Anti-Semitism in Parliament: Hungary's Far-Right Rhetoric Reaches New Dimension

[sysop]

People of Jewish heritage are a "security risk" and should be registered on a nationwide list, according to right-wing extremist Hungarian politician Márton Gyöngyösi. His comments, made in the country's parliament, have sparked widespread outrage. But the government as slow to distance itself.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-869826.html

[odaart]

The real security risk lays within the person saying that Jews are a security risk...unbelievable that we still have to deal with this much idiocy in our time.....what is this? A sign of the dumbing down of humanity??!

[baznez]

Anti-semitism, or racism in any shape or form is an absolutely disgusting and unfortunate attribute of certain people's ideologies. And is one off if not the biggest deadly virus in human thought process. However why is it that a respected source such as Spiegel is ever present in outlining ant-semitism where ever it occurs (and would be normally respected in doing so) except for the fact that other forms of racism such as the moderate apartheid being applied by Israels state policies don't seem to be worthy as Spiegel articles. Here a a few just to mention in the recent Gaza flare up of violence. Israeli minister; "we want to send them back to middles ages". Netanyahu; "on one hand we have peace on the other the deadly sword of David", Ariel Sharon's son; "there is no such thing as an innocent Gazan. We should completely once and for all flatten the area". These were just three comments put forward by a member of an Israeli political family dynasty, a minister, and the PM himself. Hence it doesn't even take into account other references which if we replaced Palestinians with Jews would be considered as severe anti semitism. Just imagine for a moment, Merkel claiming that a non Christian state if not on their best behaviour will be seeing the sword of Jesus. Please keep tackling the issues you do regarding racism such as this one. However I urge you to be less selective and tackle the issue as a whole no matter the culprit, otherwise you will be viewed as nothing beyond anti fascism, racism etc as long as its politically correct, much inline with the pro Israeli lobby media in the US. I sincerely expect more than US style analysis by Spiegel.

[KhanZubair]

Europe seems to be place of divergent ideas and theories. Just a day back while supporting the Jews, the German Foreign Minister strongly opposed the Palestanian state move. Pro Jews view point of Merkel is know to every body. Now in Hungary you see entirely different ideas and theories emerging. Very rightly pointed out by Baznes, Anti-semitism, or racism in any shape or form is an absolutely disgusting and unfortunate attribute of certain people's ideologies. And is one off if not the biggest deadly virus in human thought process" At least at European level can we completely get rid of this curse?

[powermeerkat]

Iranian rulling ayatollahs claim that "Israel should be wiped-off of the world map."

While Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt staunchly supports terrorist Hamas in Gaza strip.

[not that homicidal Assad regime in Syria doesn't arm and support terrorist Hezbollah, which destroys Lebanon as we speak.]

[stevanharnad]

This all-too-familiar burst of base bigotry from the Jobbik party in Hungary's parliament has deflected attention from an even more ominous event that passed unnoticed, in the very same place, on the very same day: Electoral gerrymandering designed to keep the governing Fidesz Party in power.

As Marton Dornbach points out below in his remarkably insightful commentary, reproduced in full (and slightly updated by the author) from the Hungarian Spectrum, Fidesz is just playing "good cop" to Jobbik's "bad cop".

"The thing that is really important here, in my opinion, is not that Márton Gyöngyösi is a Nazi. Most of us realized a while ago that Jobbik is a virulently racist Neo-Nazi party. This is no news. It is also no news, unfortunately, that the ruling party is willing to go to great lengths to avoid unequivocal and firm condemnation of Nazi talk (incidentally, the most disgracefully equivocal part of Zsolt Németh’s response was the formulation he chose: he said the number of Jews in government “is not particularly closely related” to the severity of the conflict in the Middle East /”nem nagyon kapcsolódik ahhoz”/)

"No, the most newsworthy aspect of this incident is the timing. Gyöngyösi’s statements came five days after the ceasefire in Gaza was announced. So there was nothing particularly topical about his sick proposal. In any case, thugs like him never needed a pretext for Jew-baiting. Why now then?

"Well, it so happens that, on the very same day that MGy made this demented proposal, the Fidesz supermajority put a stake through the barely-beating heart of Hungarian democracy by abolishing universal voting rights and introducing an exceptionally restrictive form of mandatory voter registration. You wouldn’t know this from the foreign media coverage of the Monday parliamentary session; but that’s precisely the point. Especially in the international media, but in Hungary too, the abolition of universal voting rights was completely eclipsed by this Nazi provocation. After all, viewed from London or Washington or Brussels it is so much easier to relate to Nazism than to election technicalities in a small country. So much easier for journalists to cover the former than the latter.

"But let’s put things in perspective. Unfortunately, there always were and perhaps there always will be sick racists who harbor genocidal fantasies. The fact that Hungarian society as a whole fails to ostracize such people and/or treat them as psychiatric cases is a sign of a civilizational breakdown. However, there is no real danger of Gyöngyösi’s proposal being implemented (although in this respect we all know that nothing is impossible). Without denying that anti-Semitism is alarmingly widespread in Hungary and has a potential to produce violent outbursts, I think it is safe to say that the only group of people in Hungary that faces systematic discrimination and harassment on account of ethnic origins is the Roma. So we should see MGy’s statement as a purely symbolic act of transgression whose sole purpose was to shock and draw attention.

"Unlike MGy’s proposal, the election law passed on the very same day is certain to have very real future consequences. It drastically reduces the chances of Orban’s opposition. Let’s be clear about this: the introduction of severely restrictive voter registration rules in a country with a perfectly well-functioning central registry is an unprecedented disgrace. It is the most overt violation of basic democratic principles even in the sordid record of the Orban regime’s power grab. This is the outrage that is being overlooked amid the (absolutely justified) uproar about the latest Nazi provocation by Jobbik. Look at the foreign coverage of what happened on Monday in the Hungarian parliament: there is no reference to the election law, no reference to Zsolt Nemeth’s appalling non-response, while most outlets state that the Hungarian government has condemned the provocation “in the strongest terms” (if only!) The whole story is a PR coup for Fidesz. In keeping with the line of defense adopted by numerous diplomatic and journalistic apologetes of the regime, this incident has given Fidesz yet another opportunity to play good cop to Jobbik’s bad cop.

"To conclude, I find it almost impossible not to raise the obvious, admittedly speculative, question: Cui bono? Who is benefitting from all of this? To my mind at least the timing of this crass provocation invites the conjecture that there may be (tacit or not-so-tacit) co-operation between the Neo-Nazi Jobbik party and the ruling Fidesz supermajority. And let’s not forget here two points: it is not inconceivable that Fidesz may need to form a coalition with Jobbik to stay in power after 2014; and Jobbik is the other party, beside Fidesz, which stands to gain from the new voter registration rules. [original comment edited by MD]"

http://bit.ly/FideszJobbik

[nevermind]

I know Hungary has a problem with setting itself above the Roma and those of Jewish descent,. but is it any different from the attitudes that exist in Tel Aviv?

Erdogan called Israel a terrorist state, I call it more fascist than Hungary, by a mile/km, but now the game is up, cause the ICC and the law comes into it.

Knuckle dragging politicians will say anything to get elected or stay in power, that's the problem with party political dogma. We have to learn from the malaise they have landed us in, whether its the economic mistakes they made, or the foreign policy decision they have taken, we have to grow our own Independent politicians and vote for them, change the equation, cause these political parties who got us to the brink of totalitarianism in Europe and dare I say this the world, after listening to the threats uttered by Germany's erstwhile owner and director, the US, at yesterdays UN meeting, its two against the rest of the world, these political parties are the problem, not the solution.

Merkel better watch out, Europe is not a burger munching state, nor is Europe a Federation, She should keep her council and stay away from the bad boys.

http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archiv...comment-383481

[andre79799]

The problem in Hungary is not that someone there is a devotee of the god fearing Jewish religion, or that exotic Harikrishna follower and each prays every day to their respective gods. The problem is that for their negligible proportion too many Jews are in the parliament (who may have sworn allegiance to another foreign power, or at least easily convinced to serve 2 masters) and are in key national decision making positions, squeezing Hungarians where it hurts. To bring insult to injury, some hold dual Israeli-Hungarian citizenship which they try to deny at any cost, hiding behind that virtual firewall of liberty, racism, fascism, and neo Nazism that unjustly muffles any criticism.

Historically Hungarians have a very bitter taste in their mouth after terribly suffering from previous rather bloody Hungarian communist dictatorships like Kun Béla; (A.K.A. Kohn Béla), Rákosi Mátyás; (A.K.A. Roth Manó) regimes and the dreaded ÁVH secret terror police force (cousins of the Staci) whose leadership ranks again were again swollen overwhelmingly by Jews.

As a footnote, would the Israeli Knesset turn blind eyes towards a couple of their distinguished members if some were secretly holding dual Iranian-Israeli citizenships, and take a trip once in a while to Tehran?

[Inglenda2]

To call all people of Jewish heritage a "security risk" is of course just as wrong as to call all Germans, who had the drawback of living under the Hitler regime “Nazis.” Most of them were not! Nevertheless a glance at Palestine might lead to such an opinion as has been expressed above.
There are religions in this world which show no respect towards members of another faith. Such religions are one of the most grievous problems of today’s world and the cause of many wars. It is however also true to say, in most cases, members of such religions are victims of the environment in which they have been brought up in. The male Jew is marked for life only eight days after birth. This belief is so, in a physical manner, forced on to him. Few who have been brought up with this radical method would ever have the courage to break out of such circles. In some Islamic countries, the people can be tried and even executed for wishing to change their religion.
We should therefore stop criticising people for who they are, as done in the case of genuine anti-Semitism, but rather explore the possibilities they have and how these are used. Normal working people are seldom the cause for annoyance between ethnic and religious groups. This cannot however always be said for their leaders and those who are ready to follow them blindly, without thinking for themselves. The latter were, are and will remain, a security risk for us all.