At the weekly government press briefing last week the Hungarian PM’s chief of staff, Minister Gergely Gulyás stated that Hungary would not enforce the ICC arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu. He declared that it is not appropriate to use a court as a political tool, and it should be remembered that the ‘utterly ruthless, disgraceful and despicable terrorist attack’ suffered by Israel was the root cause of everything that is happening in the Gaza Strip.
The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has sought arrest warrants for several leading Israeli politicians and members of the Hamas political leadership, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Allies of Israel, led by Viktor Orbán and Joe Biden, have described the prosecutor’s decision on the Jewish state’s leadership as absurd and shameful.
Mosab Hassan Yousef, known as the son of Hamas’s co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, held a historic speech at the United Nations this week in which he stressed: ‘If Israel fails in Gaza, the rest of the world will be next’. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also highlighted in a Fox News interview that if Israel ‘doesn’t win now, then Europe is next’.
Can Netanyahu survive as prime minister in the wake of the Hamas attack? Are Jews really safer in Israel today than in the Diaspora? Hard questions that need to be asked.
Meanwhile, PM Orbán of Hungary offered his moral support for Israel, writing ‘our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Israel in these dark hours’.
The Hungarian Jewish leaders and the Israeli Prime Minister discussed issues of Jewish communal life in Hungary and the events that may accompany the possible relocation of the Hungarian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. With the potential move of the Hungarian mission to Jerusalem Hungary would become the first EU country to recognize that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital.
According to Aaron Davis Miller, Americans might soon stop seeing US–Israeli ties as a special relationship.
Hananya Naftali stressed that today Hungary is one of the safest countries in the world for Jews and Israel sees Hungary not just as a partner, but as family.
‘A stable Israeli administration under Benjamin Netanyahu and a victory of the US Republican Party in the midterm elections would be a bright and promising development for peace in the Middle East,’ said Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s minister of foreign affairs and trade, on Wednesday in Jordan.
Although Israel is stronger than ever, the permanent existential threat the Jewish State has had to endure is still present. The stakes are particularly high, both for Israel and its allies in the wider world. Benjamin Netanyahu offers known solutions to current challenges, answers that proved to be right in the past thirteen years. This November might well be the month of the return of Israel’s longest serving prime minister.
In an official statement of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Hungarian government expressed its disagreement with the recent findings of the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, according to which Israel’s presence in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem is ‘unlawful’, while Israel’s ‘policies and practices’ in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, including ‘the maintenance and expansion of settlements’, amount to the ‘annexation of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.’
The level of escalation in the Middle East has risen significantly after Israel struck a Houthi-controlled port in Yemen over the weekend, marking the first such attack since the war between Hamas and Israel broke out last October. The retaliatory strike follows a deadly drone attack by the Yemeni Houthis on Tel Aviv.
In December last year a new law created a distinct category for ‘EU minorities’ in Ukraine (such as the Hungarian and Romanian ethnic minorities) that now have access to more privileges than for instance the Russian minority. Later, as a sign of goodwill to better relations, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó visited Ukraine. Now, with the meeting between Orbán and Zelenskyy the two country’s relationship is officially warming up. If in the long-term Budapest does manage to considerably contribute to peace between Russia and Ukraine, as it clearly intends to, it might have a long-lasting positive impact on bilateral relations.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has allegedly instructed his three ministers to examine the consequences of leaving the International Criminal Court (ICC), with a particular focus on the implications for the European Union. This decision is likely prompted by the ICC Chief Prosecutor’s request in May for the issuance of an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
‘Incidentally, Netanyahu’s failure is not because the Biden administration is withholding weapons. The heart of the issue is the Islamic indoctrination of Palestinian Muslims. Just like organized crime in southern Italy, whether it is called the Mafia or the ‘Ndrangheta, capturing and imprisoning the militants or killing them will not end Hamas.’
Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah threatens to use Syrian refugees as a political weapon while also warning Cyprus of a possible attack if the island nation assists Israel militarily. The group’s ability to manipulate refugee flows and its readiness to use military force against EU member states necessitate an effective and coordinated response from the European Union.
‘The HAIKU states present a novel approach to exploring and understanding how statesmen and national leaders can navigate a dynamically changing global political landscape, marked by shifts in power balances, evolving alliances, and heightened strategic competition.’
‘States are free to reject decisions or judgements that are inconsistent with the treaties they signed,’ Senior Research Fellow at the European Centre for Law and Justice Nicolas Bauer told Hungarian Conservative.
Avi Benlolo of The Abraham Global Peace Initiative directed the film which showcases the terror of the villains, and the bravery of the heroes of the fateful 7 October attacks. Before the screening, distinguished guests, such as Israeli Ambassador to Hungary Yacov Hadas-Handelsman made short speeches.
On the first day of the Rule of Law as Lawfare Conference experts such as Minister of European Union Affairs János Bóka of Hungary and MEP Ryszard Legutko of Poland discussed how the legal concept of the rule of law has been turned into a political weapon by EU bodies, and analysed the double standards applied to different Member States with rule of law assessment procedures.
Foreign pro-Palestinian demonstrators disrupted a conference in Budapest on Tuesday where Israel’s ambassador to Hungary Jakov Hadas-Handelsman was also speaking. At around the same time, anti-Israel graffiti flooded the Hungarian capital. For many months, such phenomena were unknown in Hungary, but now it seems that the conflict and hatred are being imported from abroad.
In truth, “the long arc of harassment, assault, and murder of Palestinians by Jewish settlers is twinned with a shadow history, one of silence, avoidance, and abetment by Israeli officials”, states The New York Times. This is not to downplay the terrorist threat against Israelis by Palestinian jihadists. However, interviews with more than one hundred people—current and former officers of the Israeli military, the National Israeli Police, and the Shin Bet domestic security service; high-ranking Israeli political officials, including four former prime ministers; Palestinian leaders and activists; Israeli human rights lawyers; American officials charged with supporting the Israeli-Palestinian partnership—there appears to be a long history of crime without punishment.’
‘It is ironic…that the protesters, while having legitimate positions, have remained altogether silent on the atrocities committed by Hamas, to say nothing of their main sponsor, the Islamic Republic of Iran. In truth, ever since an estimated 750,000 Palestinians lost their homes amidst the creation of the State of Israel 1948, there have been American Jews deeply unsettled by Israeli policies toward both the Palestinian refugees and Arabs living under Israeli rule. These critics of old into the American Jewish establishment, such as leaders and staff members of the American Jewish Committee.’
The bill will now go to the Democratic-majority Senate, where it is not expected to face any obstacles and could be signed by President Joe Biden within a week. Hard-line Republicans have again vowed to impeach House Speaker Mike Johnson for bringing the proposal to the House floor.
In a recent op-ed John Bolton argues that the White House failed to recognize that the real conflict in the region is not between the Palestinians or Arabs and Israel, but Iran’s war against Israel.
According to multiple media sources, Israel may have conducted a retaliatory strike against Iran on Friday. However, Iranian officials claim they are uncertain whether it was an external attack or an infiltration from within the Persian state.
General Amir Avivi, the founder of the Israel Defence and Security Forum, also highlighted in his briefing following the IRI attack that the fact that Israel and its allies intercepted 99 per cent of the rockets ‘showed that Israel could cope with a direct attack from Iran, and can coordinate efficiently with its allies to defend itself.’
Iran launched an unprecedented air strike against Israel on Saturday night. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán reacted by convening the Defence Council on Sunday. The PM reassured Hungarian families that the government is committed to protecting them should the conflict escalate.
‘Both Jordan and Israel, each for different reasons, are part of a larger trend of the deChristianization of the Middle East. Many churchmen fear that in a generation or two Christianity, like Judaism before it, will become a diaspora religion; exiled from its birthplace. In this dark vision, the great Christian churches, shrines, and monuments will become the objects of pilgrimage, mere museums, rather than vibrant, living places of worship.’
After vetoing the call for a ceasefire in Gaza in February, Hungary ultimately subscribed to a joint statement on 21 March for the first time since the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war. Thus, EU leaders have unanimously called for ‘an immediate humanitarian halt leading to a sustainable ceasefire’ in Gaza.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.