Strongmen, it seems, stick together. Viktor Orban has stirred the fears of Hungary’s Jewish community with a campaign of vilification directed at George Soros, the billionaire investor and philanthropist. The prime minister’s billboard attack disinters anti-Semitic tropes from the dark side of Europe’s history. Yet the publicly voiced concern of Israel’s ambassador in Budapest has not persuaded Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel a planned visit.
强人们似乎会抱团。欧尔班?维克托(Viktor Orban)发动的攻击亿万富翁、慈善家乔治?索罗斯(George Soros)的宣传攻势，引起了匈牙利犹太人群体的恐惧。匈牙利总理的广告牌攻击使欧洲历史上那段黑暗的反犹太主义时期死灰复燃。然而，以色列驻匈牙利大使公开表达的关切，并未说服本雅明?内塔尼亚胡(Benjamin Netanyahu)取消一次计划好的访问。
The Israeli prime minister counts himself a member of the club of strongmen who disdain the “liberal” in liberal democracy. Mr Netanyahu, like Mr Orban, is a firm admirer of US President Donald Trump. Mr Orban seems to imagine himself a pocket-sized version of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. His ruling Fidesz party has removed constitutional checks and balances and seized control of state media and the judiciary. Mr Orban champions illiberalism over the pluralist values of the EU — even as he holds out a hand for hefty aid cheques from Brussels.以色列总理把自己视为强人俱乐部的成员。这些强人藐视自由民主中的“自由”。内塔尼亚胡像欧尔班一样，是美国总统唐纳德?特朗普(Donald Trump)的坚定崇拜者。欧尔班似乎把自己想象为袖珍版的俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔?普京(Vladimir Putin)。他领导的执政党青民党(Fidesz party)已拆除了宪法制衡手段，控制了国家媒体和司法机关。欧尔班支持反自由主义，不接受欧盟的多元价值观——即便他在向布鲁塞尔方面索取高额援助款。Last month, the Hungarian prime minister praised Miklos Horthy, the nationalist leader who colluded during the second world war in the dispatch to Nazi death camps of Hungarian Jews. He counted Horthy among the country’s “exceptional statesmen” — drawing criticism from Jewish groups. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum said such statements created the impression that the government “believes that anti-Semitism, racial and religious prejudice, and genocide merit praise rather than universal condemnation”.上月，匈牙利总理表扬了霍尔蒂?米克洛斯(Miklos Horthy)。在二战中，这个民族主义领导人在向纳粹集中营押送匈牙利犹太人的过程中起到了共谋作用。他把霍尔蒂视为该国的“非凡政治家”，此言遭到了犹太人团体的批评。美国大屠杀纪念馆(Holocaust Memorial Museum)表示，该说法造成了一种印象，即匈牙利政府“认为，反犹太主义、种族与宗教偏见、以及种族灭绝值得表扬，而不是应受普世谴责”。Peter Szijjarto, the foreign minister, said Mr Orban accepted that Horthy’s rule had also included some “very negative periods”. This was enough to reassure Mr Netanyahu. Others might view the murder of 565,000 Jews from Hungary as more than a “negative period”.匈牙利外长彼得?西亚尔托(Peter Szijjarto)表示，欧尔班承认，霍尔蒂的统治也包含一些“非常负面的时期”。这就足以让内塔尼亚胡感到放心。其他人也许认为，谋杀56.5万匈牙利犹太人不仅仅是一段“负面时期”。The state-funded attacks on Mr Soros began with a law to close Budapest’s central European University, founded by the American-Hungarian investor to nurture freedom and democracy after the collapse of communism. Mr Orban, like all ethnic nationalists, has a keen eye for “foreign” enemies.用国家的资金来攻击索罗斯，始于出台法律关闭布达佩斯的中欧大学(CEU)。该大学由美国/匈牙利投资家索罗斯创立，目的是在共产党政权倒台后培育自由与民主。像所有仇视其他民族的民族主义者一样，欧尔班在发现“境外”敌人方面独具慧眼。The country is now plastered in posters denouncing Mr Soros for challenging Mr Orban’s hardline response to the Middle East refugee crisis. Mr Soros is accused of backing “illegal” immigration. Yet he has called for legal routes for those caught up in the worst of the region’s violence and for EU-wide quota arrangements to share the burden.如今，匈牙利到处贴着谴责索罗斯的海报，原因是索罗斯对欧尔班在中东难民危机中的强硬对策提出了质疑。索罗斯被指责支持“非法”移民。然而，索罗斯只是呼吁为那些卷入中东最严重暴力冲突的人提供合法避难途径，呼吁在全欧盟范围做好配额安排，分担安置负担。Mr Orban is careless of such distinctions. Last year he led an Islamophobic backlash against the refugees, saying they would steal the jobs of Hungarians and infiltrate terrorists. Hungary has refused to accept any EU quota.欧尔班对这种区别丝毫不感兴趣。去年，他领导了一场抵制难民的伊斯兰恐惧症运动。他表示，难民们将偷走匈牙利人的工作，并导致恐怖分子渗透进来。匈牙利拒绝接受欧盟的任何难民安置配额。Dominated by a huge image of a smiling Mr Soros, the posters exhort Hungarians not to let him “have the last laugh”. Some have been defaced with more overtly racist slogans — the imagery recalls the anti-Semitism that says Jews laugh at the fate of their supposed victims. Mr Soros survived the Holocaust by hiding from the Nazis in Budapest before fleeing to the US.微笑的索罗斯在海报上占据醒目地位。这些海报劝告匈牙利人不要让他“笑到最后”。有些海报被涂上了种族主义意味更为明目张胆的口号——这一幕让人想起了当年反犹太势力所说的犹太人嘲笑他们的“受害者”的遭遇。当年索罗斯藏身布达佩斯，躲过纳粹的搜索，得以在大屠杀中幸免，之后他逃到了美国。Andras Heisler, the president of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities, says the billboards carry “toxic messages” from those times. Yossi Amrani, Israel’s ambassador in Budapest, has voiced the same fear, calling for them to be removed lest they sow “hatred and fear”.匈牙利犹太教信众联盟(Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities)主席安德拉斯?海斯勒(Andras Heisler)表示，攻击索罗斯的广告海报传递了那个时代的“有毒信息”。以色列驻匈牙利大使约西?阿姆拉尼(Yossi Amrani)也发出了同样的担忧，他呼吁撤掉这些海报，以防它们播下“仇恨与恐惧”的种子。Careful though it has been publicly to condemn anti-Semitism, Mr Orban’s government has been permissive of the xenophobia preached by the neo-Nazi Jobbik party. Jobbik leaders have suggested registration of the nation’s Jews. Opinion polls suggest the party is backed by a fifth of voters. Mr Orban, facing an election next year, does not want to be outflanked on the right.值得注意的是，尽管欧尔班政府在公开场合谨慎地谴责反犹太主义，但是它一直纵容新纳粹主义的尤比克党(Jobbik)所宣扬的仇外主义。尤比克党领袖建议对全国的犹太人进行登记。民调表明，五分之一的选民支持该政党。明年将面临大选的欧尔班不希望被右翼抢走选票。In the circumstances it is more than puzzling that Mr Netanyahu should go ahead with the visit. True, Mr Soros has opposed the Israeli leader’s hawkish stance on peace with Palestinians — prompting the Israeli foreign ministry to accuse him of undermining “democratically elected governments”. But rising anti-Semitism in central Europe — a trend not confined to Hungary — should surely ring loud alarm bells.在这种情况下，内塔尼亚胡竟然按计划访问匈牙利，这很令人费解。没错，索罗斯反对这位以色列领导人在以巴问题上的鹰派立场——促使以色列外交部长指责他挖“民选政府”的墙脚。但反犹太主义在中欧地区甚嚣尘上——这种趋势不仅限于匈牙利——肯定应该敲响警钟。In any event, Mr Netanyahu’s relaxed attitude should not be taken by Europeans as exculpation. Rising populism has exhumed the continent’s demons. Poland’s government, run by the rightwing strongman Jaroslaw Kaczynski, seeks out its own ethnic enemies as it dismantles democratic safeguards. Warsaw now airbrushes from history the role played by Polish collaborators in the murder of Jews. Like Hungary, Poland is a big beneficiary of EU financial assistance. Christian nationalism, casting Islam as a civilisational threat, is on the march also in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.无论如何，欧洲人不应该把内塔尼亚胡的放松态度软化视为给自己开脱的理由。民粹主义升温使欧洲大陆的恶魔阴魂再现。由右翼强人雅罗斯瓦夫?卡钦斯基(Jaroslaw Kaczynski)领导的波兰政府，在逐渐废除民主保障措施的同时，找到了自己的民族敌人。如今华沙方面正在洗白当年波兰同谋者在配合屠杀犹太人方面发挥的作用。像匈牙利一样，波兰是欧盟财政援助的一大受益国。基督教民族主义——把伊斯兰教视为文明的威胁——也正在斯洛伐克和捷克兴起。Other EU governments occasionally wag a finger of disapproval. The European Commission and Parliament have issued critical statements. But for the most part, the response is a frustrated shrug. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, an open critic of Mr Trump, is all but silent about Mr Orban.
欧盟其他国家的政府偶尔摇摇反对的手指。欧盟委员会(European Commission)和欧洲议会(European Parliament)发表过批评声明。但在多数情况下，欧盟的反应只是无可奈何地耸耸肩。公开批评特朗普的德国总理安格拉?默克尔(Angela Merkel)，对于欧尔班几乎完全沉默。This is not good enough. European leaders should remind themselves of Article 2 of the EU treaty — the one that says the union is founded “on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities”. Then they should set about upholding these provisions.这不够好。欧洲领导人应该提醒自己牢记欧盟条约的第2条——欧盟是“以尊重人格、自由、民主、平等、法治和尊重人权（其中包括少数族裔人群的权利）的价值观”而建立。然后他们应该开始采取行动捍卫这些条款。