One of the principal losers in the electoral defeat of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party is, of course, the State of Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s alliance with Orbán had long been a cornerstone of Israel’s foreign policy – well before an arrest warrant was issued against Netanyahu by the International Criminal Court, and before Budapest became virtually the only European capital where Netanyahu and his wife, Sara Netanyahu, could travel freely. Yet, it was not only Netanyahu who benefited from this alliance: Orbán did as well – and, somewhat surprisingly, so did the European Union (EU).As is well known, Orbán repeatedly blocked critical resolutions and sanctions within the EU targeting Israel and its officials over violations of international law in the occupied Palestinian, Lebanese, and Syrian territories – particularly since the outbreak of war on October 7, 2023. In return, one of the key things Netanyahu offered Orbán was a stamp of legitimacy for the antisemitism that characterised his regime.On the eve of the election in which Orbán was defeated, Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister, Amichai Chikli, wrote on X that Orbán had pursued a policy of “zero tolerance for antisemitism.” Orbán himself shared the post, writing: “Thank you for your support! We will continue to ensure that Jewish communities in Hungary can live in safety, dignity, and peace.” After the election, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar expressed gratitude to Orbán and his government “for their friendship and steady support of Israel and Jewish life in challenging times.”Much like Netanyahu – who has pursued sweeping institutional changes while stoking racist sentiments among segments of the Jewish public in Israel – Orbán and Fidesz consolidated their power not only through constitutional changes and control over the media and judiciary, but also by fueling antisemitic sentiment within Hungary.In May 2012, for instance, senior Fidesz figure and Speaker of Parliament László Kövér attended a memorial ceremony for the antisemitic writer József Nyirő, a fervent supporter of the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party, which took part in the murder of Jews and Roma. In protest against what he saw as the whitewashing of Hungary’s Nazi past, Elie Wiesel returned a medal he had received from the Hungarian government in 2004.Orbán’s government and party were also responsible for erecting memorials across Hungary honoring antisemites, fascists, and collaborators with the Nazis. In 2015, for example, they funded a statue commemorating Bálint Hóman, who had been involved in antisemitic legislation and in the deportation of Hungarian Jews during World War II. Earlier, in 2009, Orbán attended and spoke at a ceremony unveiling a statue of Albert Wass, who had been convicted of murdering Jews during the war.On June 21, 2017, Orbán expressed support for Hungary’s antisemitic ruler Miklós Horthy, who bore direct responsibility for the extermination of Hungarian Jewry during World War II, as well as for earlier antisemitic legislation. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum sharply condemned Orbán. In January 2018, Deputy Speaker of Parliament and senior ruling party figure Sándor Lezsák announced that he would attend a commemorative event for Horthy.A consistent target of Orbán and his party’s antisemitic campaign was the Jewish billionaire George Soros and the human rights organizations he supports. In the summer of 2017, posters appeared across Hungary featuring a smiling image of Soros with the slogan “Let’s not leave Soros the last laugh.” Passersby scrawled graffiti on the posters, including “dirty Jew.” The Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities appealed to Orbán to halt what it called the “nightmare” of the antisemitic campaign. Nevertheless, during a campaign speech in March 2018, Orbán declared that Hungary had expelled the Ottomans, the Habsburgs, and the Soviets – and would also expel “Uncle Soros.” He routinely portrayed Soros in imagery drawn straight from antisemitic and Nazi propaganda.Netanyahu came to his aid. On July 19, 2018, Orbán paid an official visit to Israel, including a stop at Yad Vashem, one of the world’s most important Holocaust museums. Efforts by our group – human rights activists, Holocaust survivors, and descendants of survivors from Hungary – to cancel his visit to Yad Vashem were rejected. We did, however, stage a protest at the museum’s entrance and briefly block Orbán’s motorcade as it departed.At a meeting between the two prime ministers during that visit, Orbán fully adopted Netanyahu’s talking points, declaring that “criticism of the State of Israel is antisemitism,” that under his leadership Hungary maintains “zero tolerance for antisemitism,” and that “in Western Europe antisemitism is on the rise, while in Eastern Europe it is declining.” This claim was absurd, given the extensive use of antisemitic messaging by Orbán and Fidesz in their political campaigns.Because, from the perspective of the Israeli government, there was no antisemitism problem in Hungary – and Orbán was held up as a model in combating it – the EU, its member states, and Jewish communities across Europe were constrained in confronting the normalisation of antisemitism in Budapest and the risks of its spread.Orbán’s regime was so important to Israel that it later emerged that critical Hungarian journalists had been surveilled using the Pegasus system. The affair was effectively buried in Israel, and the country’s attorney general declined to authorise a criminal investigation into the NSO Group and senior officials in the foreign and defense ministries, following a complaint I filed on behalf of those journalists.Although leaders of the EU and most of its member states celebrated Viktor Orbán’s defeat, his alliance with Netanyahu had proved convenient for them – serving as a pretext for inaction in the face of Israel’s violations of international law. After all, the fact that Orbán blocked collective EU initiatives did not deprive member states of their ability to act independently: to impose arms embargoes, enact economic sanctions – against the state or individuals – downgrade relations with Israel, or initiate criminal investigations under universal jurisdiction for war crimes and crimes against humanity.How convenient it was that Hungary served as a scapegoat, allowing the EU and its member states to avoid contradicting the policies of the United States and Germany – and to continue “business as usual” with Israel.In time, we will see whether the change in Hungary’s leadership brings with it a shift in interests and realities. In any case, Orbán’s defeat offers something rare these days: hope.Eitay Mack is an Israeli lawyer and human rights activist who worked to expose Israel’s full role in the Iran-Contra affair.