The re-election of a prime minister in a European country with a population not much bigger than Israel’s is not usually of great import for the wider world.

The re-election of a prime minister in a European country with a population not much bigger than Israel’s is not usually of great import for the wider world.

This was how I began a blog post on this very site, four years ago, analysing the significance as I saw it of Viktor Orban’s re-election as prime minister of Hungary. Orban’s return to power was not a surprise; not least because he had eroded Hungarian democracy to such an extent that the deck was stacked in his favor. His Fidesz Party passed legislation that politicized the judiciary, removing a central check and balance on the power of the government; media critical of the ruling party was crippled by spurious fines and then bought out by supporters of the government; and the previously non-partisan election commission was handed over to Orban loyalists, enabling partisan gerrymandering of electoral districts – solely in Fidesz’s favor – and allowing Fidesz alone to break the rules on campaign spending.

At the time of writing that piece, the significance for Israel was hypothetical. This was during the period of the Naftali Bennett / Yair Lapid -led ‘change government’, before Netanyahu’s return and the judicial reform. But I warned then that, if re-elected, Netanyahu would attempt to neuter the Supreme Court and move Israel much closer to what Orban has proudly called “illiberal democracy”. (“‘Checks and balances are a US invention that for some reason of intellectual mediocrity Europe decided to adopt,” he once declared).

In another op-ed, published a few days before the elections of 2022 that would return Bibi to power, I wrote:

If Netanyahu returns to power, we will have a prime minister desperate to prevent his possible conviction on corruption charges, with coalition partners entirely willing to subvert democracy and the rule of law. As Bezalel Smotrich has said quite openly, they fully intend to change the appointment process for the Supreme Court, ensuring that the coalition picks the judges, and they will pass a law preventing the Supreme Court from blocking unconstitutional legislation. This is straight out of Orban’s playbook.

And we know what happened next. Newly minted justice minister Yariv Levin rolled out a series of proposed “reforms” which could have been written in Budapest.

“Bibi v’Sara, poh zeh lo Hungariah” chanted pro-democracy demonstrators  (It doesn’t rhyme in English: “Bibi and Sara, this is not Hungary.”)

Fast forward to today, and Orban faces another election. This time, despite all the ways he has managed to put his thumb on the scales, it seems there is a real chance he could lose. Corruption is rampant and obvious, with both Orban himself and close associates becoming fabulously wealthy through awards of government contracts. The economy is ailing, with living standards far below the EU average. And then there are his ties with Vladimir Putin.

Orban was always an admirer of the Russian leader’s far more entrenched autocracy, but in the years since his re-election four years ago, the alliance has become ever-closer and – with Russia continuing its brutal assault on Ukraine – evermore controversial. Just today, it was confirmed that Hungary’s foreign minister has been secretly reporting back to Moscow after meetings of EU foreign ministers – “treason” according to some fellow EU member states. And, most incredibly of all, it has been reported that Russia’s efforts to help Orban’s election campaign extended to planning a fake assassination attempt on the prime minister, which would be blamed on his political rivals.

And into this swamp of corruption, electoral malpractice and rank authoritarianism wades our own illustrious prime minister.

First, Netanyahu appeared in an Orban campaign video alongside luminaries of the European far-right, and then, earlier this week, he sent a video message to the CPAC conference in Budapest in which he again gushingly endorsed his friend:

I know many world leaders, and I can tell you he is right there at the top. Viktor Orbán means stability, safety, security.

I know many world leaders, and I can tell you he is right there at the top. Viktor Orbán means stability, safety, security.

Except, he really doesn’t mean those things. He means corruption, economic ruin for his country, and the destruction of democracy.

One result of Bibi’s glowing endorsement was more terrible PR for Israel. Friends and admirers of Israel and the Jewish people, people like Soviet dissident and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, took to Twitter to slam Netanyahu for effectively siding with Putin and autocracy against democracy. But far worse than that is what this means for Israeli democracy should Netanyahu be re-elected once again later this year.

He will be hoping for a post-Iran war bump in the polls. My own hope is that enough Israelis will understand that, whatever they think of him as a war leader, his desire to re-create the rotten edifice that Orban has constructed in Hungary is, by now, obvious. And that should be disqualifying.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)