Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced that his country will withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in protest of the arrest warrant that it issued for his Israeli counterpart Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu on war crimes charges. This coincided with Orban hosting Bibi in Budapest. Both were bold moves considering how highly his European peers regard the ICC and how lowly many of them now regard Bibi. Non-Western attitudes towards Bibi are similar but more mixed when it comes to the ICC.
Orban was already Europe’s black sheep due to his consistent advocacy for peace in Ukraine and criticism of the EU’s warmongering against Russia, the overall stance of which was responsible for many across the non-West having positive views about him. They might begin souring on him, however, since the non-Western public also very strongly supports Palestine and thus has very negative views about Bibi. Some Alt-Media influencers and outlets might even flip the script to condemn Orban as a “Zionist”.
Therein lies an important point to be made about the highly diverse group of people who rely on non-Mainstream Media sources for guidance and contribute to discussions within this community. Many tend to assess everything in a zero-sum way whereby leaders, groups, and countries are either good or bad with no in-between. This lack of nuance and inability to appreciate the complexity of International Relations makes most of their information products a form of political activism instead of actual analysis.
In Orban’s case, some might soon throw the baby out with the bathwater by viciously attacking him over his fiercely pro-Israeli policies, which consequently risks discrediting his pragmatic policies towards Russia that many of them hitherto praised him for. After all, once someone is labeled a “Zionist” by influential members of the Alt-Media Community (AMC), they become toxic for many to associate with and those that don’t jump on the bandwagon, let alone continue praising them, risk being “canceled”.
Orban can objectively be described as a Zionist since he supports the State of Israel as the Jewish Homeland (just like Putin), but the term has been weaponized by the AMC to demonize someone. Adherents of this view can’t accept that a “Zionist”-labeled leader, group, or country can also do something that they consider to be good. Orban’s hosting of Bibi and withdrawal from the ICC in protest of its warrant against him thus puts them in a dilemma in light of his pragmatic policies towards Russia.
Some of the AMC share Russia and other major countries’ view that the ICC is illegitimate so they never flip-flopped from condemning that body when it issued an arrest warrant for Putin in early 2023 to praising it after it issued one for Bibi. Almost all of them very strongly support Palestine, however, so they’re inclined to condemn Orban for at least hosting Bibi and possibly also for pulling out of the ICC, whether because they support the ICC or due to him doing it in solidarity with Israel.
The AMC should think twice before tearing down the same man who many of them earlier built up. For as passionate as they are about Palestine, “canceling” Orban for being a Zionist would also discredit his pragmatic policies towards Russia by association, which many of them feel similarly passionate about. They should therefore accept that being a Zionist doesn’t disqualify someone from being pragmatic towards Russia and then finally start addressing the AMC’s long-running “cancel culture” problem.
