A “robust” illiberal Alliance

0
309

Hungary’s Viktor Orbán visited Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will welcome him, despite the numerous anti-Semitic scandals. Behind common interests – because they need international.

Viktor Orbán’s power again and again, extreme right-wing slogans. He advocates an ethnically pure Hungary, and for a sealed-off, Christian Europe. He leads anti-Semitic campaigns, and praises the former Hungarian Empire Locum Tenens Miklós Horthy, a declared anti-Semites and indirectly Responsible for the Holocaust of the Hungarian Jews, as an “Exceptional statesman”. Nevertheless, Hungary’s Prime Minister is receiving from his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu as the guest of honor.

Good buddies, common interests

On Wednesday evening, traveled Orbán with his wife and nearly all the Ministers of his government to a two-day state visit to Israel. Several times, he will meet today, Thursday, Netanyahu, in addition, Israel’s head of state, Reuven Rivlin and the Ashkenazi chief Rabbi David Lau. Unlike EU politicians usual, if you travel to Israel, visited Orbán, the palästin niche capital of Ramallah.

Has drawn the consequence from the attacks against his Foundation: Soros is pulling out of Hungary

Seems paradoxical to the warm welcome Simply by Netanyahu is only at first glance. The two Premiers are connected to each other for a long time of friendship and celebrate in Public with a buddy-like relationship. Above all, they have a common enemy and therefore common interests. Both of them are on Anti-EU course, have chosen the stock market billionaire George Soros, the intimate enemy and proceed rigorously against Non-government organisations.

Common interests, the Benjamin Netanyahu led a year ago exactly, for a three-day state visit to Budapest to Meet several bilateral, with Orbán as well as Meeting with the other three heads of government of the Visegrad countries, apart from Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It was a historical Visit: The last Time an Israeli was head of government in 1989 in the Hungarian capital came before the end of the dictatorship.

After the reunification, the Hungarian-Israeli relations were continuously difficult and numerous diplomatic Commotion have been characterized. Under both the conservative as well as under the socialist-liberal governments in post-Communist Hungary, there had been a lot of times anti-Semitic incidents and scandals that had triggered in Israel is always a concern.

Even after the Orbán government in 2010, the ratio had been the commencement of a long time is difficult. Although Orbán is personally not an anti-Semite and power, unlike in the case of the Roma, no ambiguous remarks about Jews. However, in the systematic cleansing of Hungarian universities in 2011/12, of unpleasant Intellectual government contributed to campaigns by anti-Semitic overtones, which continued in the past few years in the campaigns against the US stock market billionaire Hungarian-Jewish descent, George Soros.

The last elections Orbán confirmed, but resistance to his “illiberal” policy moves

Tactical handling of anti-Semitism

Of anti-Semitic manifestations of extreme Right-wing Orbán and his government indicated last time. On the other hand, is openly glorified in Orbán’s ruling party Fidesz, the former Hungarian Empire Locum Tenens Miklós Horthy, who tolerated the Deportation of 600,000 Jews in the German extermination camp, still. Last year, Orbán even called him an “Exceptional statesman”, because he had managed to Hungary after the lost First world war and the loss of territory as a result of the Trianon peace together. Overall, Hungary’s Prime Minister succeeded, in the meantime, the art piece, the open anti-Semitism is a clear red line to show up and play at the same time, for tactical reasons, with anti-Semitic clichés.

That Benjamin Netanyahu is silent to this ambivalence, is primarily due to the common interest. During his visit to Budapest last year, Netanyahu complained behind closed doors, but in the case of accidentally switched-on microphones on the “absolutely crazy EU”, make a collaboration with Israel in political terms. Orbán would like to, in turn, reduce the EU is mainly an economic Union, and most of the political Competencies of the national States.

Together against the EU course

Netanyahu’s hope that Hungary and other Central and Eastern European EU member States move to a weakening of the Israel-critical EU policy, is not unfounded: In may, for example, blocked Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic, an EU Declaration against the relocation of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.

The political antipodes of the EU, Viktor Orban and Angela Merkel in Brussels in February

Also on the subject of Soros there is the Hungarian-Israeli common ground. The US stock market billionaire is both a critic of Orbán’s nationalist-authoritarian transformation in Hungary, as well as of Netanyahu’s settlement policy, which is why Hungary and Israel work together in the campaigns against the US stock market billionaire, in the meantime, even in an obscure way: The private Israeli information service Black Cube helped the Hungarian government newspaper “Magyar Idök” in the past months a smear campaign against employees of Non-government organisations. They were shown in the hand as alleged “agents of the Soros network” in Hungary, anti-government riots would want to start.

Not least of all, Orbán and Netanyahu have probably genuine sympathy for each other – after all, they share the same robust, confrontational, and partly authoritarian style of government and are convinced opponent of liberalism and liberal democracy. Thus, in the case of Orbán’s visit to Israel now, to continue, what Netanyahu announced last year in Budapest: “a great future for the both of us”.