The landslide defeat of Viktor Orb\u00e1n and his Fidesz party in the recent Hungarian parliamentary elections could herald a seismic shift in European and global politics. Or not.<\/p>\n
There were many issues at play in the election, obviously, including pocketbook economics and other domestic matters. Overseas observers have focused on Orb\u00e1n\u2019s \u201cilliberal democracy\u201d \u2013 his hacking away at free media and other institutions that tend to be measures of democratic health. It bears noting, to his credit, that as undemocratic as Orb\u00e1n may have been in office, when he was defeated, he accepted the peaceful transition of power without apparent reservation.<\/p>\n
The Hungarian election outcome is notable because of the era it could bring to a close. Orb\u00e1n\u2019s election in 2010 is viewed in retrospect as a major milestone in the advance of far-right politics in Europe.<\/p>\n
Orb\u00e1n did not invent European far-right politics, clearly. His election, though, was a major breakthrough and served as a model and inspiration for other movements, including those outside Europe, like figures in Latin America, as well as Donald Trump, who went so far as to send his vice-president to Hungary in an unashamed bid to shore up support for the Hungarian leader in the final hours of the campaign.<\/p>\n
Something else Orb\u00e1n may not have invented, but which he and his government exemplified and honed, was an ambiguous, somewhat cunning approach to Jews and the Jewish state.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Jews, put mildly, have a history with European far-right politics. Even sensible non-Jews are conscious of this third rail. Neutralizing the echoes of that history \u2013 or at least casting its veracity in doubt \u2013 is essential to legitimizing contemporary far-right politics.<\/p>\n Being pro-Israel has been a calculated and expedient position for figures like Orb\u00e1n. In the sense that support for Israel fits into a xenophobic European narrative that sees Israel as a bulwark of Western civilization, there is something more transactional going on. Far-right pro-Israel politicians are often militantly anti-Muslim, supporting Israel less because they endorse Jewish self-determination than because of the adage that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Contemporary Israel is a model for them of defiant nationalism facing down (not coincidentally, Muslim) threats, which justifies some of their own domestic policies.<\/p>\n Support for Israel can also serve as a reputational shield. Supporting Israel in their foreign policy can deflect allegations of antisemitism \u2013 even in cases where leaders and grassroots supporters have deeply problematic records of antisemitic rhetoric. In many countries, Jews serve as a wedge in centre and left politics, pitting more vulnerable communities against one another as those in power deflect attention from charges of corruption or the results of bad policies and other inequalities that plague societies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Pro-Israel politicians who deny charges of antisemitism often engage in anti-Jewish dog whistles like conspiracy theories about \u201cglobalists,\u201d \u201celites,\u201d \u201cthe Epstein class\u201d or George Soros, in which linguistic stand-ins for \u201cJews\u201d allow just enough plausible deniability. Orb\u00e1n perfected this strategy, using the Hungarian-born Jewish billionaire Soros as a scapegoat, with overtly antisemitic undertones.<\/p>\n In France, Marine Le Pen\u2019s National Rally presents itself as pro-Israel and protective of French Jews. But many Jews and analysts question whether this is a tactical strategy to \u201cmainstream\u201d the party, which was founded on explicitly antisemitic premises by Le Pen\u2019s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen.<\/p>\n The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party routinely attacks the Holocaust memorialization culture in Germany and tolerates antisemitic rhetoric in its ranks, while its pro-Israel foreign policy puts a twist in its ideological pedigree. But the AfD\u2019s commitment to Israel looks to many observers like a qualified alliance based on Jews fitting the party\u2019s anti-Muslim civilizational story.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Austria\u2019s far-right Freedom Party, founded by former Nazis, has attempted to soften the hard edges of their anti-Muslim immigration policy with what some have termed a \u201ccharm offensive\u201d toward Jews, especially relating to support for Israel.<\/p>\n The opacity of parties with problematic, antisemitic individuals taking actively pro-Israel stands has blurred conventional lines in politics and apparently created some confusion in the Jewish community. At a time when voices defending Israel are so rare, some Jews welcome anyone who expresses anything that can be construed as something like empathy.<\/p>\n Above all, foreign policy is a place where alliances are commonly as tactical as they are principled. Notably, the government of Israel plays this game, too. Last year, far-right European figures were invited to a conference on combating antisemitism. (Many mainstream Jewish leaders stayed away.)<\/p>\n Whether Orb\u00e1n\u2019s downfall is a Hungary-specific phenomenon or whether it might portend a waning of the European extreme right and those forces around the world will be known only over time. Either way, what will it mean for Jews and the Jewish state? That, too, remains an open question \u2013 one that Jewish communities need to keep trying to better understand and be more strategically positioned to respond to.<\/p>\n The only sure thing is that Jews and Israel will remain tools in the hands of self-interested politicians, one way or another.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The landslide defeat of Viktor Orb\u00e1n and his Fidesz party in the recent Hungarian parliamentary elections could herald a seismic shift in European and global politics. Or not. There were many issues at play in the election, obviously, including pocketbook economics and other domestic matters. Overseas observers have focused on Orb\u00e1n\u2019s \u201cilliberal democracy\u201d \u2013 his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[801,4304,3249,3484,21884,6342,3597,20065],"class_list":["post-48828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-ji","tag-antisemitism","tag-democracy","tag-elections","tag-europe","tag-far-right","tag-geopolitics","tag-politics","tag-viktor-orban"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}