Hungary—an anti-Semitic article in a Hungarian newspaper

Magyar Hírlap

"In 1967, the Jewish journalists in Budapest spoke condemningly against Israel; those same journalists are now berating both the Arabs and the FIDESZ (the right-wing opposition party) – and us. Because they hate us far more than we hate them. They are our "justification Jews" – their mere existence justifies anti-Semitism." Those were the key phrases in an

nprecedented anti-Semitic article published by the Hungarian journalist, Zsolt Bayer, on March 19^th, in the "Magyar Hírlap" newspaper. The article caused a major upheaval and was followed by a wave of protests. Over 100 senior Hungarian scholars signed a letter of protest sent to the newspaper owner, Széles Gábor; ( the letter of protest in Hungarian) various institutions have cancelled their newspaper subscription; the Mayor of Budapest, Gábor Demszky, announced that he will sever all ties with the newspaper; The Chairman of the "democratic Forum" opposition party, Ibolya Dávid, Published an earnest letter "to my Jewish and non-Jewish fellows," in which she stated that it is every democrat's right and every Christian's obligation to condemn the kind of anti-Semitic manifestation displayed by the "Bayer list."

Though Zsolt Bayer is not that old, he has a rich history behind him. Twenty years ago, he was among the founders of FIDESZ, and rumor has it he writes (or had once written) the speeches for the movement's leader, Viktor Orbán; throughout his career, he wrote for left-wing and left-wing-centrist newspapers, appeared on TV, and then joined the right-wing newspaper, "Magyar Nemzet." He recently decided to join an even more rightist headquarters, the "Magyar Hírlap".

Source: www.haaretz.co.il

By Yehuda Lahav

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