Netanyahu Secures Friendly Coronavirus Summit Ahead of Elections

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will host his Hungarian and Czech counterparts, Viktor Orbán and Andrej Babiš, on Thursday, as Israel’s central European allies look to model their coronavirus pandemic response after the Jewish state’s. “The main topic of the meeting will be the effort to curb the pandemic,” Orbán’s press chief said in a statement. With the consequential Israeli elections less than a fortnight away, the trip by two of Netanyahu’s closest pals on the world stage will most likely feature prominently in the prime minister’s final campaign ads. In each of last year’s three consecutive undecided election cycles, Netanyahu secured high-profile visits with major international players, including American and Russian leaders Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. This year, the Israeli premier was forced to cancel his planned summit with Gulf leaders in Dubai due to coronavirus concerns and has since been reportedly looking for a substitute international event prior to the March 23 election. Last month, Netanyahu authorized the delivery of several thousand vaccines to countries that have officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, among them the Czech Republic and Hungary.