What Pressman is doing is unacceptable, it simply hurts a person's sense of self, the way he drives here in Hungary - says András Schiffer in the interview with former member of parliament, lawyer.
Those who even excuse the crimes committed against the unarmed population are denying the most important attributes of human quality, he adds in relation to Israel. But he also talks about why the Polish election results are a tragedy, what is wrong with the battery factories and who exactly is the leader of the opposition.
There are several consequences of the terrorist attack on Israel, one of which is that demonstrators stood up for Hamas in several major Western cities. Are you worried?
First of all: the fact that radical Islam also appears in demonstrations in big cities, that the police in Brussels are powerless against terrorist acts, and that Muslim fundamentalists demonstrate in the streets not only against Israel, but also against the culture of the country that hosts them, is quite brutal proof that Western Europe's integration capacities are exhausted. Glorifying a beastly act of terrorism, a series of murders and kidnappings is the most degrading thing possible, which cannot be justified by any religious teaching. Those who even excuse the crimes committed against the unarmed population deny the most important attributes of human quality.
But there are those who only stand by the innocent Palestinian civilians.
Indeed. What I have just told you is only part of the story. Unfortunately, the situation in the Middle East has been much more complicated than this for three quarters of a century. In liberal democracies, the demonstration of solidarity with the Palestinians cannot be banned, if it happens, it is the next step towards the elimination of the rule of law after the unnecessary and disproportionate restrictions during the coronavirus epidemic. This is true even if separating the two intentions for a specific event may be difficult.
The institutions of the EU have moved away from the ground of EU law.
(…)
Returning to the Israeli conflict: The Economist published a lengthy interview with Musa Abu Marzouk, a senior member of the Hamas political office, who was able to explain his arguments regarding the attack. Can you imagine something similar with a Russian official?
Obviously not, but that's nothing new. This is another example of the endless hypocrisy of the cultured West and its press, which is used as a tool of power. Apart from the fact that I do not share the position of the Hungarian government regarding Palestine and the two-state concept, that is, I think that Israel has an obligation to guarantee the Palestinians' right to self-determination,
I find it worrisome that the official of a terrorist organization that systematically commits bestial murders is heard, while the leaders of a European country are considered practically non-existent in relation to the war conflict.
In other words, the position of Hamas can be known by the Western public, in the case of the Kremlin, the same would be a capital crime.
where do we live It is a common misconception that freedom of the press applies to journalists or media owners – it actually applies to citizens, i.e. the public. There is no freedom of the press in a country where the public is hermetically sealed off from the position of one side in connection with any conflict. And one more thing about Gaza. It is especially important for us Hungarians to see: just as the Holocaust, which stands out from the series of genocides, happened to all of humanity on October 7th, we Hungarians are also being warned about crossing a border. If we allow such an event to be relativized, we also put ourselves in danger.
Just as the pandemic put an end to Greta Thunberg's parade, the Russian president swept away the threat of the virus.
Why?
Let us have no illusions: where Hungarians live as a minority, even if they are burdened with much milder conflicts compared to the Arab-Israeli conflict, there can also be frenzied hatred towards them. Unfortunately, people living in Transcarpathia are beginning to suffer directly from this. So there are red lines that, if anyone crosses them - and they remain without consequences - they can destroy the safety of not only the groups of people involved in the given conflict, but also everyone else. The example of Auschwitz reminds us: if there are no rock-solid protective walls around human dignity, the annihilation of any arbitrarily defined group of people can occur.
According to analysts, the Ukrainians defending themselves against the Russians may be the losers of the events in Israel, since the attention, solidarity and support of the international community will turn away from them. Do you agree?
Although I'm not a security policy expert, I consider this in itself to be cheap coffeehouse cleverness. I do not think that diverting the public's attention would decisively influence the course of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Those who still see it this way can start from the fact that for two years our whole lives were determined by the coronavirus epidemic, all the news was about it, but on February 24 last year, it was as if Vladimir Putin had defeated the virus in a snap.
Joking aside: just as the pandemic previously put Greta Thunberg's parade in parentheses, which had the least to do with the ecological crisis, the Russian president swept away the threat of the virus, and then the conflict in Gaza swept away the case of the Ukrainians.
Still, I don't think the situation would be that simple. Due to geopolitical interests and the investments of some private equity funds, the stakes are too high. Undoubtedly, in recent weeks there seems to have been an increase in signals from America that point to dissatisfaction with the leadership in Kyiv, and there have also been reports from BlackRock that they are interested in the reconstruction. However, this is still not enough to conclude. In addition, there is a reading of the story that one of the most stable allies of the United States, Israel, did not automatically stand behind American interests even before Benjamin Netanyahu, tried to maintain the dialogue with Russia, while taking care of the Abraham Accords concluded under Donald Trump.
All this was compounded by the fact that some of Netanyahu's ministers later simply went against Washington's position regarding the situation in Ukraine. The events of the previous weeks have now brought about the fact that Israel ranks one hundred percent behind the USA, and vice versa. It is questionable, however, what was the need for the series of delegitimization demonstrations against the government, unprecedented in the history of Israel, for several weeks, which escalated to the point where people with military service on the opposition side threatened to refuse to serve, and former leaders of the Mossad openly attacked the elected prime minister. This domestic political turbulence probably had something to do with the fact that this disgraceful attack could occur.
The beasts that killed babies and old people obviously did not do what they did on external prompting, as their intentions have been known for a long time. However, it is a serious question why they were able to do it without hindrance.
The exciting question is not why Orbán is meeting Putin, but why the other EU countries do not maintain dialogue with the Russian leadership.
As for the United States: what does David Pressman say about the actions of the Hungarian government, especially in relation to the Russian-Ukrainian war, which are in line with the exercise of pressure?
Hungary is not so interesting compared to Israel. This makes Pressman's activities and statements completely unworthy of an ambassador, but let's also add that the communication of some members of the government, including the foreign minister, in previous years often exceeded the limits of diplomatic propriety. In other words, anyone involved can say: as the god of giving, so is the god of receiving. Not to mention how unprecedented it is for a prime minister to openly side with a challenger to the leader of an allied country. But Viktor Orbán also did this in the summer of 2016.
However, what Pressman is doing is unacceptable, it simply hurts a person's sense of self, the way he drives here in Hungary.
Most recently, the ambassador called the NATO delegates together because Viktor Orbán met Vladimir Putin in China.
Let's be clear: after the start of the Russian aggression, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer was the first in the European Union to negotiate with Vladimir Putin, last April. Excluding Russia from European history is an attempt at the impossible. Moreover, without the BRICS countries, it is pointless to have a dialogue about the ecological crisis and the threats to the planet. So the really exciting question is not why Orbán is meeting Putin, but why the other EU countries are not maintaining dialogue with the Russian leadership, at least for the sake of a ceasefire.
In addition, it came to light that Pressman's law firm had previously worked for years as the American contact of an oligarch close to Putin...
Yes, or there is also the Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, who scolded her Hungarian colleague with her mouth full, even though her husband was interested in a company that did a lot of business with Russian partners after the invasion. Or let's look at how the United States' trade with Russia has developed in the last year and a half! What are we talking about?
The full interview HERE !
Featured image: Mandiner/Árpád Földházi
