The Israeli head of state met with both Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and President Tamás Sulyok of Hungary; and visited the famous Holocaust monument on the bank of the Danube river in Budapest as well. He also thanked Hungary for its continuous support to his nation since the 7 October attacks.
The sign of life the family received from Hungarian Israeli Omri Miran may have been a ray of hope to hold on to; nevertheless, Hamas’ threat has brought the ceasefire to the brink of collapse.
The Moscow offices of the Hungarian national airline were teeming with clients in the autumn of 1989, and most of the customers were Jewish. They were looking for a way to get away from the societal collapse of the Soviet Union. Ultimately, Hungary offered the way out to 160,000 of them between March 1989 and January 1992.
On what basis did Israel conclude a ceasefire agreement with its enemy, Hamas? What does the Jewish state expect from Trump’s second term? Is a two-state solution possible? And what kind of ally has Hungary proven to be? An interview with Gideon Sa’ar, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel.
‘Hamas may leverage the prisoner releases to come to power. It has hammered out, to its own liking, a deal to take place over many months so as to build up enough strength to take control of the West Bank. This is similar to the deal the U.S. made with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, infamously known as the Taliban on 29 February 2020, in Doha, Qatar, by the first Trump administration.’
Hamas clearly used the hostage release as a shameless PR opportunity. The terrorist organization gathered a massive crowd in Gaza City’s central square, where uniformed Hamas militants staged a victory parade before handing over the three young women to the International Red Cross.
As the Israel–Hamas ceasefire deal enters force, Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced that Omri Miran, a Hungarian Israeli hostage held in Gaza, will be released during the second phase of the agreement.
On Wednesday evening news broke that Israel and Hamas had reached a ceasefire deal. While the information was confirmed by US and Hamas officials, Benjamin Netanyahu clarified that the final agreement would be finalized overnight, while US President-elect Donald Trump pledged that Gaza would ‘never again become a terrorist haven.’
This little known case of Hungarian Israeli Rabbi Ottó Komlós not only provides insight into how the Hungarian Communist intelligence services viewed Israel’s most important Holocaust museum and its Hungarian employee, but also highlights the clumsiness of the covert activities of Kádár’s state security services in the early 1960s in Israel.
The first guest of the new edition of the Danube Info podcast was Or Yissachar, a national security researcher and team lead in the Israeli high-tech industry, leading the Israel Defence and Security Forum’s Content Division and Research Department.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.
