The German constitutional court has recently declared it unconstitutional that the Berlin government had re-channelled some 60 billion euros of the fund created to tackle the coronavirus crisis into the climate protection fund. The ruling, having reinforced the strictures on further borrowing, will definitely have an impact on the not-yet-adopted 2024 budget.
It is high time the Ambassador (or rather, Embarassador) stopped hurling baseless accusations at the Orbán government, and instead, got down to doing what the real mission of an ambassador is: foster bilateral relations. Last time we checked, ruining the Hungarian-US relationship is not part of the job.
For years, Hungary has been under regular attack from Brussels for allegedly failing to respect ‘European values’. It is worth examining these values to see if it is in any way wrong not to respect them in the way that the representatives of the liberal mainstream in the Western world expect, and whether our entire civilization should not instead perform a paradigm shift, radically transforming its values.
‘Many Jewish citizens from European nations like Sweden are enduring levels of hostility that are non-existent in Hungary. In contrast, Yacov Hadas-Handelsman, the current Israeli ambassador to Hungary, earlier this year named Hungary as one of the safest nations for Jews to live in. Furthermore, the Jewish community in Hungary is not only thriving, but also one of the largest in Europe.’
‘Washington and the EU need to take an entirely different approach, one that may actually work, and that is facilitate a ceasefire. Convincing Zelensky to consider this does not necessarily mean that Ukraine is to give up on restoring its 1991 borders or on holding Putin’s government responsible for the death and destruction he has caused since invading the country.’
The passing of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger marks the end of an era in global diplomacy and strategy. A stalwart in realpolitik with a controversial legacy, his insights are now more relevant than ever before.
‘There will never be a full-proof manner in individualizing who within a Muslim community is a terrorist. At the same time, doing absolutely nothing, like the elite in Brussels does, only harbours Muslim jihadists on our front porch while they are preparing for the next attack.’
‘Once the power transition issue subsides, revenge is likely to become a central issue in Polish politics. Among the presumed incoming government’s proposals are journalistic purges and political show-trials, precisely the sort of banana-republic behavior anti-PiS voices have long alleged on the part of the outgoing government.’
The new Polish government is quite likely to not be able to deliver on many of its crucial election promises, which may create legitimacy problems. And this is far from being the only difficulty: if the new government is unable to change the laws that led the EU to launch the Article 7 and the so-called rule of law proceedings against Poland, there may be serious economic consequences for the country.
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’.
Greta Thunberg has voiced the opinion that the Western media ‘brainwashes’ people about Israel, and recently wore a Palestinian scarf to a climate protest in Amsterdam. As a result, Fridays for Future Germany has repeatedly distanced itself from their Swedish comrade, saying that they do not compromise on antisemitism and that protecting Jewish lives is important to them. ‘She does not represent Fridays for Future Deutschland’, they tweeted.
‘The indiscriminate attack on 7 October that killed approximately twelve-hundred innocent Israeli citizens cannot go unpunished. Yet there are rules of war that need to be respected.’
‘The fact of the matter is that this is the West’s stupidest war with Britain helping to lead the way: unnecessary, unaffordable, and unwinnable.’
One thing is clear: it is ethically good to reject antisemitism and terror apologetics. Such basic uprightness does not conflict with critical reflections on a heterogeneous, power-unequal world—because genuine critical thinking has never caused anyone to become an anti-Semite or a terror apologist.
There is a group of people who will demand photos of Jewish victims and then, when they get them, rejoice in the fact of the killings. Meanwhile, one cannot forget that there is obviously a benign, uninformed majority that can be persuaded by either side, and Israel must not give up the possibility of persuasion.
‘What will determine whether the situation plays to Hungary’s favour or not will be the ability of its leaders to balance the concerns of its security partners with the benefits it gains from its economic ones. With its society becoming more dependent on cyber infrastructure, what is undeniable is the necessity to protect it from hostile foreign influence and manipulation. Its western allies offer the greatest opportunity to accomplish that but would likely come at the cost of its Chinese-built infrastructure.’
‘Most importantly, Facebook is a Western company, and we are a Western-style democracy. Facebook’s ideology is basically liberal democracy, as is ours—although the Hungarian Government takes issue with this and represents a version of it based on Christian, conservative values. The number one platform for this world and this set of values for the public is the Facebook universe: we are therefore allies; not good friends, but allies.’
As Kenneth M. Pollack phrased in his The Hill article, ‘a ceasefire now would only lead to more war and more killing in the future.’ Pollack added that ‘when you reward an aggressor and prevent the attacked from fighting back, you simply encourage that aggressor to attack again, and encourage other would-be aggressors to do the same.’
Mainstream media outlets in the US are now treating the content on Hunter Biden’s laptop, found abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop, as authenticated and factual. However, they did not bother to investigate the matter ahead of the 2020 election, when the story could have hurt the Democrats.
‘On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump made many promises to the Jewish and pro-Israel community. Promises that many politicians have made to us for decades but never had the guts to follow through on; but not Trump, he followed through. He made promises and he kept them.’
Although a defining part of Netanyahu’s image is that of ‘Mr Security’, and he has even been nicknamed ‘King Bibi’, the spectacular fiasco of a 1997 Mossad operation he had ordered also earned him the epithet ‘Israel’s serial bungler’.
Is it possible that concerns over the health and safety of EU citizens regarding the ‘illicit’ drug trade, suddenly dissipate when it becomes ‘licit’ ? If the answer to this is no, could a procedure under Article 7 be initiated against Germany, given that the dispute pertains to values defined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union?
‘All major US media outlets keeping quiet about the imprisonment of an American citizen for a political opinion—he was never even accused, let alone proven to be coordinating with the Russian state—is scary. How is it that not one journalist in American mainstream media is willing to write a single, factual, non-disparaging article about the plight of Mr Lira?’
‘The fact is, however, that the continent’s current economic situation finds only a relatively small number of EU countries in a giving mood. French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that the European Commission’s current proposal was not ‘realistic’ and that the Brussels-based body was asking too much. Similar comments have come from Berlin.’
German Green MEP Daniel Freund thought that 23 October was the right time to publish the report on Hungary by the EP’s so-called Supervisory Body. He is proud to have been involved in its preparation, which is a shared pleasure for all of us, as his involvement is a guarantee that the document cannot be taken seriously.
‘Hamas’ 7 October attacks have nothing to do with the grievances of the average Palestinian. Rather, it is part of their jihad (holy war) that is sponsored by the theocracy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which must be stopped…peace can only come after the Hamas terrorists are eliminated and Iran is properly dealt with.’
‘It is one of history’s great ironies that Budapest, from which hundreds of thousands of European Jews were shipped to their deaths by the Nazis and their Hungarian collaborators, Jews can walk the streets this dreadful autumn without fear. This is an achievement for which Hungarians can and should be proud. Don’t expect European leaders to give Orbán credit. In fact, they will probably increase their public odium directed at him.’
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.
‘Christians no longer live by their own standards but by Christ’s, and since Jesus did not abolish the Law, the divine standards of morality, and therefore of sexuality, do not change with time or the spirit of the age.’
‘It is still hard to believe how quick Western mainstream media outlets were to uncritically share propaganda information provided by a terrorist organization, Hamas, which only two weeks before massacred, kidnapped, raped, burnt, and tortured innocent Israeli Jews and foreigners alike.’