Hungary’s hard-line PM Orban visits Israel amid criticism

JERUSALEM – Hungary’s hard-line Prime Minister Viktor Orban is in Israel for a two-day visit that has drawn criticism over the populist, right-wing politician’s views.

Orban arrived in Israel on Wednesday evening and is due to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.

Orban has cast himself as champion of a Christian Europe and adopted a tough stance against the influx of African and Muslim migrants to the continent, campaigning for re-election on a relentless anti-migration policy.

Orban’s remarks over a year ago praising Nazi collaborator Miklos Horthy — who ruled Hungary after World War I and throughout most of World War II and introduced anti-Semitic laws — have drawn fierce criticism.

Opposition lawmaker Yair Lapid, whose father was a Hungarian Holocaust survivor, scorned Netanyahu for meeting Orban, writing on Twitter: “Shame!”