Hungary’s Magyar Invites Netanyahu To Budapest Despite ICC Warrant, Signals Continued Israel Ties (Worthy News In-Depth)

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief reporting from Budapest, Hungary

JERUSALEM/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Péter Magyar, Hungary’s incoming prime minister, has reached out to the Jewish community and invited Israel’s government leader to Budapest despite an arrest warrant against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Magyar told him that he “intends to continue the close relations between Hungary and Israel.”

Magyar invited Netanyahu to attend a ceremony marking 70 years since the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 against Soviet domination, the office added in a statement issued after what it described as “a warm introductory conversation.”

Netanyahu “welcomed his remarks and accepted the invitation and invited Prime Minister-elect Magyar to a government-to-government (G2G) meeting in Jerusalem,” said the statement obtained by Worthy News.

It was unclear whether Netanyahu’s visit would raise legal issues, as Magyar indicated he wants Hungary to rejoin the ICC after Viktor Orbán withdrew Hungary from the court to enable a previous visit by Israel’s prime minister. The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu over alleged war crimes related to the armed conflict in Gaza against Hamas. Netanyahu has strongly denied wrongdoing, and Orbán has called the accusations politically motivated.

ICC QUESTIONS

However, Netanyahu “expressed his confidence that the warm relations shared with outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán would continue during the term of Prime Minister-elect Magyar,” his office said. “The leaders agreed that their respective foreign ministers would meet soon to discuss the continuation of the close ties between Israel and Hungary.”

Magyar also reached out to up to 100,000 Jews living in Hungary, the largest Jewish community in East-Central Europe, as he attended this week’s central ceremony marking Hungary’s annual Holocaust Memorial Day. Some 600,000 Hungarian Jews died in the Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, during World War II.

Wearing a kippah, the traditional Jewish skullcap, Magyar was seen attending the emotionally charged ceremony at Budapest’s Holocaust Memorial Center, where he laid a stone near a wall bearing the names of Jews killed by the Nazis and their supporters.

He earlier told reporters that his government would continue the “zero tolerance” policy toward antisemitism. “Regarding the relationship between Israel and Hungary, I can state that there is clearly a special bond. Many of our Hungarian compatriots live in Israel, and numerous Israeli citizens visit Hungary,” he said.

“Hungary is home to a strong Jewish community, one of the largest in Europe, which fortunately lives in peace and security,” he added. “Hungary has a zero-tolerance policy on all forms of antisemitism, and this will continue in the future,” Magyar pledged.

ZERO TOLERANCE

“At the same time, we will not do things like the Orbán government in various propaganda publications,” he added, in an apparent reference to posters vilifying Hungary-born Jewish financier George Soros, who survived the Holocaust.

The posters plastered around Hungary in 2017 showed a grinning Soros beside the words, “Don’t let Soros have the last laugh.” A Worthy News reporter questioning perceived antisemitism was placed on a government-backed blacklist of journalists regarded as anti-Hungary and Soros-paid agents.

During the multi-million-dollar government campaign, at least some Hungarian Jews feared that open or concealed antisemitism lay behind the messaging. Orbán, who once received a Soros scholarship, strongly denied the allegations and, in recent years, established close ties with Israel.

Additionally, Orbán supporters, including some Jewish commentators, suggest that Magyar will have big shoes to fill regarding the Jewish community in Hungary. “International media outlets and political opponents spent years labeling him everything from illiberal to authoritarian. But on the question that matters most to Jewish families—safety—the contrast between Hungary and much of Europe is stark,” wrote Bryan E. Leib in The Jerusalem Post newspaper.

Leib, a former U.S. Republican congressional candidate and current CEO of the conservative Henry Public Relations agency, said Orbán’s government had protected the Jewish community in part through its anti-immigration policies. “In countries where leaders speak passionately about tolerance and diversity, Jewish citizens often feel the least protected. In Hungary, where the government unapologetically prioritized national security and cultural stability, Jewish communities reported feeling among the safest in Europe.”

ORBÁN LEGACY

Orbán, he said, “understood early on that importing large numbers of individuals from regions where antisemitism is deeply ingrained carried real risks for Jewish communities. His government’s firm stance on border security was not rooted in hostility, as critics often claim, but in a responsibility to protect Hungarian citizens, including its Jewish population.”

Additionally, “Hungary consistently stood with Israel in international forums when others wavered. This alignment was not incidental. It reflected a broader worldview that saw the security of Jewish communities as non-negotiable,” Leib stressed, adding that he has seen Orbán genuinely smiling when entering a synagogue.

With the 45-year-old Magyar soon taking over as Hungary’s next prime minister, the Jewish community has extended an olive branch to him in hopes he will continue to protect them in turbulent times.

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