A four-day humanitarian ceasefire has been agreed upon by Israel and Hamas, as confirmed by both parties and the mediator Qatar as well. The Palestinians agreed to the release of 50 Israeli hostages, mostly women and children, while Israel agreed to set free 150 Palestinian prisoners. However, PM Netanyahu of Israel insists his country is still at war.
During a debate in the UN Security Council, Foreign Minister Szijjártó of Hungary argued that the international community should focus on trying to improve the conditions in the migrants’ countries of origin instead of hosting them in more developed foreign countries. He also suggested that migration should be examined from a security, not a humanitarian perspective.
Katalin Novák met with her Israeli counterpart, President Isaac Herzog, to show her moral support to the recently attacked Israel, as well as for the Hungarian community living in Israel. She also called for the immediate release of hostages, some of whom are of Hungarian ancestry, taken by the Islamist terror group Hamas.
The conflict most likely broke out between a group of migrants and an organized human smuggler group. It went on for hours into the early morning, terrifying the residents of Horgos. This is actually the second similar incident in just a few weeks at the Serbian-Hungarian border.
Wizz Air has cancelled all flights to Israel until 15 November but is continuously reviewing the situation. The airline is in constant contact with Israeli, Hungarian, and international authorities, monitoring the events in Israel.
The Florida-based conservative commentator reminded all that Hamas has always had a tendency to use their own people as human shields with ‘their leaders in Doha, Qatar, living a lavish life right now’.
While attending a meeting of European Union justice ministers, Minister Bence Tuzson spoke to journalists about a number of important issues, including the recent increase in the terror threat in Europe, the frozen EU funds due to Hungary, and the country’s upcoming Council of the EU presidency.
Two pro-Hamas protests were also banned in Budapest last week. PM Viktor Orbán has vowed not to allow any ‘pro-terror demonstrations’ in Hungary.
‘Israel does recognize who were the true friends and Hungary has proved for a long period of time under Viktor Orbán’s leadership that—despite the pressure from larger and possibly more powerful European countries—it can stand alone at times and will not conform with this general line that of “both sides are to blame, both sides are wrong, and let them find the solution”. Hungary understands without any doubt who the murderers are and who the victims are.’
Airlines are systematically cancelling or suspending their flights to Israel since the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas launched a comprehensive attack on the Jewish state on Saturday morning, resulting in hundreds of casualties. This resulted in significant drops in the companies’ share prices.
Minister Szijjártó expressed Hungary’s deep concern over the Israel terrorist attacks and their potential consequences, which could easily lead to one of the largest humanitarian disasters in history. He believes that this tragedy occurred at the worst possible time, as the process of normalizing the situation had just begun, and significant steps had been taken towards peace, which now could be jeopardized and rendered null.
‘The first thing we can wish for Israel in the current situation is that it should regain control over the entire territory of the state of Israel and establish the security guarantees needed to prevent similar bestial attacks from happening in the future,’ Gulyás said.
‘All things being equal, the roots to the actual deadly conflict are profound, as already mentioned. Yet it does not help the cause of peace to keep doing business with Iran, just as the United States has done under the Obama administration and is still doing under the present one.’
The situation in Israel remains ‘extremely worrying’, with some areas practically in a state of war, Minister Szijjártó said, according to a statement by the Foreign Ministry. The Hungarian government’s top priority in such a case of emergency is to ensure the safety of Hungarians, he added.
‘These recent bloody events—and the videos of Arab crowds celebrating them, not just in Gaza, but in Europe too—show perfectly what a significant part of the Muslim Arab world thinks about the issue. The problem is not that Israel is ‘running the world’s largest concentration camp’ in Gaza (a distasteful and debatable claim in the first place, but let’s not go into that now). This conflict existed before the majority of people alive today were born.’
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’.
Although Hungary had already cooperated with the alliance during the Yugoslav wars, 9/11 was the first major event when the country had to demonstrate its commitment to the alliance and collective defence as a full-fledged member of NATO.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.