Tag: Visegrád Group

Central European leaders view Mr. Netanyahu as a close ally. For his part, Mr. Netanyahu has cultivated relationships with Central European populist leaders. It is widely believed in the region that in order for a leader of a small Central European country to get an invitation to visit the White House, he should either buy a lot of American military equipment or Mr Netanyahu should lobby for the visit. Many of the founders of the Jewish state were from Central and Eastern Europe and their political imagination was shaped by the politics of the newly independent states that emerged in the region after World War I. It has preserved the heroic ethos of sacrifice in the name of the nation that nationalist politicians covet for their own societies. Central and Eastern Europeans see Israel as the only Western society that is winning the population war by reversing the trend of demographic decline. Central European nationalists’ fascination with Israel East European populists also share Mr. Netanyahu’s mistrust in anything that appears post-national or hints of cosmopolitanism. They agree with Yoram Hazony, a conservative Israeli political philosopher and Netanyahu supporter who is the author of the influential ‘The Virtue of Nationalism,’ who says that the major political clash in world history is neither between classes nor nations, but between nationalists who believe that the nation state is the best form of political organisation and imperialists who advocate for universal empire. Mr Orban sees much to admire there. Populist leaders in Central Europe view Israel as the model of how a small state could be sovereign and heroic.