Leader Of Anti-Semitic Party In Hungary Discovers He's Jewish
Not only that, but Szegedi's grandmother survived Auschwitz and his grandfather survived labor camps. The AP adds:
"Under pressure, Szegedi resigned last month from all party positions and gave up his Jobbik membership. That wasn't good enough for the party: Last week it asked him to give up his seat in the European Parliament as well. Jobbik says its issue is the suspected bribery, not his Jewish roots.
"Szegedi came to prominence in 2007 as a founding member of the Hungarian Guard, a group whose black uniforms and striped flags recalled the Arrow Cross, a pro-Nazi party which briefly governed Hungary at the end of World War II and killed thousands of Jews. In all, 550,000 Hungarian Jews were killed during the Holocaust, most of them after being sent in trains to death camps like Auschwitz. The Hungarian Guard was banned by the courts in 2009.
"By then, Szegedi had already joined the Jobbik Party, which was launched in 2003 to become the country's biggest far-right political force. He soon became one of its most vocal and visible members, and a pillar of the party leadership. Since 2009, he has served in the European Parliament in Brussels as one of the party's three EU lawmakers, a position he says he wants to keep."
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency filed a report on the case earlier this week. According to the JTA, Szegedi met with Rabbi Shlomo Koves on Aug. 3.
Szegedi told him that following the Holocaust, his grandparents had an Orthodox Jewish wedding, but they decided to keep that and their religion a secret from their children and grandchildren.
The JTA reports that after talking to Koves, Szegedi decided to plan a trip to Auschwitz. Koves said he apologized "for any comments he had made against the Jewish community" and would like to make the trip to "pay his respects to the Holocaust martyrs."
FP: You can’t make this stuff up. There are hardly better examples of the ignorance and stupidity that go into bigotry in general and anti-Semitism in particular.
Bill Katz: BIZARRE
A nuclear-powered Russian missile submarine cruised undetected for several weeks in the Gulf of Mexico, and its presence was confirmed only after it left the area, according to the Washington Free Beacon. The paper further states: "The stealth underwater incursion in the Gulf took place at the same time Russian strategic bombers made incursions into restricted U.S. airspace near Alaska and California in June and July, and highlights a growing military assertiveness by Moscow." I guess Obama's "reset" with Russia just hasn't panned out. But remember, the Russians are just misunderstood, and still angry at Reagan.
FP: Superpower no more.
Barry Rubin: Too Funny To Be Real; Too Tragic To Be Real: How Gouda Deals with Immigrant Violence
The good burghers of Gouda, Holland—famous for its cheese—have a solution. It seems that there is a problem with some of the immigrants there, especially those from Morocco, being involved in violence. How can these tendencies be channeled in a more productive direction?
Answer: The town government will organize free classes for them in karate.
FP: To laugh or to cry? To cry for Holland, I guess.
No Future in France: Dire Times for French Jews (via Elder of Ziyon)
The Toulouse massacre did not bring French anti-Semitism to a halt. It actually increased.
“Any time young people approach me in order to get married, I ask them various questions about their future. Eighty percent of them say they do not envision any future in France.” This is what one rabbi in Paris told me last week. I heard similar statements from other French rabbis and lay Jewish leaders: “We have a feeling the words are on the wall now,” one leader in the Lyons area confided to me. “It is not just our situation in this country deteriorating; it is also that the process is much quicker than expected.”
FP: Does not look like there is a future for Jews anywhere, does it?
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