Israel Backs Hungary, Says Financier George Soros is a Threat

Israel’s foreign ministry released a statement that denounced George Soros as a threat to the Jewish nation.

The statement came just ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting next week with Hungary officials.

Soros, who was born in Hungary, has nonetheless been widely criticized by his country of birth for his hard and fast insistence on open borders.

Reuters tells more:

Prime Minister Viktor Orban has backed a campaign in which Soros is singled out as an enemy of the state. “Let’s not allow Soros to have the last laugh” say billboards next to a picture of the 86-year-old investor, a campaign that Jewish groups and others say foments anti-Semitism.

Soros, who rarely addresses personal attacks against him, has not commented on the billboards. But Hungarian Jewish groups and Human Rights Watch, an organization partly funded by Soros, have condemned the campaign, saying it “evokes memories of the Nazi posters during the Second World War”.

Many posters have been defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti, including the words “stinking Jew” written in magic marker.

Israel’s ambassador to Hungary has denounced the campaign. But the country’s foreign ministry nonetheless said Soros was a legitimate target.

Again, from Reuters:

“In no way was the statement (by the ambassador) meant to delegitimize criticism of George Soros, who continuously undermines Israel’s democratically elected governments,” said foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon, adding that Soros funded organizations “that defame the Jewish state and seek to deny it the right to defend itself”.

Hungary deported 500,000 Jews during the Holocaust.