The situation in the Middle East is becoming increasingly tense, with escalatory developments taking place one after the other. This week, Israel killed a senior Hezbollah commander and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in a precision strike. In response, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered a direct attack on Israel.
‘The Israeli case is evidence that cultural aspects, rather than “family policies”, are the crucial element in producing above-replacement birth rates among an educated and affluent population. It is therefore crucial, for those countries which regard such outcome as desirable, to invest efforts in fostering the cultural aspects of a familial outlook in their societies.’
In an official statement of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Hungarian government expressed its disagreement with the recent findings of the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, according to which Israel’s presence in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem is ‘unlawful’, while Israel’s ‘policies and practices’ in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, including ‘the maintenance and expansion of settlements’, amount to the ‘annexation of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.’
The level of escalation in the Middle East has risen significantly after Israel struck a Houthi-controlled port in Yemen over the weekend, marking the first such attack since the war between Hamas and Israel broke out last October. The retaliatory strike follows a deadly drone attack by the Yemeni Houthis on Tel Aviv.
As Itamar Eichner phrased in his Ynet News article, ‘Without the opposition from Israel’s friends in the EU, such as Hungary, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Germany, the EU might have already passed sanctions against Israel. Foreign policy decisions in the EU require consensus, which Israel’s allies prevent.’
The Metrodome Group, active in the Budapest real estate market since 1996, is opening its first representative office in Israel to offer investment opportunities in the Hungarian capital to Israeli investors. Among the many positive arguments in favour of Budapest, one that stands out is that Hungary remains one of the safest countries for the Jewish community in Europe.
‘Incidentally, Netanyahu’s failure is not because the Biden administration is withholding weapons. The heart of the issue is the Islamic indoctrination of Palestinian Muslims. Just like organized crime in southern Italy, whether it is called the Mafia or the ‘Ndrangheta, capturing and imprisoning the militants or killing them will not end Hamas.’
The updated test will now include questions covering topics regarding the Holocaust, Jewish culture, and the state of Israel. This initiative, part of a broader revision of the citizenship test, aims to ensure that applicants have a comprehensive understanding of Germany’s complex history and its stance on Israel.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel Israel Katz visited Hungary recently for the first time since he took up office. He met with President of Hungary Tamás Sulyok, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, and the leaders of the Hungarian Jewish communities. The main aim of the visit was to determine, with Hungary soon taking over the presidency of the EU, how Budapest and the Union would take action against anti-Israel efforts in the next six months.
‘Everybody’s awoken now, and they are angry, very angry. And that really is what is meant by the end of the innocence. Because before then, even though we knew there was antisemitism, and even though we knew Hamas was a threat, no one understood its severity,’ Avi Benlolo of The Abraham Global Peace Initiative told us in an exclusive interview after the screening of his short documentary The End of the Innocence about the Hamas attacks.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.