{"id":272742,"date":"2025-04-03T03:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T03:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/03\/netanyahu-arrives-in-hungary-finding-a-rare-welcome-in-europe\/"},"modified":"2025-04-03T03:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T03:36:08","slug":"netanyahu-arrives-in-hungary-finding-a-rare-welcome-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/03\/netanyahu-arrives-in-hungary-finding-a-rare-welcome-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu Arrives in Hungary, Finding a Rare Welcome in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/04\/02\/multimedia\/02hungary-netanyahu-1-plwg\/02hungary-netanyahu-1-plwg-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Netanyahu Arrives in Hungary, Finding a Rare Welcome in Europe\" title=\"Netanyahu Arrives in Hungary, Finding a Rare Welcome in Europe\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Thursday began a visit to Hungary, confident that Europe\u2019s self-declared bastion of \u201cilliberal democracy\u201d would ignore <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/11\/21\/world\/middleeast\/icc-netanyahu-israel-gaza-war.html\" title=\"\">an arrest warrant issued against him<\/a> in November by the International Criminal Court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The visit is Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s first to a country that has recognized the jurisdiction of the court, raising the possibility, at least in theory, that he could be arrested. He <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/02\/world\/europe\/netanyahu-trump-israel-washington.html\" title=\"\">visited Washington to discuss the future of Gaza<\/a> with President Trump in February but the United States, like Israel, has never recognized the international court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In Hungary, the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban has made clear that it will ignore its obligations as a party to a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/11\/21\/world\/middleeast\/us-icc-member-countries.html\" title=\"\">1998 treaty that established the court.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Orban invited Mr. Netanyahu to visit shortly after the court issued its arrest warrant, assuring him that \u201cthe judgment of the I.C.C. will have no effect in Hungary and that we will not follow its terms.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Hungary\u2019s expansive propaganda machine has embraced antisemitic tropes in its <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/04\/26\/world\/europe\/soros-orban-hungary-eu-central-european-university.html\" title=\"\">nonstop vilification of George Soros<\/a>, a Hungarian-born American financier and philanthropist who is Jewish. It has cast him as the sinister puppeteer in a vast global conspiracy backed by high finance and hidden, cosmopolitan forces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But Mr. Orban, a strong supporter of Israel, has embraced the country\u2019s right-wing prime minister as a kindred spirit in tune with his own ethnonationalist views and reverence for national sovereignty free of foreign interference.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The International Criminal Court issued the arrest warrants for Mr. Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, dealing a blow to Israel\u2019s global standing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For Mr. Netanyahu, the Hungary visit provides a chance for him to project strength abroad and statesmanship at home at a time of growing opposition to his leadership both inside and outside Israel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">By traveling to Europe, Mr. Netanyahu is signaling to the world that he remains broadly unaffected by the court\u2019s arrest warrant, though Israel\u2019s conduct of the war in Gaza has been denounced by many European governments. He is also signaling to critics in Israel, where he is enmeshed in <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/31\/world\/middleeast\/israel-netanyahu-shin-bet.html\" title=\"\">a growing list of domestic crises<\/a>, that he retains his international stature and that business continues as usual despite the arrest this week of two of his aides.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Amnesty International <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/latest\/news\/2025\/03\/hungary-arrest-and-surrender-israeli-prime-minister-netanyahu-to-the-international-criminal-court\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">condemned the visit to Hungary<\/a> as \u201ca cynical effort to undermine the I.C.C. and its work,\u201d describing it as \u201can insult to the victims of these crimes who are looking to the court for justice.\u201d Hungary\u2019s invitation, it added, \u201cshows contempt for international law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For Mr. Orban, isolated within the European Union, welcoming the Israeli prime minister in defiance of the international court offers an opportunity to put himself in the spotlight and get Washington\u2019s attention. President Trump has shown little apparent interest in Hungary since taking office in January even though he has long been an admirer of Mr. Orban.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Like Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Orban faces a host of domestic problems, including Hungary having <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/20\/world\/europe\/hungary-orban-economy.html\" title=\"\">the highest inflation rate in the European Union<\/a> and the country\u2019s upstart opposition movement \u2014 led by a former Orban loyalist \u2014 enjoying a surge of support.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Before the November election Mr. Trump often praised Mr. Orban as a \u201cgreat leader\u201d but he did not invite him to the inauguration. Hungary said this was because <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/zoltanspox\/posts\/pfbid02oct5KfdSJPW7bZ4n6fd92gMncYxnhcFGNU3Ef6tQ4YMmupMTgdGC6KDZRQnkybvel\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">no foreign leaders had been invited<\/a>, but several did attend, including Italy\u2019s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, a rival to Mr. Orban for leadership of Europe\u2019s hard-right political forces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump, a fierce critic of the court, in February <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/06\/us\/politics\/trump-icc-sanctions.html\" title=\"\">signed an executive order placing sanctions on the international court<\/a>, vowing to impose \u201ctangible and significant consequences\u201d on people who work on investigations deemed to threaten the national security of the United States and Israel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Netanyahu has vociferously denounced bribery, fraud and other charges against him in Israel as an effort by the judiciary to derail the will of voters. Similarly, Mr. Orban has frequently condemned what he sees as judicial overreach by European courts that have ruled against Hungary over its violations of European Union rules.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe have always revolted against judicial activism,\u201d Mr. Orban said at a November summit of European leaders in Budapest, Hungary\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Hungary in 2001 ratified the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court during Mr. Orban\u2019s first stint as prime minister but its Parliament has never incorporated its terms into the country\u2019s domestic legal code.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Orban\u2019s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, said last month that this omission freed Hungary from any obligation to act on rulings by the court. He indicated that Hungary was considering withdrawing from the court but said no decision had yet been made. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Patrick Kingsley<!-- --> contributed reporting from Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/02\/world\/middleeast\/netanyahu-hungary-orban.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Thursday began a visit to Hungary, confident that Europe\u2019s self-declared bastion of \u201cilliberal democracy\u201d would ignore an arrest warrant issued against him in November by the International Criminal Court. The visit is Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s first to a country that has recognized the jurisdiction of the court, raising the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/04\/02\/multimedia\/02hungary-netanyahu-1-plwg\/02hungary-netanyahu-1-plwg-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3160,4757,209568,163575,896,9409,164056,13505,2566,3096,37415,4758,75135,9322,52,76508],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272742"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272744,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272742\/revisions\/272744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}