Orban's soft power shines as Hungary hosts Israeli clash

It is quite the coup for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose passion for sports, especially football, provides a counter to his relative isolation within the EU. And as anti-Israeli sentiment and reported anti-Semitic acts surge globally - amid Israel's war against Iran-backed Islamist militants in Lebanon and Gaza - the central European country has also provided the venue for their away games.

On Thursday, the Europa League clash between Besiktas and Maccabi Tel Aviv will be played in the eastern Hungarian city of Debrecen, which already hosted a Belgium-Israel Nations League match in September. "This is Hungarian soft power at work," Simon Chadwick, professor of sport and geopolitical economy at France's SKEMA Business School.

"Orban is using football for political purposes... accentuating some of the more positive credentials of himself and Hungary," the expert added. Authorities are careful to avoid incidents.

This week's Besiktas-Maccabi Tel Aviv fixture will be held behind doors in Debrecen instead of the more multicultural Budapest, where Israel beat Belgium 1-0 in another Nations League game last week.

'Safest county in Europe'

Following the outbreak of the Gaza war, Orban banned pro-Palestinian protests and regularly boasted about Hungary being "the safest country in Europe for the Jewish community".

His government leveraged high-profile anti-Semitic acts in Western countries as fodder to vindicate its anti-migration stance, including the attacks on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in Amsterdam earlier this month - condemned by Dutch and Israeli authorities as anti-Semitic.

In places "where immigration has not been stopped... they cannot stop anti-Semitism," Orban's chief of staff, Gulyas Gergely commented on the disturbance at a recent press conference.

"Israelis are taught to be cautious" because of such incidents in Western Europe and "do see Hungary differently from the more liberal democracies", Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem told 'AFP'.

But she warned against idealising Hungary, which has problems with more traditional forms of anti-Semitism, not linked to the Palestinian cause. "Authoritarian leaders like Orban like to build on inherent anti-Semitic and racist tendencies in their societies to keep power."

"It's dangerous for Jews", but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "ignores it" according to Talshir, because he is more interested in cooperating with Orban as a fellow "conservative-populist" leader.

The Hungarian premier has repeatedly been accused of veering into anti-Semitism as his government has run poster campaigns vilifying Hungary-born Jewish financier George Soros and his son Alex.

In 2017, Israel's then-ambassador denounced one such drive saying it "sows hatred and fear", but the Netanyahu-led government quickly issued a statement backing Budapest's anti-Soros campaign.

Orban was also forgiven for praising wartime leader and Hitler ally Miklos Horthy - an autocrat, who ruled Hungary from 1920 to 1944, passed anti-Jewish laws and oversaw the deportations of several hundred thousand Hungarian Jews to Nazi death camps -- as an "exceptional statesman".

Even after those incidents, Netanyahu welcomed him as a "true friend of Israel" in Jerusalem. Their closeness is also reflected by the invitation, that Orban extended to his Israeli counterpart last week to defy an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

'Make Hungary great again'

Hungary has long been punching above its weight in global sports. "Going back to the communist period," the nation of 9.6 million people was an "important centre of sports power", Chadwick explained.

But during the democratic change in 1990s, "sport somehow got lost to a certain extent." "Orban is revisiting past glories and drawing from the country's sports heritage to make Hungary great again, so to speak."

"He has the vision and strategic intent for sports that (the rest of) Europe lacks," Chadwick added. Since the Hungarian premier returned to power in 2010, the country has organised multiple high-profile international sporting events including the World Athletics Championships last year.

During Euro 2020, Budapest's Puskas Arena was the only tournament venue without a spectator limit and the stadium will host the Champions League final in 2026. Meanwhile, World Aquatics and the international canoe federation have both recently decided to move their headquarters from Lausanne to the Hungarian capital.

Still, Orban's ambitious dream of hosting the Olympics remains unfulfilled. Budapest applied to host this year's games but withdrew its candidacy in 2017 after activists collected enough signatures to force a referendum on the issue.

The Hungarian premier has publicly said his government would back another bid "1000 percent" if the capital's leadership supports it.