Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Thursday started a go to to Hungary, assured that Europe’s self-declared bastion of “intolerant democracy” would ignore an arrest warrant issued in opposition to him in November by the Worldwide Felony Court docket.
The go to is Mr. Netanyahu’s first to a rustic that has acknowledged the jurisdiction of the court docket, elevating the likelihood, not less than in idea, that he may very well be arrested. He visited Washington to debate the way forward for Gaza with President Trump in February however america, like Israel, has by no means acknowledged the worldwide court docket.
In Hungary, the federal government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban has made clear that it’s going to ignore its obligations as a celebration to a 1998 treaty that established the court docket.
Mr. Orban invited Mr. Netanyahu to go to shortly after the court docket issued its arrest warrant, assuring him that “the judgment of the I.C.C. could have no impact in Hungary and that we are going to not comply with its phrases.”
Hungary’s expansive propaganda machine has embraced antisemitic tropes in its nonstop vilification of George Soros, a Hungarian-born American financier and philanthropist who’s Jewish. It has forged him because the sinister puppeteer in an enormous international conspiracy backed by excessive finance and hidden, cosmopolitan forces.
However Mr. Orban, a robust supporter of Israel, has embraced the nation’s right-wing prime minister as a kindred spirit in tune together with his personal ethnonationalist views and reverence for nationwide sovereignty freed from international interference.
The Worldwide Felony Court docket issued the arrest warrants for Mr. Netanyahu and his former protection minister, Yoav Gallant, accusing them of struggle crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity within the Gaza Strip, dealing a blow to Israel’s international standing.
For Mr. Netanyahu, the Hungary go to supplies an opportunity for him to venture power overseas and statesmanship at dwelling at a time of rising opposition to his management each inside and out of doors Israel.
By touring to Europe, Mr. Netanyahu is signaling to the world that he stays broadly unaffected by the court docket’s arrest warrant, although Israel’s conduct of the struggle in Gaza has been denounced by many European governments. He’s additionally signaling to critics in Israel, the place he’s enmeshed in a rising checklist of home crises, that he retains his worldwide stature and that enterprise continues as regular regardless of the arrest this week of two of his aides.
Amnesty Worldwide condemned the go to to Hungary as “a cynical effort to undermine the I.C.C. and its work,” describing it as “an insult to the victims of those crimes who wish to the court docket for justice.” Hungary’s invitation, it added, “reveals contempt for worldwide regulation.”
For Mr. Orban, remoted throughout the European Union, welcoming the Israeli prime minister in defiance of the worldwide court docket provides a possibility to place himself within the highlight and get Washington’s consideration. President Trump has proven little obvious curiosity in Hungary since taking workplace in January regardless that he has lengthy been an admirer of Mr. Orban.
Like Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Orban faces a number of home issues, together with Hungary having the very best inflation charge within the European Union and the nation’s upstart opposition motion — led by a former Orban loyalist — having fun with a surge of help.
Earlier than the November election Mr. Trump typically praised Mr. Orban as a “nice chief” however he didn’t invite him to the inauguration. Hungary mentioned this was as a result of no international leaders had been invited, however a number of did attend, together with Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, a rival to Mr. Orban for management of Europe’s hard-right political forces.
Mr. Trump, a fierce critic of the court docket, in February signed an govt order putting sanctions on the worldwide court docket, vowing to impose “tangible and vital penalties” on individuals who work on investigations deemed to threaten the nationwide safety of america and Israel.
Mr. Netanyahu has vociferously denounced bribery, fraud and different expenses in opposition to him in Israel as an effort by the judiciary to derail the desire of voters. Equally, Mr. Orban has often condemned what he sees as judicial overreach by European courts which have dominated in opposition to Hungary over its violations of European Union guidelines.
“We now have all the time revolted in opposition to judicial activism,” Mr. Orban mentioned at a November summit of European leaders in Budapest, Hungary’s capital.
Hungary in 2001 ratified the treaty establishing the Worldwide Felony Court docket throughout Mr. Orban’s first stint as prime minister however its Parliament has by no means included its phrases into the nation’s home authorized code.
Mr. Orban’s chief of employees, Gergely Gulyas, mentioned final month that this omission freed Hungary from any obligation to behave on rulings by the court docket. He indicated that Hungary was contemplating withdrawing from the court docket however mentioned no resolution had but been made.
Patrick Kingsley contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
