It was bad enough when Neturei Karta, a
Hasidic sect which rejects Zionism on 
Orthodox Jewish religious principles, decided to send representatives to
Ahmedinajad’s Holocaust conference in Tehran. 
That could just about be excused by saying they had gone there to argue
against holocaust denial.

Indeed they complained that the BBC had
wrongly portrayed them as demonstrating in opposition to Jobbik!

As the Economist noted in Odd Jobbik ‘Jobbik doesn’t merely march in a military manner it
has conscientiously and diligently adopted all the words and symbolism of the
Arrow Cross in WWII and has attempted to revise our understanding of that vile,
murderous movement even while promising to repeat its actions.’   The fact that Jobbik, whose principle target is Hungary’s Roma population,
proclaims support for the Palestinians is irrelevant.  It is viciously racist and anti-Semitic.  It is in a minority amongst far-right parties
in Europe, since most of them are pro-Zionist. 

The Arrow Cross/Nyilas murdered up to
50,000 Jews in Budapest when they were put in power by the Nazis on 15th
October 1944 after Horthy was overthrown, for agreeing to surrender to the
Soviet Union.

NK represent a right-wing anti-Zionism, in
so far as it can be called anti-Zionism at all. 
Their opposition is not political but religious.  Zionist proclamations against Jobbik can be
taken with a pinch of salt given their alliance and work with fascist MEPs
Michal Kaminski of Poland and Robert Zile of Latvia’s LNNK and the links they
have with for example the English Defence League.  We understand their hypocrisy but that is no
reason for us to follow suit.  We expect
Zionist organisations to work with fascists and the far-Right.  They have always done so and always will do
so.  But we should never tolerate such an
approach.

For NK to associate with the successor
party to these butchers of Hungarian Jewry is incomprehensible.  The Arrow Cross murdered Orthodox and
non-Orthdox Jews.  It made no distinction.  For an organisation that claims Rabbi Michael Weissmandel  as its own, someone who regardless of the
mistakes he made, was a Jewish hero of the holocaust is incomprehensible.

Below is
the correspondence I had with Rabbi Beck of Neturei Karta regarding this issue.

Tony Greenstein

On 12 October 2015

Dear NK,

I learnt that Neturei
karta held a demonstration against the actions of Zionist organisations vs the
Hungarian fascist party, Jobbik. 

I
am not a Zionist, anything but. However I find it incomprehensible that you
could be seen to support Jobbik, the direct descendants of Arrow Cross, who
murdered at least 50,000 Jews in Budapest just before the Soviets liberated
Budapest. These animals are insupportable and for you to lend comfort to those
who welcomed the holocaust is to trample on the memory of Rabbi Weissmandel.

I
would welcome an explanation for this and a statement that a terrible mistake
was made that won’t be repeated.

Tony

Neturei Karta International

Dear Tony

I answer to your question we do not “support” Jobbik at whole, but sins
the Zionists lead a big propaganda campaign against Jobbik (which is a big and
popular party in Hungary) because of their support to the Palestinians, and by
doing so the Zionists have brought Anti-Semitism to Hungary where many Jews
live, and until recently have lived peacefully, They are bringing over the catastrophe
from the Middle-East to the peaceful Europe. That’s why we come, – not in
support of Jobbik, – but just to bring out the truth that the Jewish people
have no issue with them, and the state of Israel doesn’t represent Jews and nor
do their actions.

If one should always look at a situation a bit dipper, beneath the
surface, If someone hits a dog with a stick, the dog who has no intellect bites
the stick, as it doesn’t occur to him that the stick is just a tool in the hand
of the master, but a person who is hit by a stick will attack the person who
hit him, the same thing is in our situation, one who only looks at the result
of Zionist activities against Palestinians in the name of Jews, namely, the
assault of Jews in and outside of Israel in revenge, (or this Jobbik slamming
Israel), will automatically go against the attacker and see him as an
anti-Semite and deem one who sympathises with him as a supporter of
Anti-Semitism, but we are looking for the real way out of this catastrophic
situation according to the Torah and understand that the Zionism is the root of
this problem and that we cannot stand by and see how the Jewish people are used
as the shield of the Zionists against their will, we must come out and reveal
the truth in order to bring peace between the 2 innocent parties and channel
the feelings of outcry and frustration against those who are genuinely behind
this ongoing tragedy.

By the way, to the best of our knowledge, Jobbik has no connection to
the arrow-cross, and is not Anti-Semitic, one shouldn’t just believe what other
people say, one should make a proper study on this topic.

And If indeed they would be Anti-Semites, this will only doubles our
obligation to do what we can, to make sure that the actions of the state of
Israel are not associated with the Jewish people, and that the Hungarian Jews
are not against him or disloyal to Hungary, which is the main thing which
angers Jobbik in the first place.

Because of the fact that a few Jewish MP’s in Hungary also had Israeli
passports, which he found to be unacceptable and deem them untrustworthy,
“jobbik” stated that “there should be made a list of all Jewish MP’s with
Israeli passports”, and the Zionists publicized that he said that there should
be made a list of all Jews in Hungary like the Nazis. 

We are not involved in Jobbiks politics, only involved in trying to stop
the Zionist actions from bringing calamity to Jews and a defilement of the name
of G-d and his Torah.

Yours sincerely

Rabbi E Beck

Brighton
UK, — GB

Dear Rabbi Beck,

Thank you for your response.  I cannot however accept the logic of your
argument as to why Neturei Karta demonstrated, in January 2014, in support of
Jobbik and against attacks made on them.  We only need to see how Jobbik
portrayed your actions. Orthodox Rabbis stand
for Jobbik in London

Of course I accept that the Zionists’
reason for opposing Jobbik is because of their purported support for the
Palestinians and their opposition to ‘Zionism’. 
In reality Jobbik’s ‘support’ for the Palestinians is more about their
hostility to Jewish people and seeking to tar them with the crimes of
Israel.  The fact that Israel also wishes
to associate Jews in Hungary and elsewhere with its crimes is no reason to be
seen to support Jobbik.

Zionism has not brought anti-Semitism to
Hungary even though they are happy to exploit it.  Jobbik and its brand of racism and
anti-Semitism is but the opposite side of the same coin as Zionism.  To prefer one in opposition to the other is
to concede to both and to oppose neither.

I must confess I don’t understand your dog
and stick analogy.  I suspect if you were
to hit a dog with a stick it might well bite you as well as the stick!  But if you want to try it out with a tiger at
the local zoo please let me know the results. 

Jobbik is quite independently, an
anti-Semitic and fascist party.  It is
vehemently racist and anti-Roma in particular. 
It doesn’t need Israel to be anti-Semitic just as its predecessor, the
Arrow Cross, didn’t need Palestine to murder Jews and socialists.

I recommend an article on Csanad Szegedi,
the Jobbik MEP who discovered he was Jewish and the reaction of Jobbik to his
revelation. ‘Metamorphosis: A HungarianExtremist Explores His Jewish Roots’

When a statue of Miklos
Horthy, who presided over the deportations of over 430,000 Jews to Auschwitz,
was unveiled in Budapest in December 2013, a Jobbik MP Márton
Gyöngyösi, declared Horthy to be “the greatest statesmen of
the 20th century”. 

Aviva Stahl, a Jewish anti-Zionist
described how Gyongyosi also proposed that the authorities “tally up people of Jewish
ancestry who live here, especially in the Hungarian parliament and the
Hungarian government”, explaining that they “pose a national security
risk to Hungary“. 

Zionism usually allies itself with the
far-Right in Europe, whether it is Geert Wilder’s Freedom Party or Michal
Kaminski’s Polish Law & Justice Party, to name but two.  In the case of Hungary they are nominally
opposed to Jobbik.  If Jobbik were
pro-Zionist then the Zionists would say nothing.  We however do not take our position from the
Zionists, simply replacing a negative with a positive.  Our position should remain consistent.  Opposition to fascist and raciat parties
regardless of their professed attitude to Jews.

I cannot accept that what ‘angers’ Jobbik
is the disloyalty of Hungarian Jews, their opposition to Jobbik or indeed their
possession of Israeli passports.  This
was how Oswald Moseley of the British Union of Fascists, explained their
anti-Semitism. Jobbik’s anti-Semitism comes from their overall politics.  Israel of course urges Diaspora Jews that
they should support Israel first and foremost, thus fostering the idea of dual
loyalty.  This is what their accusation
of being a ‘Jewish traitor’ means. 
However this is not the cause of Jobbik’s anti-Semitism.  You mistake symptom for cause.  

Jobbik’s politics are formed on the basis of
hostility to the outsider and the Other – be it the Roma, who were also the
victims of the holocaust or refugees. 
The attitude that we can assuage their hostility to Jews by assuring
them that Jews do not oppose them is deeply mistaken, unprincipled and wrong.

If there is one lesson to be learnt from
the second world war and the Iron Cross/Nyilas it is to oppose fascism wherever
it raises its head.  Zionism has always
determined its attitude by what is best for Israel having never fought fascism
or anti-Semitism.  You make the same
judgement substituting Jews for Israel or Zionism.  You are an advocate of appeasement in much
the same way as Rabbi Weissmandel sought to appease the Nazis with his Europa
Plan.  Therein lies the difference
between socialist and religious opposition to Zionism and racism.

For the elucidation of others I will
include this correspondence on my blog.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Greenstein