian Prime Minister Orban is another example. Netanyahu and Orban believe that both aspire to ethnocentric liberalism and do not value democratic values. He also links his antagonism with the free press and the immigrants. The two heads of state also share their ties with Putin and Trump.

Hungary and Israel have common interests

Many people in Israel find Netanyahu's cooperation with problematic and even tasteless European populists and extremists. However, it pursues a clear goal. He is pleased, on the one hand, with Trump's suspension of the nuclear deal with Iran and its anti-Palestinian policies, including the transfer of the US embbady to Jerusalem . He also seeks to cultivate relations with the Visegrad countries, which differ in many respects from those of Western Europe. He hopes to shake the critical voices of Europe on Israeli politics in the occupied territories.

Nevertheless, states like Hungary and Poland are members of the EU, a community committed to respecting human rights, democracy, equality and democracy. The rule of law Points which seem more and more doubted by the governments of Warsaw and Budapest. This is why Brussels, and its reluctance to participate in the redistribution of refugees, threatens to withdraw European funds to both members. But if the relationship between the European Union and these states finally gets up, why should not Israel cultivate relations?

Pedro Feldman hoped that Israel would take the same position as in the 1980s Austrian Federal President Kurt Waldheim. When his Nazi past appeared, he became a "persona non grata" in the Jewish state. "I am disappointed that such despots can not enter our country," says Pedro, "but even though today's Hungary is turning more and more to fascism, we can not compare with the military junta of the 1980s in Argentina. "

But against the visit of the Hungarian Prime Minister Orban, he will go to protest again. "For democracy and that the world sees that Israel still has a conscience."

Source: n-tv.de