Hungarian Univ List of Jewish Students: US Sponsors Budapest Gay Pride Parade - Where's the Parade for Jewish Students?

When I began this article, the number of outrages just piled on. Before getting to the anti-Semitism story, here's a question: If the U.S. can sponsor the Gay Pride Day parade in Budapest, because U.S. Ambassador Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis wants to (she always did when she lived in San Francisco, after all), while she acknowledges the Budapest parade is "more a feeling of protest than celebration," where is the U.S. sponsored parade against anti-Semitism and young university students finding their names on a list of Jewish students (don't miss below how the "great seal" of the U.S. is now used by Gay Pride organizers). To the original story: The student council of Hungary's largest university, Eötvös Loránd (ELTE), has set up a database of Jewish Freshman students, and has been doing so for at least 6 years. This is all about Palestine and the willingness of at least one of Hungary's parliamentarians to support anti-Semitism and to support Nazi-like paramilitary units.

   

U.S. Ambassador Elini Tsakopoulos Kounalakis makes decision for U.S. to sponsor unpopular Gay Pride Parade in Budapest. U.S. Embassy staff join her.

I am rereading Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. If you haven't read it, you should. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was not Jewish. He was a German Christian living through World War I as a boy, and put to death by Hitler as a young man in 1945 at only 39 years of age. As I read the story below at Pam Geller's, it gave me chills as so many signs just like these were ignored by good people in Dietriech Bonhoeffer's day.

The files were compiled annually on freshmen by the student council of the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), according to a list obtained by Hungarian television network ATV and seen by BosNewsLife. Referring to Jewish origins, the 2009 list shows the letters I of the Hungarian word Igen ("Yes") and N for Nem ("No"). The practice resembled prewar Hungary, which introduced Europe's first antisemitic legislation as early as 1920.

In Hungary, 600,000 Jews were put to death during World War II. That was then.

This is today:

Recently, a prominent legislator of Jobbik suggested to draw up lists of Jews "who pose a "national security risk". Jobbik's Marton Gyöngyösi said the lists were needed following the brief conflict in Gaza and should include members of parliament. HUNGARIAN JEWISH ANCESTRY  "I know how many people with Hungarian ancestry live in Israel, and how many Israeli Jews live in Hungary," he told parliament in November. "I think such a conflict makes it timely to tally up people of Jewish ancestry who live here, especially in the Hungarian Parliament and the Hungarian government, who, indeed, pose a national security risk to Hungary." Jobbik has also supported several paramilitary groups, wearing uniforms and waving flags resembling the Nazi-era.

From the original source, BosNewsLife:

It comes amid growing pressure on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's center right government to tackle antisemitism, which also included recent threats against Jewish people and attacks against Holocaust memorials and Jewish cemeteries... Yet, the United States Embassy in Budapest recently warned that, "The recurrence of anti-Semitic and other racist statements in the Hungarian parliament demonstrates the need to further empower voices of tolerance and peaceful coexistence in Hungary."

The U.S. Ambassador to Hungary is Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis. She is, of course, a huge Obama supporter, and fundraiser. She was offered four countries to choose from and her publisher husband Markos Kounalakis chose Budapest,  Hungary. In an interview with SFGate the Ambassador said:

The United States is a young country with an old democracy. We have a lot we can continue to bring to the table. ... It's all about what's happening here in Central Europe, where the U.S. still has a lot of work to do, and can make a difference."

After the Ambassador's gay pride remarks and U.S. sponsorship, the Gay Pride organization uses the "great seal of the United States on their literature.

In Budapest, however, the parade has "more a feeling of protest than a celebration," and local police asked ambassadors not to march. "They said there was enough of a security challenge that our being there only complicates it. ... I had to respect that it was the case." But because "promoting tolerance is the policy" of the government abroad, and it's her role to interpret how to implement that, she decided that the United States should sponsor the parade. As a result, the organizers have used the great seal of the United States on literature for the past two years.

Is promoting anti-Semitism in governments we support with our foreign aid a policy of the U.S.? If so, where's the U.S. sponsored parade supporting Jewish students? With all due respect, it's far past time to "bring it to the table." This is about Palestine. I think the table will stay bare, no pro-Jewish parade on the horizon.

by Maggie @ Maggie's Notebook