Less than a month ago I chaired a hearing on "Anti-Semitism: A Growing Threat to All Faiths." One of the witnesses was Tamas Fellegi, a former minister in the Orban government, who is himself Jewish. His testimony was impressive, as was the long list of significant actions the Otban government has taken to combat anti-Semitism in Hungarian society.
Mr. Fellegi admitted frankly that anti-Semitism is a serious social problem in Hungary. Fortunately, the Orban government is on a clear upward trajectory here, and gives every sign that it will continue to be part of the solution rather than the problem. I'm confident it will particularly take on the persistent attempts to rehabilitate Holocaust perpetrators and vicious and-Semites, both from the 1930s and 1940s and today. I will certainly continue to urge it to do so.
We all know that many NGOs and a few governments, including our own, have been vocal in criticizing the Hungarian government on various grounds touching on democracy and human rights — and that the Hungarian government and its supporters have rejected these criticisms vigorously.