Viktor Orbán's recent trips abroad were partly for domestic consumption. His visit to Israel was intended to counter claims that Fidesz tolerates anti-semitism by showing that the party's chairman was on negotiating terms with Israeli leaders. And his Washington trip was meant to show that Orbán is not beyond the pale for the leaders of the world's leading power.

But if Orbán needs to send these messages, he only has himself to blame. He simply ignored the fact that Israel reacts very sensitively to domestic squabbles in view of the Hungarian holocaust. Drawing inspiration partly from the German Christian Democrats, the ex-PM attempted to pacify the far-right - but his gestures to that group were ill-received by many, including by Jewish leaders in Hungary. And that did little for Orbán's reputation in Israel.

Orbán had a good reputation in the US until September 2001, as is shown by the prize he was awarded by the Republican-linked American Enterprise Institute in May 2001. On that occasion he was even granted a half-hour audience with President Bush. But in September, Orbán took two decisions that led to a cooling in Hungarian-US relations.

First, his government chose to buy Swedish Gripen fighters instead of American F-16s. Second, Orbán failed to distance himself from remarks made by István Csurka, the chairman of the Hungarian Truth and Life Party, who had talked of America bearing responsibility for the September 11 attacks. Orbán and his advisers seem not to have realised how seriously the Bush administration's "with us or against us" attitude was meant. The US president refused to meet Orbán again before the Hungarian elections.

Salvage operations began shortly after Fidesz's 2002 electoral defeat. Atlanticists in the party felt that Hungary would only have good relations with the US if it were commited to Israel's security and sovereignty. The party made sure that Orbán met with Israeli politicians visiting Hungary and pursued close relations with Likud, their "natural ideological parnter."

As far as Washington is concerned, Fidesz foreign policy experts are encouraged that Orbán was numbered amongst those International Democratic Union leaders who were invited to breakfast with President Bush. The party also wants to maintain good relations with the American embassy. Relations with Ambassador George Herbert Walker, a relative of the US president's, are said to be good.