Invitation claim was made by Netayahu’s office and was never confirmed by Magyar.
For its part, Magyar’s party declined to confirm the invitation when emailed by EUobserver and by Israeli daily Haaretz on Thursday.
Magyar later said on Facebook only that he had spoken with Netanyahu, without mentioning any invitation.
Netanyahu’s office also declined to reply to Haaretz’s questions.
But Haaretz journalist David Issacharoff said on X that Netanyahu had a record of ICC-busting invitation bluffs. Source
The funniest thing Magyar could’ve done is accept the invitation, only for him to be arrested and trialed at the Hague
It would be amazing but I don’t think he would risk it as they would receive quite the backlash from Israel and especially the US. It would be awesome tho
Right? That would be AMAZING
I keep seeing this point raised but it doesn’t make sense to me. If no invitation was extended, then the point of not officially denying it is… what exactly?
I mean let’s be as charitable as possible to Magyar. You are the pm-elect. The Israelis make a claim that’s untrue. That claim actually hurts your reputation as a break from orbanism. If you let it be, it puts you in a box, it constrains your movement. Why stay silent? And if you don’t want to rock the boat too much, why not even make a half assed walk back, as in “we talked and agreed in principle on a state visit, potentially after the next Israeli election in October” (that would keep your options open and give you plausible deniability for any play you choose). Instead, just …silence? What’s the play here?
A much simpler explanation to all of this absurd-adjacent hypotheticals, an explanation that requires the fewest hypotheses (Occam’s razor) is that …an invitation was made.
I don’t know specifically, but here are a couple of possibilities, also being charitable to Magyar and assuming no invitation was made:
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He is trying to not agitate things too much with Netanyahu, hoping to achieve something through back channels. Often diplomacy, especially in this day and age, involves not being too brash publicly to avoid anything that could disrupt something happening behind the curtains. Often times only sticks don’t work, you need carrots as well.
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Netanyahu is constantly preaching that Israel is constantly under attack, is the underdog, is never regarded, etc., which is often used to distract from or even support the atrocities being committed. Magyar possibly doesn’t want to support that narrative. An explicit denial of an invitation can be used to say “see how nasty they are with us”, which can be in turn used to rally Netanyahu’s supporters or even those more extreme than him (thinking of the likes of Gvir). If you avoid feeding that narrative and give something like this (maybe with a little “nudge nudge wink wink”), maybe that can avoid the heat going up any further while still showing those who are more level headed that no, there was no invitation.
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There’s an argument to be made to ignore false statements instead of responding to them directly. Depending on who you talk to, responding to statements can give them a certain legitimacy. Think of a (maybe too) similar situation: a fascist makes a statement that is flat out false, like “immigration is causing a crime wave”. You can respond to that statement, explain how it’s false, etc., but since you’re responding to that statement, you are inevitably also mentioning that statement, potentially spreading it further, and generally giving it more air. Or you can ignore that statement in hopes of suffocating it. While I generally tend to the former approach myself, there is an argument to be made for the latter approach.
Not saying I’m a fan of Magyar (I’m not, even if he is much better than Orban), agree with his decision or am completely convinced there was no invitation, but there definitely are plausible scenarios where there is a solid reasoning behind this.
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There is probably a diplomatic protocol for these kind of situations. In the end, declining the opposing claim would amount to escalation. Conceding the claim would be sign of weakness. Your proposed solution would make fools of both parties. As already mentioned by EUobserver, there is a simple way out for Magyar by inviting Israeli president.
Also mentioned by EUobserver, a similar unconfirmed invitation claim was made previously by Netanyahu after call with Merz. So maybe that is something that Occam’s razor could be applied to.
They joys of a bunch of right wingers jerking each other off. Meanwhile, Sanchez is the only one doing the honourable thing and calling a spade a spade.
It’s a trap!!
The only good excuse
No one expects the Spanish inquisition!!
Only according to Bibi, the lying sack of shit
If this dude arrests Netanyahu… that would be amazing.
Arrest? Don’t they have guns? Or at least guillotines? Knives? A rusty fork? Actually the last one sounds the best
And so it begins…
😔
Even if almost everything stays similar to how Orban did it as long as he stops blocking every EU thing it is an Improvement
Technically, undermining the ICC is also blocking an EU thing.
The ICC is an offspring of the UN, not the EU.
Yes, and the EU has at various points made collective commitments to it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_and_the_International_Criminal_Court
