匈牙利反索羅斯海報應引起警覺

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.

強人們似乎會抱團。歐爾班?維克托(Viktor Orban)發動的攻擊億萬富翁、慈善家喬治?索羅斯(George Soros)的宣傳攻勢，引起了匈牙利猶太人羣體的恐懼。匈牙利總理的廣告牌攻擊使歐洲歷史上那段黑暗的反猶太主義時期死灰復燃。然而，以色列駐匈牙利大使公開表達的關切，並未說服本雅明?內塔尼亞胡(Benjamin Netanyahu)取消一次計劃好的訪問。

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.

以色列總理把自己視爲強人俱樂部的成員。這些強人藐視自由民主中的“自由”。內塔尼亞胡像歐爾班一樣，是美國總統唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)的堅定崇拜者。歐爾班似乎把自己想象爲袖珍版的俄羅斯總統弗拉基米爾?普京(Vladimir Putin)。他領導的執政黨青民黨(Fidesz party)已拆除了憲法制衡手段，控制了國家媒體和司法機關。歐爾班支持反自由主義，不接受歐盟的多元價值觀——即便他在向布魯塞爾方面索取高額援助款。

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，匈牙利總理表揚了霍爾蒂?米克洛斯(Miklos Horthy)。在二戰中，這個民族主義領導人在向納粹集中營押送匈牙利猶太人的過程中起到了共謀作用。他把霍爾蒂視爲該國的“非凡政治家”，此言遭到了猶太人團體的批評。美國大屠殺紀念館(Holocaust Memorial Museum)表示，該說法造成了一種印象，即匈牙利政府“認爲，反猶太主義、種族與宗教偏見、以及種族滅絕值得表揚，而不是應受普世譴責”。

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”.

匈牙利外長彼得?西亞爾託(Peter Szijjarto)表示，歐爾班承認，霍爾蒂的統治也包含一些“非常負面的時期”。這就足以讓內塔尼亞胡感到放心。其他人也許認爲，謀殺56.5萬匈牙利猶太人不僅僅是一段“負面時期”。

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.

用國家的資金來攻擊索羅斯，始於出臺法律關閉布達佩斯的中歐大學(CEU)。該大學由美國/匈牙利投資家索羅斯創立，目的是在共產黨政權倒臺後培育自由與民主。像所有仇視其他民族的民族主義者一樣，歐爾班在發現“境外”敵人方面獨具慧眼。

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，匈牙利到處貼着譴責索羅斯的海報，原因是索羅斯對歐爾班在中東難民危機中的強硬對策提出了質疑。索羅斯被指責支持“非法”移民。然而，索羅斯只是呼籲爲那些捲入中東最嚴重暴力衝突的人提供合法避難途徑，呼籲在全歐盟範圍做好配額安排，分擔安置負擔。

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.

歐爾班對這種區別絲毫不感興趣。去年，他領導了一場抵制難民的伊斯蘭恐懼症運動。他表示，難民們將偷走匈牙利人的工作，並導致恐怖分子滲透進來。匈牙利拒絕接受歐盟的任何難民安置配額。

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.

微笑的索羅斯在海報上佔據醒目地位。這些海報勸告匈牙利人不要讓他“笑到最後”。有些海報被塗上了種族主義意味更爲明目張膽的口號——這一幕讓人想起了當年反猶太勢力所說的猶太人嘲笑他們的“受害者”的遭遇。當年索羅斯藏身布達佩斯，躲過納粹的搜索，得以在大屠殺中倖免，之後他逃到了美國。

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”.

匈牙利猶太教信衆聯盟(Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities)主席安德拉斯?海斯勒(Andras Heisler)表示，攻擊索羅斯的廣告海報傳遞了那個時代的“有毒信息”。以色列駐匈牙利大使約西?阿姆拉尼(Yossi Amrani)也發出了同樣的擔憂，他呼籲撤掉這些海報，以防它們播下“仇恨與恐懼”的種子。

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，儘管歐爾班政府在公開場合謹慎地譴責反猶太主義，但是它一直縱容新納粹主義的尤比克黨(Jobbik)所宣揚的仇外主義。尤比克黨領袖建議對全國的猶太人進行登記。民調錶明，五分之一的選民支持該政黨。明年將面臨大選的歐爾班不希望被右翼搶走選票。

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.

在這種情況下，內塔尼亞胡竟然按計劃訪問匈牙利，這很令人費解。沒錯，索羅斯反對這位以色列領導人在以巴問題上的鷹派立場——促使以色列外交部長指責他挖“民選政府”的牆腳。但反猶太主義在中歐地區甚囂塵上——這種趨勢不僅限於匈牙利——肯定應該敲響警鐘。

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.

無論如何，歐洲人不應該把內塔尼亞胡的放鬆態度軟化視爲給自己開脫的理由。民粹主義升溫使歐洲大陸的惡魔陰魂再現。由右翼強人雅羅斯瓦夫?卡欽斯基(Jaroslaw Kaczynski)領導的波蘭政府，在逐漸廢除民主保障措施的同時，找到了自己的民族敵人。如今華沙方面正在洗白當年波蘭同謀者在配合屠殺猶太人方面發揮的作用。像匈牙利一樣，波蘭是歐盟財政援助的一大受益國。基督教民族主義——把伊斯蘭教視爲文明的威脅——也正在斯洛伐克和捷克興起。

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.

歐盟其他國家的政府偶爾搖搖反對的手指。歐盟委員會(European Commission)和歐洲議會(European Parliament)發表過批評聲明。但在多數情況下，歐盟的反應只是無可奈何地聳聳肩。公開批評特朗普的德國總理安格拉?默克爾(Angela Merkel)，對於歐爾班幾乎完全沉默。

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.

這不夠好。歐洲領導人應該提醒自己牢記歐盟條約的第2條——歐盟是“以尊重人格、自由、民主、平等、法治和尊重人權（其中包括少數族裔人羣的權利）的價值觀”而建立。然後他們應該開始採取行動捍衛這些條款。