As Haaretz reports:
French President Emmanuel Macron complained to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli's interference in the French elections.Chikli seems to be all-in on supporting far-right political parties in Europe as long as they stick to their transparently cynical position of: We’re against antisemitism and support Israel because we hate Muslims and Muslims hate Jews so we can’t possibly be antisemitic.
In a conversation held a few days before the elections, Macron warned Netanyahu that Chikli's actions, which were openly and blatantly aimed at assisting Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party, constituted "unacceptable" interference in France's internal affairs.
Netanyahu was reported to have assured Macron that that he would “prevent further statements from his ministers on France's internal matters.” [my emphasis]
There are all kinds of alliances and cooperative arrangements between parties in different countries. In the European Parliament, parties from different member nations form coalitions with like-minded parties, like the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament and the European People's Party (Christian Democrats). There are other international groupings like the long-standing Socialist International and the Progressive International.
And there are many kinds of international interchanges between parties, think tanks, political groups and businesses. That’s part of what the “globalized” world is about. Diplomats routinely talk to members of opposition parties and civil society groups in the countries where they are stationed, and that’s a generally accepted practice.
But there are also laws regulating who can do what with political groups in other countries. Direct financing from foreign governments to political parties is normally banned, for instance. An American political consultant can act as a paid consultant to a party in another country as long as they meet all legal requirements in the US and the host country for registration and conduct.
But for government officials of one country specifically intervening in election campaigns as part of their public roles like Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli did is usually out of bounds, especially among democratic countries.
But governments and states also obviously do have an interest in who wins elections in other countries, particularly large and powerful ones. And if it considered in the national interest to break some other country’s laws to finance favored political groups, most countries would have little hesitation in doing so. The US famously did so frequently in western Europe during the Cold War, especially in the early years, including particularly in France and Italy.
So that the broad background in what such things take place. But Chikli’s public interventions - there is no indication in the article it involved any kind of direct funding - were highly unusual.
Chikli said in an interview with army radio on Monday morning over his support for Le Pen that "Macron threw the Jewish community under the bus, and I stand behind this statement."Of course, the friendly relations of Israeli officials the Christian nationalist groups in the US, most notably the Christians United For Israel (CUFI) group, is very well known. CUFI’s support for Israel is formally based on an End Times worldview that is, well, also blatantly antisemitic. CUFI is also part of the often-discussed Israel Lobby in the US, which includes Jewish groups and individuals and organizations as well as regular arms manufacturing lobbyists. (The “Israel Lobby” is a generic description of groups who take “pro-Israel” positions of some kind, though not all of them support Netanyahu’s government or policies. It does not refer to a formal organization.)
"It would be excellent for Israel if [Marine Le Pen] were the president of France, ten exclamation points. In my opinion, it would be good for the State of Israel," Chikli told Kan Radio, earlier this month.
Political interventions can be tricky
One of the arguably more consequential public interventions of recent years was the open American support for the “Euromaidan” movement in Ukraine in 2013-14. In December 2013, Obama’s Secretary of State John Kerry expressed fairly explicit support for a protest movement that was (mostly) pro-democracy, though the Ukrainian government it was protesting was an elected one:
In Moldova, at the Trade and Investment Showcase, Kerry spoke at the Cricova Winery which traces its legacy back to the 15th century CE. He praised the nation's recent alliance with the EU as a sort of "Moldovan spring."CBS reported a few days later:
Kerry said he learned the word "Chisinau," the name of the town housing the winery, "comes from a root that means 'new spring,'" adding "I can’t think of a better way to capture what is happening here now or a better thing to celebrate."
From his words it was clear that Kerry hoped the "spring" would spread to embattled Ukraine.
"European integration is the best road for both security and prosperity for Moldova. ...To the people of the Ukraine, we say the same thing: You, too, deserve the opportunity to choose your own future. Let me make it clear: The United States and the European Union strongly believe that European integration does not have to be a zero-sum game." (2)
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland visited Independence Square in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Wednesday, the U.S. embassy said, and an opposition leader said she talked to protesters.Nuland was and is known as an advocate of a liberal-interventionist foreign policy and as an anti-Russia hardliner. Having her as an Assistant Secretary of State to the site where anti-government protests were happening was bound to be taken as a provocation by the government then in power in Kiev and by Moscow. Given the sensitivity of the situation at that moment, it’s hard to imagine that Obama, Kerry, and Nuland couldn’t have found a different way to express concern about the repression without looking so obvious about supporting “regime change.”
A spokesman for the embassy said she had visited Maidan, where several thousand of protesters were calling for the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovich.
Nuland’s highly symbolic appearance in the square came a day after Secretary of State John Kerry issued a strong statement, expressing the United States' "disgust with the decision of Ukrainian authorities to meet the peaceful protest ... with riot police, bulldozers, and batons, rather than with respect for democratic rights and human dignity." (3)
Sen. John McCain also showed up to join the protesters:
Senator John McCain on Sunday told thousands of Ukrainian protesters camped on Kiev's main square that Ukraine's destiny lay in Europe and that it would make Europe better.The various events that led up to the Russian seizure of Crimea in 2014 will be analyzed and re-analyzed from now until doomsday. I’m mentioning here because it’s a particular famous political intervention by the US in the internal politics of another country. And, yes, Russia was doing so in Ukraine then, too.
"Ukraine will make Europe better and Europe will make Ukraine better," he said to crowds protesting against President Viktor Yanukovich's U-turn in trade policy away from Europe towards Russia.
"We are here to support your just cause, the sovereign right of Ukraine to determine its own destiny freely and independently. And the destiny you seek lies in Europe," said McCain, a leading Republican voice on US foreign policy.
The presence of McCain at the anti-government rally after a weeks-long stand-off between demonstrators and the authorities further highlighted the geo-political East-West tug-of-war which Ukraine is once again at the centre of. Politicians from Berlin and Brussels have paid morale-boosting trips to the square, drawing denunciation from the Russian prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, for "crude" meddling in Ukraine's affairs.
McCain is in Ukraine with a Connecticut Democrat, Senator Chris Murphy.
Speaking to CNN on Sunday, McCain said: “What we're trying to do is try to bring about a peaceful transition here, that would stop the violence and give the Ukrainian people what they unfortunately have not had, with different revolutions that have taken place – a real society. This is a grassroots revolution here – it's been peaceful except when the government tried to crack down on them, and the government hasn't tried that since. [my emphasis] (4)
The point is that these kinds of interventions in the politics of other countries can be very consequential. David Issacharoff reports on how blatant Chikli’s intervention in French internal politics on behalf of the Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (NR) party, which came in third in last Sunday’s election:
Israel employs a policy of strategic ambiguity in relation to Europe's far right, flirting with it when convenient and distancing itself when necessary. Israel's foreign policy, known to be jealously guarded within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, has only openly embraced Hungary's illiberal premier Viktor Orbán.
Leading up to the French legislative elections, Chikli offered a stream of loud endorsements of Le Pen's National Rally party, declaring it "excellent for Israel." He was also "thrilled at the prospect of establishing a productive dialogue" with the party. Even Foreign Minister Israel Katz, whose authority mostly extends to posting cringeworthy and often deeply weird AI images on X, had to state that "Israel does not intervene in elections in France."
It was also reported Monday that Israeli diplomats say the Diaspora affairs minister operates independently, with officials usually unaware of his far-right rendezvous. One described his French contacts as "a diplomatic bomb," while others contended that Chikli was jeopardizing Israel's relations with France. (5) [my emphasis]
Issacharoff also takes note of the anti-Muslim/Islamophobic ideology and how it provides a basis from political cooperation between Netanyahu’s government and the EU’s far right:
Both in Israel and abroad, these far-right allies perceive Muslims as the root cause of their problems, which they claim threatens their "national identity," simply because they struggle to face their own domestic responsibilities. Clearly, both groups, within Israel and beyond, just want to get Muslims out of sight, stoking fear and blending it with grievance. On this, Europe's far right has more to learn from Israel than the other way around. [my emphasis]At the same time that perceived national interests play the main role, there is an ideological affinity across borders, as well. Since narrow nationalism and xenophobia are key elements of the current far-right parties’ programs, the idea of a kind of informal Nationalist International seems a bit bizarre on its face. But this is also not a new phenomenon. We saw the same things with the fascist parties in various nations in the period between the First and Second World Wars. Even though fascist powers could also find themselves at odds, e.g., Mussolini’s opposition in 1934 to an attempted takeover of Austria by Nazis to annex it to Germany. (By 1938, it was another story!)
Benjamin Netanyahu’s critics often observe that he while he is terrible at governing and is generally a terrible person, he is very skilled at politics. And attempting to influence the politics in his country’s most powerful ally, the United States, has been one of his main selling points. The affiliation between the Israeli hardliners and warmongers, on the one hand, and the Trumpified Republican Party may be based at the moment on Netanyahu’s belief that Trump will be even more cooperative with Netanyahu’s government than the Biden Administration. A well-founded belief, based on the record.
But the Biden Administration could hardly have been more deferential to Netanyahu’s war on Gaza since last October.
When Netanyahu addressed Congress in 2015, there was generally no expectation that Donald Trump would the Democratic nominee for President the following yera. (Reportedly Trump himself didn’t expect it!) But Netanyahu was there to lobby against the nuclear-arms-control efforts the Obama Administration was negotiating (eventually successfully) with Iran. Zack Beauchamp reported in 2015:
At 11 am on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to deliver a speech to a joint session of Congress that has, before it's even occurred, become a major controversy in both countries. More than that, it has become a test for the US-Israel relationship. It has come to represent the changing ways in which politics in both countries shape, and are shaped by, that relationship.That was a blatant attempt to intervene in US politics.
Netanyahu's goal is to convince Congress to torpedo the US-led Iranian nuclear negotiations, which he thinks will result in a deal that hands Iran the bomb on a silver platter. He wants Congress to vote to impose new sanctions on Iran, which would kill the talks, and thus significantly alter US policy toward the Middle East.
The Obama administration sees Netanyahu and Republicans as working to undermine not just Obama's efforts to strike a nuclear deal with Iran, but his presidential authority over foreign policy. Democrats are angry at the perceived insult to the president. The effect has been to politically polarize an issue that has long been bipartisan in Washington: support for Israel. (6)
This month’s scheduled Netanyahu speech before Congress is even more obviously so. There seems to be no hope at this point that Biden will denounce him or even refuse to meet with him. It would be good to see the Democrats in Congress all stand up at walk out at the beginning of the speech. But that seems impossible to even imagine at this point.
Notes:
(1) Tibon, Amir (2024):'Unacceptable': Macron Accuses Israeli Minister of Interfering in French Election in Call With Netanyahu. Haaretz 07/09/2024. <https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/2024-07-09/ty-article/macron-slams-israeli-ministers-interference-in-french-election-in-call-with-netanyahu/00000190-980a-d044-a997-d81e1f510000> (Accessed: 2024-10-07).
(2) Yashar, Ari (2013): Kerry in Moldova Supports Ukrainian 'Spring'. Israel National News 12/06/2013. <http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/174877> (Accessed: 2024-10-07).
(3) Top U.S. official visits protesters in Kiev as Obama admin. ups pressure on Ukraine president Yanukovich. CBS News 12/11/2013. <https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-victoria-nuland-wades-into-ukraine-turmoil-over-yanukovich/> (Accessed: 2024-10-07).
(4) Ibid.
(5) Issacharoff, David (2024): The Curious Case of Israel's Rogue Envoy to Europe's Antisemitic Far Right. Haaretz 07/09/2024. <https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/haaretz-today/2024-07-08/ty-article/.premium/the-curious-case-of-israels-rogue-envoy-to-europes-antisemitic-far-right/00000190-92f5-dcf1-afdd-d2f5f2d40000> (Accessed: 2024-10-07).
(6) Beauchamp, Zack (2015): The Netanyahu speech controversy, explained. Vox 03/03/2015. <https://www.vox.com/2015/3/2/8130977/netanyahu-speech-explained> (Accessed: 2024-10-07).
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