Hungary’s Orban gives anti-Semitism pledge

HUNGARY’S Prime Minister Viktor Orban told Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday that his country stood firmly against anti-Semitism today after the crime of failing to protect its Jewish citizens during World War 2.

Netanyahu, whose visit to Budapest has been overshadowed by Orban’s flirtation with the radical right that has unnerved Hungarian Jews, responded by praising Hungary as a key ally of Israel as it faces growing hostility around the world.

Netanyahu’s two-day trip comes less than a month after Orban praised Hungary’s interwar leader Miklos Horthy, a Hitler ally, and used an image of Jewish US financier George Soros in an antiimmigration billboard campaign.

“It is the duty of every Hungarian government to defend its citizens whatever their heritage. During World War 2, Hungary did not honour this moral and political obligation,” Orban told a joint news conference with Netanyahu.

“That is a crime, because we chose collaboration with the Nazis over the defence of the Jewish community. That can never happen again.

“The Hungarian government will defend all of its citizens in the future.”

Orban has repeatedly pledged zero tolerance of anti-Semitism but some of his comments have rattled Hungarian Jews, including his praise for Horthy, who only suspended deportations of Jews after the Nazis had shipped half a million to the gas chambers.

“[Orban] reassured me in unequivocal terms [over the anti-Semitic concerns],” Netanyahu told the news conference.

“I appreciate that. These are important words.” He also thanked Orban for standing up for Israel in international forums.

“There is a new anti-Semitism expressed in antiZionism,” Netanyahu said.

“That is delegitimising the one and only Jewish state. In many ways, Hungary is at the forefront of the states that are opposed to this anti-Jewish policy and I welcome it and express the appreciation of my government.”