24

Hungary: Paradise for liberals

by István Lovas


Do you wonder what you are going to read in the mainstream press on Hungary tomorrow? I will tell you. The same as yesterday, and the same as in the past almost seven years since Hungary’s right-of-center Fidesz government, led by the Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, was elected.
You will learn that Mr. Orbán is a populist, an autocratic ruler, a menace to Europe, and a politician not hesitating to use anti-Semitic language in order to win over voters of the far-right Jobbik, and cover up uncomfortable truths about whatever is on the agenda in Hungary on that day.
He, of course, has muzzled the media, made the court system a handmaiden of the ruling elite, abolished checks and balances, while he is suffocating the voice of dissenters, creates inordinate fear, chases away half of the country beyond Hungary’s borders, and the rest of the stuff.
Lately, Hungary has been called the safe haven of the European ultra-right. At the time when Hungary’s authorities have arrested and expelled two such figures, such as Nick Griffin and James Dawson, both of them ultra-right British politicians.
In our “free” media world, it is impossible to request corrections from any western media with regard to outright lies that they publish about Hungary, and those lies will be repeated ad nauseam.
So, if you just want to read yet another of the mainstream media mill churning out the same heap of trash, and want to see how Hungary’s regime reminds you of the “darkest period of history”, turn, please, to the Washington Post, the New York Times, The Guardian, the German, the French, and the Austrian mainstream press. Here, in this article, you will find facts. That you have never heard of. Only if you go to Hungary and look around for yourself.
First, let us glance at how the Hungarian press is “muzzled.”
Have you ever heard of any Western voice complaining about the media situation in Serbia, Hungary’s southern neighbor? No. Well, in that country of 7,4 million people, the opposition has a single national political daily newspaper with a circulation of 2,000. The rest is pro-government stuff.
In a sharp contrast to Hungary where the combined circulation of the two national dailies in opposition to the government is clearly superior to that of the two national pro-government dailies.
Out of the six weeklies that you can see at any newsstand, supermarket, or gas station, only two are pro-government.
One million people watch the news program of RTL Klub, a commercial television station owned by a Luxembourg-based media group. The Hungarian public television, controlled strictly indeed by the government, has a viewership that is one tenth of RTL’s. Other than that, Hungarians can switch, in addition to RTL KLub, to ATV or HirTV if they want to be informed how corrupt and horrible their government is. And where expert after expert try desperately to find a reason why Hungarians still overwhelmingly support their horrible incumbent government, and why Fidesz will win handily in next year’s election.
Self-censorship in the opposition media? Come on, there is no country on the face of the earth where you can say things about the Prime Minister or members of the ruling Fidesz party that can appear in an American paper only as three dots.
On June 10th, the 88th Book Festival Week was officially opened in Budapest with the speech of a Hungarian writer called Pál Závada. He started his speech by declaring that he has to speak in the gag press of a one party, autocratic state.
What do you think, who financed the festive event? None other than the government.
The government sponsors almost of all its enemies and dissenters with a magnanimity that is unimaginable in any other country. And they – both the government and the dissenters – are mum about it.
It is a special Hungarian disease that you can call a political Stockholm syndrome that you cannot find anywhere else in the world.
The head of the court system in Hungary is a lady, called Tünde Handó, who selected a judge to a key position, who is the sworn enemy of the incumbent government, and who sentenced an editor-in-chief of the weekly Demokrata to prison for writing something during the previous, socialist-liberal government that was offensive to that government.
The chief Hungarian public prosecutor is a person who has been described by two well-known Hungarian pro-Fidesz journalists, Zsolt Bayer and Péter Csermely, as a stooge of the “other side”. No wonder that practically not a single leading corrupt socialist politician is in prison, including the most rotten figure of all, former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány, who ordered the police force to remove their ID numbers, and shoot rubber bullets at, and kicking almost to death, innocent passers-bye during a public revolt in the fall of 2016.
The anti-Semitism charge leveled regularly against the Orbán government is the biggest fake news of our times.
Take the Maccabiah Games, the international Jewish multi-sport event held quadrennially in Israel. Except in 2019 when it will be staged in Budapest. At the cost of the Hungarian taxpayers.
There is no gesture, including self-destructing ones, the Hungarian government would not be willing to engage in order to show its unconditional loyalty to Israel and the Jewish people. Hungary’s ambassador in Israel, Andor Nagy, told the Jerusalem Post that anti-Semitism was growing in Hungary when, in fact, it was declining. However, he thought that that such talk would please the daily. And he was not recalled.
The Hungarian government is supporting the Hungarian Jewish community with huge amounts of money, restoring synagogues and cemeteries.
And the country, including the culturally vibrant Jewish quarter of the capital, Budapest, is the safest for its inhabitants and visitors in whole of Europe. It is a district where Jews feel completely secure and at ease, not being afraid, just like in any other corner of Hungary, to stroll while showing their religious identity.
Or take MTI, the official Hungarian news agency. It does not have a single correspondent in China, Hungary’s strategic partner, but it has one in Jerusalem.
In spite of all this, the country and its government will be attacked tomorrow with the assistance of Hungarian Jewish organizations that have accustomed to the idea that any charge of anti-Semitism thrown at the government or the Prime Minister, coming from them or their co-religionists abroad, would surely increase their budget.
The government’s masochistic policy is in evidence in every walk of life.
Hungary’s lobby organization in the U.S., the Hungarian Initiatives Foundation, led by Tamás Fellegi, a figure with a shady past in the United States before 1990, supports Hungary’s most acerbic critics in the United States. Most lately, he has provided substantial financial assistance to a foundation set up by Ann Applebaum, Hungary’s fiercest critic in the Washington Post, with an amount of money that would make any Hungarian voter extremely angry if it were told about it.
Any other questions?

István Lovas is a Hungarian print and television journalist who worked for Radio Free Europe and started his journalistic work with articles that appeared in The Wall Street Journal, and Japan Today.

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rehmat1
rehmat1
Jul 14, 2017 1:57 AM

On July 13, Allison Kaplan Sommer in an Op-Ed at Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz claimed that Benjamin Netanyahu showed his hatred toward George Soro by joining Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban’s war against the Hungarian-American Jew multibillionaire.
Netanyahu who is due to meet Orban on July 18 in Budapest, has rejected Hungarian Jewish groups’ appeal to cancel his trip to Hungary until Orban lifts ban on Soro and apologizes to the Jewish people for his antisemitic actions.
George Soro, 86, has accused Hungarian government’s accusations against him like Nazi propaganda against Jews during WWII. On January 4, 2017, William E. Jasper at The New American, the official news website of the Christian Zionist John Birch Society claimed that young George Soro was a Nazi collaborator.
George Soro and his Open Society Foundations (OSF) funds NGOs in 100 countries, which help CIA-Mossad to bring color revolutions around the world.
Soros-funded groups now stand accused of organizing anti-government protests in Syria, Iran, Iraq, Tunisia, Libya, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, USA, Ukraine and of using anti-corruption campaigns in Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary to undermine elected officials.
Viktor Orban and Netanyahu are glued together through hatred toward Muslims. In contrast, many leaders of Hungary’s second largest party Jobbik with 23 MPs, support Palestinian cause and want close relations with Ankara and Tehran. Some Jobbik MPs have questioned the Jewish and Christian Zionist MPs loyalty to state of Hungary. Jobbik president Gábor Vona has visited Iran and Turkey in past where he called for a Christian-Muslim alliance to fight Zionism-Fascism that unites US and Israel.
Despite objections from Hungarian Jewish groups, Viktor Orban paid a visit Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei in Tehran in December 2015. In 2016, he visited Iran again.
On June 11, 2017, US-based Israeli propaganda site Hungarian Spectrum reported that Budapest has signed a nuclear cooperation deal.
“Given the Trump administration’s support for Saudi Arabia and Israel and its antagonism toward Iran, it is indeed difficult to figure out what Viktor Orbán has in mind when he signs nuclear deals, however innocent the “declaration of intent” may sound, with the Iran of the ayatollahs. Has he already decided that pursuing a U.S.-friendly policy, even with Trump in power, is a fool’s errand?,” wrote Eva S. Balogh, HS editor. She claims having a PhD in history from Yale University, New Haven.
In February 2017, Jewish supremacist group ADL accused Donald Trump of hiring pro-Islam Jobbik sympathizers.
https://rehmat1.com/2017/07/14/netanyahu-hates-george-soro/

mohandeer
mohandeer
Jul 14, 2017 4:12 PM
Reply to  rehmat1

Rehmat1.
You have given a fair representation of the state of play in your comment. Well met!

mohandeer
mohandeer
Jul 14, 2017 4:13 PM
Reply to  mohandeer

And thanks also for the link you gave.

Husq
Husq
Jul 13, 2017 2:46 PM

Well worth a lsiten to Rabbi Shapiro.
“O.K. We gota people in your Country, that will be on our side.”

Husq
Husq
Jul 13, 2017 2:47 PM
Reply to  Husq

Excuse my spulling!!

mohandeer
mohandeer
Jul 12, 2017 7:34 PM

“In spite of all this, the country and its government will be attacked tomorrow with the assistance of Hungarian Jewish organizations that have accustomed to the idea that any charge of anti-Semitism thrown at the government or the Prime Minister, coming from them or their co-religionists abroad, would surely increase their budget.”
My response: Had to laugh at this one. Here in the UK the Israeli Lobby, powerful and wealthy, only have to whisper “anti-Semitism”, and the right wing of Labour along with the Conservative pro Israeli government are falling over themselves to serve the interests of Israel(they of course refer to it as supporting the Jews, since they will allow no distinction). The various Jewish Lobby groups are given financial support from British taxpayers money, but the taxpayers are not told, because those pro Israeli Zionist extremists have a vice like grip on our sovereignty, government, police, judiciary, MSM and any other sources of influence and power. This iron fist control of wealth and power has wealth enough to rival the Vatican and the overworked “sympathy card” of the genocide of the Jewish people by Hitler served the Zionist cadre well, even though they had no concern whatsoever for the Jews who died.
As long as the MSM are all drinking from the same poison well, nothing is ever going to change. Such terms like “right wing”, ” liberal” and “socialist left” hold no defence against the insidious influence of the Zionist controllers who have infiltrated their ranks by fair means(bought and paid for) or foul (blackmailed and co-opted). It would be the equivalent of trying to make distinctions between the ship rat and the town rat – at the end of the day, they are all the same animal.
Your comment is awaiting moderation.(24 hours after posting it?)
What rules of commenting does my post break
Who the hell are the cowards down voting everybody’s posts from their little hidey hole? Are we talking mischievous kids or just paid trolls?

klausius
klausius
Jul 12, 2017 2:43 PM

Hungary is a bad place for migrants and Hungary undermines the unity of EU and that’s an issue today. Some already believe Hungary should be excluded and continue on its own.
http://www.articlesreader.com/hungary-europes-black-sheep/

BigB
BigB
Jul 12, 2017 2:11 PM

Viktor Orban: Europes ‘Marmite’? Love him or hate him, he’s bound to divide opinion – in Europe – and even Israel…
The authors glib analysis of Hungarian anti-Semitism is revealing – as there are tensions, home and abroad – in particular, about a recent speech in which Orban referred to one of Hungary’s Nazi leaders (Miklos Horthy) as an “exceptional statesman“. The tensions were eased by none other than Bibi himself, a man not prone to forgiveness over Holocaust revisionism; and who has zero-tolerance of anti-Semitism. Realpolitik? Or opportunism??? A quick internet search revealed that Orban and Bibi share the same strategist – Arthur J Finkelstein – a marriage of convenience, perhaps. After all, anti-Semitism is only ever applied to enemies?
Two things appear to unite the two – natural gas and a hatred of Soros. Israel, Cyprus, and Greece have signed agreements to explore the Levant Basin – which Orban is setting Hungary up to buy (by pipeline or LNG). So the above authors virtue signalling of a pro-Israel-Hungarian alliance is based (in part) on the exploitation of natural resources? Syria and Palestine don’t even feature in the deal (and Turkey is none too happy) – I wonder why???
Orban has, rightly in my opinion, called out Soros on his European migrant miscegenation programme: the EU’s ailing and failing multiculturism. With the other Visegrad (V4) countries, he has maintained his countries sovereignty with a border fence, and refuses migrant quotas, despite the threat of EU sanctions. That’s another debate that can’t be had without hyper-PC accusations of Islamophobia… So any suggestion of ‘strategic engineered mass migration’; or deeply Machiavellian hybrid-cultural-warfare is pure conspiracy. Isn’t it? But to imply that the country is intolerant of any form of xenophobic anti-Islamic Nationalism (because they kicked out Nick Griffin and friend)… Really???
So Orban kicked out the IMF; allied with Putin (over South Stream); and President Xi (over OBOR; the Hungarian-Serbia railway); the Americans (over LNG?); wants to kick out the NED-CIA-Soros-front, the Central European University; and stands up against supranational EU control – so he’s a good guy? Not wholly. Any national leader who aligns with the deeply racist war criminal demagogue Netanyahu gets no respect from me. There are some things I can’t turn a blind eye to: and this government apologist piece doesn’t alter my opinion.
I told you he was Marmite…

mohandeer
mohandeer
Jul 12, 2017 9:33 PM
Reply to  BigB

Bibi has no problem with anti-semitism, as some of Trumps first appointees are totally and vocally anti semite and Bibi has ministers who actually went to school with these “Jew haters”. As long as the government of any country is not anti Israel and does not support BDS he really doesn’t care what happens to Jews elsewhere, his only concern is that they are shepherded toward Israel. The Zionist extremist Lobbyists use any sign of anti Israeli as anti semitism and hate speech to further illustrate the righteousness of the Zionist cause and it works a treat. The Zionist extremist puppet masters use the Jewish people as a means to an end – there own ends, an Imperialist and “select” and “chosen” few with an ultra nationalist global agenda. The rest of us, ordinary Jews included, are just grist for the mill.

BigB
BigB
Jul 13, 2017 12:59 PM
Reply to  mohandeer

I completely agree: you don’t have to look beyond Bibi’s alliance with Saudi Arabia and Daesh to see that what you say is true. He will deal with anyone if it furthers his global agenda. He has gone against the Knesset in the ongoing row over Orban’s anti-Soros poster campaign. I suspect we’ll see some sort of bi-lateral deal on natural gas when Orban and Bibi meet on the 18th: public opinion be damned! Orban seems to be enticing Russia, Israel and the US into some sort of trade war over the right to supply Hungary at the lowest price. That’s the feeling I get: tricky game?
Anyway, as I said, anti-Semitism is reserved for enemies. I should have added the caveat “when it suits” to Bibi’s ‘zero tolerance’…

mohandeer
mohandeer
Jul 13, 2017 4:25 PM
Reply to  BigB

Hi BigB.
“Orban seems to be enticing Russia, Israel and the US into some sort of trade war over the right to supply Hungary at the lowest price. That’s the feeling I get: tricky game?”
I’m glad you said it first. I did wonder what was going on when Orban along with Italian PM Renzi responded favourably to a letter sent by Marco Rubio and John McCain to the EU denouncing Russia’s overland expansion of it’s Nordstream 2 project saying it wasn’t in the best interests of Europe(what McCain and Rubio actually meant, of course, was that Russia’s expansion of it’s supplies was not in the US interests).
So your comment definitely had merit!
🙂 Susan

BigB
BigB
Jul 13, 2017 5:30 PM
Reply to  mohandeer

As you probably know: there is about to be trade war between the EU (Germany, Austria, France) and the US, if they pass the new Sanctions Bill. Trump (I use his name as a denominator, I doubt that he has anything to do with it. McCain and Rubio are Soros’ whores) wants to set up America as the worlds energy ‘racketeer’ (coal and nuclear at home, oil, shale, and LNG for export): for political as much as economical reasons. Putin wants to expand Russian supplies of gas via NordStream 2, South Stream, Turkish Stream. Xi wants to bring goods overland from China via OBOR: with whom Orban has signed a Memorandum of Understanding. Bibi’s trying to get in on the act… Tsipras…
It’s all going on, and changes day by day. There is a tectonic plate shift about to happen, from West to East: tension is building. Hungary is one of the key states that is pivoting East. Anything could happen: regime change; the breakup of the EU? Worst case scenario is a Gas World War. Xi and Putin will work cooperatively: the regressive psychotic NeoCons don’t know how. I’m not sure your average American voter could find Hungary on a map? Or China?? Or even America???!!

mohandeer
mohandeer
Jul 13, 2017 5:52 PM
Reply to  BigB

The sneaky and savvy deep state knows exactly what’s going on and are terrified, hence the need to ratchet up the tensions and set up new spheres of interest. It looks like China is going to help Syria rebuild for a pipeline deal(in which Iran, no doubt and now, because of Saudi stupidity, possibly even Qatar will also be involved). If Russia and China can get the OBOR through, then the days of US NWO will truly get a deserved kick in the teeth, as all these countries will be trading in currencies other than the petro dollar. No wonder the US would prefer planetary annihilation – the mere thought of not being the world’s unelected and self regulating police force, must be killing the powers that be. I’m just living in hope. As you say, there is so much kicking off these days, geopolitically, like an awakening that seems to be spreading among the proles, that maybe Norman, who is a devout socialist, will see the tectonic shift we need towards a better way of existence. I for one, would join them.
The snake that was capitalism, is eating it’s own tail and hopefully it’s own head next! We just need a period of adjustment that requires everyone to acknowledge the Zionist rogue state as being the apartheid regime it really is and dislodge their monied wealth and influence from the US, France, Germany and Britain and we get the required much needed change. One world, One human race.

BigB
BigB
Jul 13, 2017 7:38 PM
Reply to  mohandeer

Iran and France just signed a deal to “cultivate” the South Pars field. With Qatar to join? If they can avoid regime change. Small complication, CENTCOM HQ is in Qatar!!! Unfortunately, America’s business model – war – doesn’t work if we all get on!
http://theduran.com/qatar-iran-french-gas-company-one-natural-gas-field/

mohandeer
mohandeer
Jul 14, 2017 6:16 PM
Reply to  BigB

BigB
“Small complication, CENTCOM HQ is in Qatar!!! ”
Which is exactly why Trump’s advisors had him row back on SA critique of Qatar. The damage is done and CENTCOM may be elsewhere other than Qatar, very soon. Doha is home to Al Jazeera and Qatar will not let SA interfere with and AJ has(had?) a massive readership which could cause untold damage as a propagandist platform as it has in the past against Syria and in favour of the Palestinians.
France was excluded by Iran in the bidding for later phases of Iran’s side of SP but Total(France)and China already have massive investment. Iran upped their investment to $90 billion c. 2013 because after the Shah was deposed the clerics made ownership of the reserves the peoples and an Iranian politician wanted more investment made. Iran is in danger of losing production through migration of gas to the Qatari part and decreased field pressure. I don’t think Iran will give it away cheap to the French and nobody will know what sort of deal they can cut with the Chinese(it would be very useful to have China as an economical Ally right about now for the Qataris so they might well – with enough investment be included in a multi partnership which excluded the US. Something Iran has always done and now possibly Qatar?
Very interesting.

rehmat1
rehmat1
Jul 28, 2017 9:25 PM
Reply to  mohandeer

@ mohandeer – Majority of Jews leading the Zionism were proud to call them non-practicing Jews or even Atheists.
Yehezkel Kaufman in article, titled “The Ruin of Soul” collected quotes from some of the Zionist writers (Frishman, Lenni Brenner, Berdichevsky, AD. Gordon, Schawadron, Klatzkin, Pinsker, Israel Joshua Singer, Chaim Kaplan, etc.), which if repeated on air – would get you fired from CNN, BBC, CBS, etc.
https://rehmat1.com/2010/11/21/anti-semitic-roots-of-zionism/

rehmat1
rehmat1
Jul 12, 2017 1:53 AM

The problem is not Viktor Orbán, who is pro-Israel and anti-Muslims. The problem his failure to crush the ultra-nationalist Jobbik party which is not friendly with the Zionist regime and urges an alliance with the Muslim world especially Turkey and Iran against the organized Jewry.
Victor Orban, following in Vladimir Putin’s footstep – has banned Jewish multibillionaire George Soro’s entry in Hungary. Soro is famous for bring ‘color revolution’ around the world.
In November 2013, Gabor Vona, president of Hungary’s White nationalist opposition party Jobbik visited Turkey, calling for Christian-Muslim unity.
Speaking at the Sakarya University in Turkey, Vona said that Turkey and Hungary are sister nations. He also stressed that neither religion nor earlier historical conflicts can interfere with the task of carrying both the European and the Asian point of views. We need to develop closer ties with Turkey that go far beyond diplomatic and commercial relations.
Vona, is depicted as the “far right” and “Israel-hater” by the western Islamophobes and Jewish controlled mainstream media for “good reasons”. Hungarian Gabor Vona and Geert Wilders are both anti-colored immigration, but politically and culturally far apart. While, Wilders considers Israel as defender of “Western Values” – Vona believes Islam as “the last bastion of mankind’s traditional culture.”
Over his so-called “antisemitic” views, UK’s Jewish groups urged then foreign secretary Theresa May to ban Gabor Vona to enter Britain where he was scheduled to address Hungarian diaspora.
https://rehmat1.com/2013/11/11/hungarys-leader-calls-for-christian-muslim-unity/

susannapanevin
susannapanevin
Jul 12, 2017 1:37 AM

Reblogged this on Susanna Panevin.

tutisicecream
tutisicecream
Jul 11, 2017 4:50 PM

Why is Orban vilified in the WMSM? Well the answer is quite simple – he has good relations with Russia and President Putin.
Unlike Poroshenko in Ukraine who is/has been praised for his great liberation of that country by plunging it into civil war and enabling the political party Pravy sector and their Neo-Nazi brethren to achieve positions in government.
But the WMSM is eerily silent about the installation of fascists in positions of power. Why? Well because the Putsch government in Kiev are vehemently Russo-phobic.

mohandeer
mohandeer
Jul 11, 2017 6:26 PM
Reply to  tutisicecream

Hi Admin. Came back to site to “like” tutisicecream only to find my comment still awaiting moderation.
Just pull it if you think the content unsuitable, but don’t leave it hanging in limbo, very strange. Anyway, have come back to give TIC my vote and will call it a day.

mohandeer
mohandeer
Jul 11, 2017 4:01 PM

Reblogged this on Worldtruth.

mohandeer
mohandeer
Jul 11, 2017 3:59 PM

“In spite of all this, the country and its government will be attacked tomorrow with the assistance of Hungarian Jewish organizations that have accustomed to the idea that any charge of anti-Semitism thrown at the government or the Prime Minister, coming from them or their co-religionists abroad, would surely increase their budget.”
Had to laugh at this one. Here in the UK the Israeli Lobby, powerful and wealthy, only have to whisper “anti-Semitism, and the right wing of Labour along with the Conservative pro Israeli government are falling over themselves to serve the interests of Israel(they of course refer to it as supporting the Jews, since they will allow no distinction). The various Jewish Lobby groups are given financial support from British taxpayers money, but the taxpayers are not told, because those pro Israeli Zionist extremists have a vice like grip on our sovereignty, government, police, judiciary, MSM and any other sources of influence and power. This iron fist control of wealth and power has wealth enough to rival the Vatican and the overworked “sympathy card” of the genocide of the Jewish people by Hitler served the Zionist cadre well, even though they had no concern whatsoever for the Jews who died.
As long as the MSM are all drinking from the same poison well, nothing is ever going to change. Such terms like “right wing”, ” liberal” and “socialist left” hold no defence against the insidious influence of the Zionist controllers who have infiltrated their ranks by fair means(bought and paid for) or foul (blackmailed and co-opted). It would be the equivalent of trying to make distinctions between the ship rat and the town rat – at the end of the day, they are all the same animal.

flybow
flybow
Jul 11, 2017 3:15 PM

My father was Hungarian. A refugee from 1956. He hated radio free europe, for being a CIA conduit.

Husq
Husq
Jul 11, 2017 2:43 PM

The mental gymnastics required…………….
On Netanyahu’s Orders: Israel’s Foreign Ministry Retracts Criticism of anti-Semitism in Hungary and Slams George Soros
A day after Israel’s ambassador harshly called on the Hungarian PM to remove posters against the Jewish billionaire, the Foreign Ministry backtracks, says George Soros constantly undermines Israel’s governments
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.800437