The only country without a right to a normal foreign policy | The Jewish Press – JewishPress.com | Evelyn Gordon | 5 Av 5778 – 17 July 2018

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The news that the Hungarian Prime Minister will visit Israel next week has sparked indignation among liberal Jews, both in Israel and abroad. abroad. Opponents raise two main objections. We would be serious if that is true, but that does not seem to be the case. The other is hypocrisy – and it's a great example of how liberal Jews systematically impose on Israel standards that they apply to no other country on the world. Earth.

The hypocritical objection is that Viktor Orban is an authoritarian. "Sad business to keep," tweeted Tamara Cofman Wittes, a colleague at the Brookings Institute, after hearing that Orban was definitely coming in and that the President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte (which is certainly more problematic) could l & # 39; be. The former US ambassador to Israel, Daniel Shapiro, also questioned the wisdom of welcoming Orban and other authorities. "While Israel's security and other unique requirements encourage it to develop as wide a network of relations as possible," I think it will want to avoid finding its own democratic identity tarnished by, of his own choice, aligning less with the club of democracies and more with this very different coalition. "

It's just ridiculous." In addition to the fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also regularly hosted liberal leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel (several times) and Barack Obama, French President Emmanuel Macron foresaw to visit it later this year, most of the world's countries today are authoritarian, and even an increasing number of Western democracies have authoritarian rulers, so any country that wishes to maintain relations with more a handful of other countries will end up hosting many authoritarian rulers, which is why all other Western democracies do so too.

In fact, other Western democracies often host leaders considerably more reprehensible than Orban, and with less justification.I can understand the welcome of Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping m despite their aggressive foreign policy; Russia and China are too important to ignore. But this month, Switzerland and Austria hosted Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, as did France and Italy in 2016, although the Rumanian government actively encourages the killing of hundreds of thousands of people in Syria and Yemen. It's much worse than hosting Orban, whose government does not kill anyone.

Moreover, Hungary is genuinely important to the main interests of Israel's foreign policy, since it has repeatedly helped to annul the anti-Israeli decisions of the largest trading partner of Israel. ;Israel. . What vital contributions does Iran bring to the fundamental interests of Europe that justify neglecting its complicity in mass murder?

In short, liberal Jews criticize Israel for doing exactly what other Western democracies do, except that other Western countries are even more blatant. and with less excuses

Let's now see the serious objection, which is that Orban foments anti-Semitism in Hungary. Most Israelis would agree that their government should not launder anti-Semitism; That is why Netanyahu's recent statement downplaying Poland's role in the Holocaust has sparked outrage far beyond the ranks of its usual adversaries. If true, this charge would be a valid reason to oppose Orban's visit.

The problem is that the evidence does not support it. This is not because Hungary has no problem of anti-Semitism; Indeed, a major study published last month showed that almost two-thirds of Hungarian Jews think so. In addition, Orban has undeniably made some problematic statements.

Nevertheless, the study found an objective and significant improvement over the last 18 years, nearly half of which was under Orban's rule. For example, the number of Jews who reported hearing anti-Semitic remarks in the street dropped from an astronomical 75% in 1999 to 48% (still outrageously high) last year, while the number of those who reported three or more antisemitic incidents fell. 16 to 6 percent

This ties in with the JTA's in-depth report on Hungarian anti-Semitism at the beginning of last month. In light of the data cited above, the fact that TEV, the anti-Semitism of the Hungarian Jewish community, recorded only 37 anti-Semitic incidents in 2017 (compared to 48 in 2016) only shows that anti-Semitic comments are massively underreported. What was remarkable, however, is that no reported incidents involved violence.

By comparison, journalist Cnaan Liphshiz noted that the United Kingdom, with a Jewish population of about 2.5 times that of Hungary, recorded 145 physical assaults. of 1,382 anti-Semitic incidents in 2017. Austria, with a Jewish population less than one-tenth of Hungary, recorded five cases of physical violence among its 503 antisemitic incidents last year – and, incidentally, that number 39 was under a left-wing government led by the Social Democrats. Conservative Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz took power only in December 2017.

Jews in Britain or Austria were much more likely to suffer anti-Semitic violence than their Hungarian counterparts. Indeed, unlike their counterparts in France or Belgium, bearded and kippa Jews told Liphshiz that they felt safe on the streets of Hungary.

The leaders of the Hungarian Jewish community also said that the 2014 revision of the code and punishment of antisemitic offenses. "It was a big step forward," said TEV General Secretary Kalman Szalai. Neither incidentally, the Jewish leaders questioned by Liphshiz think that Orban's attacks against George Soros – Exhibit A in most of Orban's Jewish indictments – were anti-Semitic (a point that I've made). I made last year).

"It is not that Hungary does not have anti-Semitism … But there is also little or no anti-Semitic violence, and receptive authorities in the judicial system, police and the government. "All of this makes it hard to argue that Orban should be shunned as a dangerous anti-Semitic – that is, unless you think, as appear more and more. do it the liberal Jews, that right-wing authoritarians are by definition dangerous anti-Semites.

And once you take away the man of anti-Semitism, you have double the norm in all its splendor: Israel alone does not have the right to host authoritarian rulers important to its interests, even as other Western democracies regularly host worse rulers with less justification. Israel should not welcome Orban, the liberated Jews x effectively say that Israel, the only country in the world, does not have the right to pursue a normal foreign policy.