ROME– While signs of violent anti-Semitism are on the rise across Europe, Hungary stands out as uniquely safe for Jews, writes David P. Goldman in his most recent “Spengler” essay Monday.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been pilloried for his strong stance against Brussels-imposed immigration quotas but it turns out that controlling who comes and goes in one’s country is an effective antidote to ethnic attacks.
Whereas the leaders of Germany’s Jewish community warned Jews last month not to wear distinctive apparel following similar warnings in France, and Belgian TV could not find a single Jew in Brussels willing to wear a kippah in public, Goldman said he walked across Budapest wearing a kippah four times last week and “no-one looked at my kippah twice.”
Goldman’s conclusion? “There are no risks to Jews because there are very few Muslim migrants.”
Jewish life isn’t just flourishing in Budapest, Goldman writes, it’s “roaring,” and on any given Friday evening, Budapest’s Keren Or synagogue hosts two hundred people for dinner. About 100,000 Israelis have dual Hungarian citizenship, he notes, and many Israelis own property in the country and vote in Hungarian elections.
Orbán himself is one of Israel’s few steadfast supporters in the European Union, and Hungary, along with Rumania and the Czech Republic, recently vetoed a European Community resolution condemning the U.S. for moving its embassy to Jerusalem.
Orbán looks to Israel as an example, Goldman writes, since Hungary is a small nation at risk of “demographic extinction” during the next century, and Israel is a small nation that has maintained its identity despite enormous forces against it.
Israel, Goldman declares, “should be a beacon for nations that are struggling to maintain their identity and cohesion against a demographic ebb-tide and against the pressures of globalization.”
Over the past three decades, billionaire activist and financial disrupter George Soros has sunk an astounding $400 million in political spending into his native Hungary through the Open Society Foundations, Goldman notes, creating a “unique problem” for Hungary.
Soros, who finances mass migration and opposes Hungarian nationalism, has accused Prime Minister Orbán of anti-Semitism, yet the facts speak otherwise, Goldman insists.
The truth is that Organ has been great for Hungary and was recently reelected with a two-thirds majority.
Hungary’s economic turnaround under Orbán’s hard-fought flat tax has been spectacular “with growth at 4%, unemployment at 3.9%, and a pronounced labor shortage,” Goldman notes, and “visible signs of prosperity are ubiquitous.”
Among Hungarians, Orbán is something of a hero, especially because of his unwillingness to relinquish national sovereignty to the EU’s strong-arm tactics, particularly in the area of immigration.
Soros, on the other hand, “is a left-wing utopian who thinks that dissolving national differences is the precondition for world harmony,” Goldman writes, mincing no words.
There is nothing inherently anti-Semitic about campaigning against “a plutocrat who is trying to buy your country,” Goldman says, referring to Orbán’s campaign of resistance to Soros’ political machinations.
Meanwhile, Goldman notes, elsewhere in Europe Muslim migrants “are the sole source of violent attacks on Jews,” which is an essential reason why Hungary is distinctly safe.
“Hungary is the safest European country for Jews, with no anti-Semitic violence of any kind in recent years,” he states.
American conservatives should also be aware, Goldman writes, that while EU elites despise U.S. President Donald Trump, he is revered in Central and Eastern Europe.
“To the beleaguered nationalists of Eastern Europe, Trump is an inspiration,” he states. “Americans in general and Jews in particular should remember who their friends are.”
Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome
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