International conference shows Israel has “more friends than we think”

János Lastofka, head of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry’s Middle East Department, speaks at The October Effect conference at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem on Sept. 9, 2024. Photo by Canaan Lidor.

by Canaan Lidor

(JNS) — On Oct. 7, János Lastofka was enjoying an autumnal break with his family on the banks of picturesque Lake Balaton in his native Hungary.

As news of the Hamas invasion trickled in, some friends of Lastofka reached out to say they were relieved that he was no longer in Israel, where he had recently finished a five-year stint as the No. 2 man at Hungary’s embassy in Tel Aviv.

Lastofka wasn’t relieved.

“I wanted to support my friends in Israel, to huddle in the shelter with my neighbors, ensure the safety of our staff and citizens, and show solidarity,” Lastofka, who now heads the Hungarian Foreign Ministry’s Middle East Department, said at The October Effect conference in Jerusalem on Sept. 9.

Often overshadowed by the diplomatic assault and alienation that Israel has endured from some of its supposed allies since Oct. 7, such steadfast support for the Jewish state emerged as a central theme of the conference about E.U.-Israel relations.

“We have many more friends than we tend to think, and we’ll have more if we reframe our message in unapologetic terms that embolden our allies,” said Or Yissachar, vice president for content and research at the Israel Defense and Security Forum, a think tank that co-organized the conference with Hungary’s Danube Institute.

The conference brought together diplomats, lawmakers, former leaders, and officials from several European and Western countries. They pledged their support for Israel in its conflict with Hamas and Iran and its proxies at a time when many of Israel’s allies have either turned against it or remained silent on attempts to isolate it.

Israeli conference participants included senior retired IDF brass such as former Military Intelligence Directorate head Brig. Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, director of research for the IDSF, and Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen, a member of IDSF’s Board of Directors. They advocated a bolder and unapologetic approach by Israel, militarily and diplomatically, to its conflict with Iranian proxies.

The strength of the case for Israel proper is only part of the reason for the counter-stream in support of it, said Tony Abbott, a former prime minister of Australia who spoke at the conference via a live video broadcast.

China and Russia are working with Iran and its proxies, he said, “in a loose coalition of convenience to try to rearrange the world order” that’s been “safer and more peaceful for more people than ever before.”

Western societies “need to do whatever we can as freedom-loving democracies to support Israel,” Abbot told the 100 or so people who attended the conference at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Israel’s capital.

Other foreign dignitaries in attendance included Tomáš Zdechovský, a European Parliament lawmaker from the Czech Republic; Belgian federal lawmaker Michael Freilich; and John O’Sullivan, president of the Budapest-based Danube Institute and a former adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Hungary under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of the Fidesz party has had a unique role in supporting Israel within the European Union. Since Oct. 7, Hungary has blocked several E.U. “consensus statements” against the Israel Defense Forces’ ongoing military operation against Hamas in Gaza.

Israel launched the operation after Hamas terrorists invaded it on Oct. 7, murdering some 1,200 people and abducting 251 hostages.

As Israel fights to free the hostages and dismantle Hamas in Gaza, attacks by Iranian proxy Hezbollah from Lebanon have led Israel to evacuate about 60,000 civilians from its north. This front has escalated into a low-intensity but high-stakes direct military confrontation with Hezbollah, which is fighting with Russian and Chinese weapons.

Longtime allies of Israel, including the United Kingdom and Spain, have turned openly against it, citing mainly concerns about the death toll in Gaza, where the Hamas-run health ministry says about 40,000 have died in the current war. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 terrorists in Gaza, and another 1,000 inside Israel on and immediately after Oct. 7.

The administration of President Joe Biden, which initially supplied Israel with arms and pledged to support it, is publicly demanding Israel end hostilities against Hamas as part of a deal that would also free the hostages. The plan might allow the terrorist group to restore its control of Gaza and rebuild its arsenal.

Hungary has no such demands of Israel, Lastofka said, calling them unfair and sending the wrong signal to other world players.

“We must ensure that such brutal terrorist attacks can never again happen anywhere in the world. This means fighting terrorism and letting Israel fight terrorism,” he said. Referencing a well-known parable about incremental threats, he added: “We cannot expect the frog to return to the pot.”

Muslim immigration and left-wing indoctrination are fanning the flames of antisemitism and anti-Zionism throughout the West, but Hungary’s staunch resistance to both shows this development is at least preventable, argued László Bernát Veszprémy, a Holocaust historian and editor-in-chief of Corvinák, the publication of Budapest’s prestigious Mathias Corvinus Collegium educational institute.

Israel’s birthrate of three children per woman, which is the only one above replacement level in the 38-nation OECD, inspires hope for increasing the birthrate elsewhere, which would address a core reason for immigration, he added.

Israel has additional advocates in the E.U., including the Netherlands; Italy; Czechia; Austria, and to some extent Germany. They are blocking E.U. recognition of a Palestinian state, something Spain and Ireland are pushing amid considerable support from other E.U. members.

Declaring or imposing Palestinian statehood now would lead to “two states and no solution,” Lastofka said.

Israel is “outgunned when it comes to PR,” said former journalist Freilich, who is Jewish and represents the center-right New Flemish Alliance in Belgium’s Chamber of Representatives. “That’s where Israel needs to invest heavily if it wants to turn the tide.”

But divisions inside Israeli society on how to manage the Palestinian threat are complicating efforts to market a narrative to allies, Kuperwasser said.

In recent months, a powerful protest movement that long predates the Oct. 7 war has taken up the banner of an immediate end to hostilities with Hamas, combining it with its messaging against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Protest leaders are amplifying the voices of relatives of hostages, who are demanding Israel stop the war to retrieve their loved ones regardless of long-term consequences.

Tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of people show up for weekly protest rallies in favor of this move, which millions of other Israelis oppose — deepening societal rifts that run along religious, ethnic and ideological lines.

“We have a strong line of thinking in Israel that tries to force the government to give up,” Kuperwasser said. “They use the hostages as a tool to persuade us. It’s a mistake. We have to take care of the Palestinian narrative.”

Doing this will not weaken Israel’s alliances, as many doves fear, but strengthen them by assuring allies of Israel’s willingness to fight for shared interests, he said.

“We have a lot of friends. But let’s be realistic. These friends won’t ask to fight. Nobody is going to fight for us,” Kuperwasser said.