Jobbik President Márton Gyöngyösi goes on anti-Semitic rants in newly published videos

I wrote about U.S. Ambassador David Pressman’s Seder dinner debacle last week, where he invited Márton Gyöngyösi, a far-right politician who rose to notoriety for proposing to “make a list” of all members of parliament with Jewish ancestry in 2012.

According to Pressman, the event was held to “reflect on democracy” alongside prominent Jewish figures, but Gyöngyösi’s inclusion seems to be a half-baked attempt to clear his name and gain some support for his, how to say, declining political party.

Gyöngyösi, the president of the controversial Jobbik party and member of the European Parliament,  previously dismissed claims of anti-Semitic or racist rhetoric by him or his party members by saying “Let's get over it,” as he felt “bored” by the accusation. However, he hasn’t been that dismissive regarding the issue behind closed doors.

Some new footage that has surfaced shows Gyöngyösi not long after his attempt to list Jewish MPs in 2012. And here, he doubles down by calling all Israeli citizens a “national security risk” to a very accommodating audience at a private Jobbik party meeting.

The far-right leader also likes to claim that the press is taking him out of context when he made such remarks. So how about some “lighthearted” relativization of the Holocaust, where he jokes about and downplays the horrendous genocide?

Dear Ambassador Pressman: Is this really what U.S. foreign policy wants to be associated with in 2023? Whitewashing a politician with a long track record of outrageous, anti-Semitic statements; dangling him in front of the press wearing a kippah, in the attendance of prominent Jewish figures, all acting like this is perfectly normal?