Gyöngyösi’ interview - as the jews see it
Political commentator Tom Gross, who has written extensively about anti-Semitism in Europe, told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday that “the developments in Hungary, a European Union and NATO member state right in the heart of Europe, are very worrying indeed. And the failure of the EU as an institution to make clear to the Hungarians that this kind of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial is utterly unacceptable is also deeply troubling. Hungary should consider outlawing parties like Jobbik if they don’t dismiss Gyongyosi as a spokesman.”
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Prof. Dovid Katz, a leading expert on Eastern European and Baltic-based anti-Semitism, told the Post on Saturday that “the situation in Hungary is much more volatile than it looks. Much of what Jobbik is saying is embraced by Fidesz. A certain type of anti-Semitism is camouflaged as center-right.”
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Speaking from Vilnius in Lithuania on Saturday, Katz continued that “Jobbik, by carrying out the work of the ‘Nasty Far Right’ is in effect enabling the ‘Camouflaged Far Right’ – the Fidesz government itself, presenting itself as center-right to the naives of Western Europe – to pursue deeply anti-democratic, anti-Semitic and fascist-glorifying policies. Since 2010, these have included passing a law that in effect criminalizes the accurate history of the Holocaust [by insisting on Soviet and Nazi crimes being deemed equally to constitute ‘genocide’].”
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Critics have long argued that Orban has failed to crack down on state-sponsored anti-Semitic and anti- Israeli comments stemming from his party’s loose ties with Jobbik.
In an e-mail to the Post on Saturday, the New York-based political commentator Ben Cohen wrote, “Gyongyosi’s remarks neatly demonstrate the overlap of extreme-right and far-left anti-Semitism: paranoia about Jewish economic and political influence, downright lies about Jewish history and pathological loathing of Israel and Zionism. They also demonstrate that however much of Hungary regards itself as a modern, European state, a large swathe of public opinion remains steeped in an ignorance that borders on barbarism.”
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The wide-ranging interview with Gyongyosi noted that “Jobbik is actively developing a relationship with Iran. In January last year, Vona took the Iranian ambassador to the Hungarian town of Tiszavasvari, which Mr Vona called ‘the capital of our movement.’ And in October, Jobbik hosted a large Iranian delegation to Hungary, at which Vona declared: ‘For Iran, Hungary is the gate to the West.’”
According to the Chronicle, a senior civil servant in the Hungarian Foreign Ministry said, “We are very, very worried. The prime minister could easily fail in the coming months, taking the ruling party down with him, and Jobbik is well placed to become the largest party in parliament in an election.”
(Source: jpost.com)
