There are not many countries that the Prime Minister of Israel can visit without risking -arrest. Which means that the treatment of the red carpet Benjamin Netanyahu received in Hungary, the only « illiberal democracy » in Europe, the most notable.
Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, invited Mr. Netanyahu just after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest order last November due to the alleged war crimes of his country and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip. And in a few hours of Israeli President Arrival in Hungary Last week, Mr. Orban announced the withdrawal of his court country.
There are several things that happen here, according to the analysts, who unite the affinities of Mr. Orban, Mr. Netanyahu and President Trump.
Link: The International Criminal Court is the most ambitious and idealistic version, if deeply imperfect, of a global judicial system to enforce human rights. Most liberals love them. Mr. Orban, Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Trump hate it.
Signaling: Mr. Orban tells the world that Hungary does what he wants: he can be a member of the European Union, but he is not restricted. He is telling China and Russia that Hungary is open to business. And he tells his voters at home that he is Hungary first.
Tests of bounds: At a time when world institutions are being enlightened and a new order has not yet emerged, no one knows what is allowed and what is already banned.
Leaders vs. the judiciary
Hungary is not the first country to make exceptions for Israel. The United States and Germany have done so for some time. Friedrich Merz, the incoming chancellor of Germany, has also ruled the arrest of Mr. Netanyahu, even when Germany is still a committed member of the International Criminal Court.
Hungary is also not the first signing of the Rome Treaty that established the court to ignore it. When President Vladimir V. Putin, of Russia, visited Mongolia last year, he did not do any action on a CPI mandate against him.
But the challenge of Mr. Orban’s court is also about something else: a desire to mark independent judges, both at home and abroad.
« Some international institutions have simply become political bodies, » he told a Hungarian radio program on Friday. « Unfortunately, the International Criminal Court is one of them. It’s a political court. »
Power struggles between leaders and judges, whether international or national, have become a defining political issue in many countries, including Hungary, Israel, Brazil and the United States.
Mr. Orban, in power since 2010, is considered by conservatives around the world as a pioneer in affirming power over the judiciary. Has packaged Hungary Constitutional court With loyal judges and forced others to resign. He has fought against the courts of the European Union and has exploded his « judicial overcoming » when they take Hungary in the task to violate EU rules.
Netanyahu, who has denounced bribes and accusations of fraud against him in Israel as an effort to derail the will of the voters, is pushing for his controversial court review. He and his allies have argued that the The judiciary has been granted to the greatest authorityAnd it is not representative of the diversity of Israeli society.
Mr. Trump, who was convicted of 34 crime accounts before being re -elected last year, says that the numerous legal cases against him were politically motivated. In recent weeks, its administration has challenged several court orders, which could end a constitutional crisis. And in February he signed an executive order by putting sanctions In ICC officials in response to the detention guarantee of Mr. Netanyahu.
The three leaders, Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Orban and Mr. Trump, spoke on the telephone about the court during the visit of the Israeli leader to Hungary. Netanyahu visited the White House on Monday and its office said that the CPI would be again on the agenda.
« It takes a non -law autocrat as Orban to welcome -instead of detaining a accused criminal of war as Netanyahu, » said Kenneth Roth, Princeton visiting professor and former Human Rights Watch executive director. Mr. Trump’s imposition on sanctions on the CPI staff said: « It is a piece with the Orban movement. »
Hungary first
As Orban is strategically linked, it is also strategically signaling to allies, investors and voters that Hungary will not be limited to international rules and norms. It is a form of identity building, it says an important thinker about democracy.
« Orban is playing special relationships: special relationships with Russia, special relationships with Trump, special relationships with the Chinese, » said Ivan Krastev, president of the Liberal Strategies Center. « He is trying to create a Hungary story that is the European Union member who can do whatever they want. »
« So if anyone wants to invest in an EU country, go with Hungary, » Krastev said. « Because they can do what they want. They can veto sanctions. They can leave the international criminal court. They are the only free spirit of the EU,
Mr. Orban has called « heaters » of European leaders due to their support for Ukraine. It opens openly to restore relationships with Russia after the war. Welcoming the Prime Minister of Israel to challenge the International Court was another opportunity to show the opposite sovereignty of Hungary.
Krastev sees Mr. Netanyahu’s visit as a precedent, and maybe preparation, for an even more controversial invitation to someone like Mr. Putin.
Mr. Orban exposed his great strategy for Hungary a broad and detailed speech Last July, in which he exposed his vision of a new emerging world order. According to him, Western liberalism has lost and nationalism has returned. For the coming decades, or perhaps centuries, the dominant center in the world will be in Asia, he predicted.
For a small economy like Hungary, this means ignoring Brussels or Washington’s march orders to isolate Moscow or Beijing.
« We will not get involved in the war against the east, » he said. « We will not unite in the formation of a technological bloc opposing us east and we will not unite in the formation of a commercial block opposing us east. »
China’s leader, Xi Jinping, during a visit to Hungary last year, promised to invest in the country and open opportunities for Hungarian companies to invest in China.
« We have received an offer from China, » Orban said. « We will not get a better one. »
Trump’s World Order
Mr. Netanyahu’s prominent welcome of Mr. Orban has emphasized a way that the world has changed since Mr. Trump came to power: throwing the book of global rules on long -term alliances and commercial rules, the North -American President has given others permission to violate the rules.
They are now trying to what extent they can reach.
« No one knows what is allowed and what is already banned, » said Mr. Krastev. « They are trying the limits. »
But Trump’s ideological allies also experience first -hand the unpredictability of the Trump administration, whose policies will not necessarily be favorable to their countries. Israel and Hungary, a significant place of production for the German car industry, are among the main exporting countries that have been affected by significant U.S. rates.
This is the intrinsic paradox of « America first » for leaders like Mr. Orban and Mr. Netanyahu: It is something to do a common cause with an ally that shares your nationalist agenda. It is another when the policies of « America First » put all other countries.
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