As a response to Jewish-American financier George Soros' call for migrants to be allowed to enter Hungary, the Hungarian government began putting anti-Soros attack ads which received what appeared to be a terse response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He claimed ads were anti-Semitic.

However, it was also reported that only a day later, Netanyahu ordered the Israeli foreign ministry to retracted their initial statement and replace it with another which said that attacking Soros was still warranted, pointing to the financier's criticism of the state of Israel.

Israel embraces Trump's antisemitism

Netanyahu's statement was a bold attempt to throw the topic of antisemitism into what many perceive to be new territory, forcing a broader and still persistently subjective view of what the Israeli prime minister believes antisemitism is. But the comparison has also been made that while Netanyahu claims to be fighting antisemitism on one front, he embraces the anti-Semitic populism that permeates Trump's White House and that of growing right-wing movements all over the world.

One only needs to point to White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon who believes that Jewish financiers like George Soros who are funding the powers of the Liberal left are attacking far-right nationalism.

In fact, Netanyahu has been rather quiet about the White House's antisemitism and has otherwise taken issue with it when he declares under his terms that left-wing groups are engaging in it.

Under Netanyahu's terms; that criticism applies to those who are critical of the Israeli government. Acceptance of antisemitism from the far-right is acceptable if it's reserved for financiers of Liberal agendas like George Soros.

But critics of the Netanyahu-influenced statement about Soros have accused him of supporting global antisemitism. Again, one only needs to look at how Netanyahu has said very little about the rise of antisemitism in the United States or when the Trump administration has engaged in Holocaust denialism.

Resorting to Hitler gaffes?

More recently, President Trump's anti-CNN wrestling tweet was only and example of the administration's most recent show of the President's support for antisemites. But earlier in the year, when Press Secretary Sean Spicer made his Hitler gaffe, there was condemnation for the statement from at least one Israeli politician. But when Spicer apologized for his statement, that lawmaker forgave him just as quickly and seemed to have forgotten the whole thing.

Leader for the leftist Meretz party, Zehava Gal-On, made a statement against Netanyahu saying he was supporting global antisemitism by allowing attacks on Soros. In her statement, she also referred to the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban when he called the Hungarian leader during World War 2, Miklós Horthy, an "exceptional statesman."

Horthy was allied with Nazi leader Adolph Hitler and known to have signed anti-Semitic laws in 1920, 1938 and 1939.

It's been opined by plenty of critics of Netanyahu's Israel that his government is willing to accept some level of hate-speech against Jews when it serves the Prime Minister's agenda, no matter how vile it is.
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