The article "A complete mystery as to why the Hungarian government is returning to the International Criminal Court" published on Neokohn by L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Seres is a classic example of opinion-forming relevant to hasbara (Israeli state PR, information strategy and narrative management).<\/p>\n
The primary goal of hasbara is to protect Israel's state legitimacy in the international press and public opinion, morally justify its actions, and delegitimize legal or political criticism of the country.<\/p>\n
\u200bA detailed analysis of the article based on the main mechanisms and communication strategies of hasbara:<\/p>\n
\u200b1. Emotionally charged language and labeling<\/p>\n
\u200bA key element of hasbara is the discrediting of critical institutions and decisions with strong, emotionally charged epithets. The article does not treat the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a neutral legal forum, but systematically dehumanizes and delegitimizes it:<\/p>\n
He calls the ICC decision "scandalous", "unacceptable", "shameful" and "absurd".<\/p>\n
He describes the operation of the Hague court as "Hague hypocrisy.".<\/p>\n
It presents Attorney General Karim Khan not through his function, but by tarnishing his personal reputation ("he has become infamous for sexual misconduct"), thereby weakening the weight of the decision of the institution he leads.<\/p>\n
\u200b2. Defending legitimacy and rejecting moral equivalence<\/p>\n
The basic thesis of hasbara is that Israel is a democratic state fighting for its survival and legitimate self-defense, and therefore its actions are morally incomparable to those of terrorist groups. The article uses this panel:<\/p>\n
He indignantly rejects the fact that the panel \u201eequated the perpetrators of the horrific October 7 attack (\u2026) with the democratically elected leaders of the attacked country.\u201d.<\/p>\n
It frames the military operations in Gaza solely as \u201elegitimate self-defense and aimed at eliminating terror, not the Palestinian people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200b3. Selective contextualization and deflection<\/p>\n
Hasbara often employs the technique of deflecting specific humanitarian or legal accusations, presenting them as absurd, or reducing them to political motivations.<\/p>\n
Downplaying the charges: The article summarily calls the war crimes charge of starvation \u201eabsurd\u201d and quickly mentions a later statement by the Prosecutor General about the lack of evidence of genocide, in order to bracket other points of war crimes (e.g. collective punishment, deprivation of basic goods).<\/p>\n
\u200bTransferring to the political plane: The article agrees with P\u00e9ter Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3, who says that \u201ea legal case is being used as a political tool against Israel.\u201d This is one of the most common turns of hasbara: it portrays legal proceedings not as the enforcement of international law, but as political witch hunts.<\/p>\n
\u200b4. External allies and showing consensus<\/p>\n
\u200bPart of the strategy is to demonstrate that Israel is not alone in its narrative, and that key players in the \u201ecivilized world\u201d stand by it. To this end, the article highlights:<\/p>\n
The White House's outrage.<\/p>\n
The position of the British government, which also does not consider the decision authoritative.<\/p>\n
The Orb\u00e1n government's previous solidarity, which wanted to withdraw from the ICC just before Netanyahu's visit, expressing the "special relationship".<\/p>\n
\u200b5. Framing it as a victory for the enemy<\/p>\n
\u200bWhen an international organization makes a decision unfavorable to Israel, hasbara likes to point out that this helps terrorists. The author emphasizes that Hamas hailed the ICC decision as \u201ea victory for the Palestinian cause\u201d \u2013 \u201enot by chance.\u201d With this logic, he suggests that anyone who supports the ICC (or, in this case, backs down on it, like the Hungarian government) implicitly strengthens Hamas\u2019 narrative.<\/p>\n
\u200b6. Emphasizing the lack of jurisdiction (Legalist Argument)<\/p>\n
\u200bThe hasbara also uses technical-legal arguments when moral reasoning is not enough: it highlights that Israel has never ratified the Rome Statute, so the court has no jurisdiction over it. (However, it does not elaborate on the legal detail that the ICC has jurisdiction over acts committed in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, regardless of citizenship, through the Palestinian Authority\u2019s member state status.).<\/p>\n
Summary<\/p>\n
The article is presented as a political analysis (criticizing the actions of the Hungarian government and P\u00e9ter Magyar), but its argumentative structure is entirely based on the principles of hasbara. It examines the domestic policy decision (rejoining the ICC) not in the context of Hungarian sovereignty or general international law, but almost exclusively through the filter of how it affects Israel's international defense and diplomatic positions.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Neokohn fel\u00fclet\u00e9n megjelent, Seres L\u00e1szl\u00f3 \u00e1ltal jegyzett \u201eTeljes rejt\u00e9ly, hogy a Magyar-korm\u00e1ny mi\u00e9rt l\u00e9p vissza a Nemzetk\u00f6zi B\u00fcntet\u0151b\u00edr\u00f3s\u00e1gba\u201d c\u00edm\u0171 cikk klasszikus p\u00e9ld\u00e1ja a hasbara (izraeli \u00e1llami PR, inform\u00e1ci\u00f3s strat\u00e9gia \u00e9s narrat\u00edva-menedzsment) szempontj\u00e1b\u00f3l relev\u00e1ns v\u00e9lem\u00e9nyform\u00e1l\u00e1snak. \u200bA hasbara els\u0151dleges c\u00e9lja a nemzetk\u00f6zi sajt\u00f3ban \u00e9s a k\u00f6zv\u00e9lem\u00e9nyben Izrael \u00e1llami legitim\u00e1ci\u00f3j\u00e1nak v\u00e9delme, l\u00e9p\u00e9seinek mor\u00e1lis igazol\u00e1sa, valamint az orsz\u00e1got […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,17],"tags":[100,96,153,155,154,157],"class_list":["post-1856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hasbara-megdonese","category-hasbara-magyarorszagon","tag-hasbara","tag-izrael","tag-kozel-kelet","tag-mediaelemzes","tag-nemzetkozi-kapcsolatok","tag-tisza-part"],"modified_by":"Antipropaganda H\u00edrblog","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}