A really strange political alliance: Netanyahu’s Likud Party and European anti-Semites

The radical right in Europe has come up with an alibi for themselves: We can’t be anti-Semitic because we support Israel when they make war on Muslims.

Now the Israeli Likud Party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has joined the Patriots for Europe, a grouping of European far right parties, as ab “observer member.” As David Issacharoff explains:

The move comes amid a broader shift by the Israeli government toward establishing ties with far-right European parties that have long been boycotted by Israel due to their history of antisemitism and neo-Nazi affiliations. ...

It raises questions about Israel's evolving stance toward groups like Austria's Freedom Party, a member of the Patriots bloc, founded by a former SS general, and Germany's Alternative for Germany party, the AfD, which emerged as the country's second-largest party in last month's federal elections, surpassing the incumbent Social Democrats.

The AfD is deeply rooted in neo-Nazi culture, and Germany's Jewish community describes it having a "blatantly antisemitic ideology." The Freedom Party, in whose ranks antisemitic and neo-Nazi incidents occur with great regularity, has been described as "antisemitic to its core."

This is a sad but not surprising development. This is a feature of the same Likud/Netanyahu position that tries to identify anti-Semitism as primarily criticism of the State of Israel.

The US Christian nationalists justify their support of Israel largely by a bizarre and crassly anti-Semitic reading of Biblical prophecy in which a gigantic war in Israel will kill off most of the Jews in the world and then Jesus can make his Second Coming.

European far-right groups celebrate Israel’s hostility to Muslim because it fits with the Islamophobia that they use as a key argument in their hatred of immigrants.

The Foreign Ministry declined to respond to Haaretz's inquiries about whether it still officially boycotts Austria's Freedom Party or to comment on its stance toward the AfD, which won 20 percent of the vote in Germany's recent election. Ahead of Austrian elections last fall, Haaretz reported that the Israeli embassy in Vienna's boycott of the Freedom Party "has not changed."

A spokesperson for Foreign Minister Sa'ar did not respond when asked whether Netanyahu adviser Bulshtein's open discussions with the Freedom Party violate Israel's long-standing policy of boycotting the party. Likud has also refused to comment on its stance regarding formal ties with the Freedom Party and the AfD, or whether Netanyahu approved his party's decision to join the Patriots.

The whole concept of a Nationalist International is bizarre. But it’s not new. Fascist parties and regimes in the 1920s and 1930s lent political support to similar groups in other countries. Very dramatically with Germany’s and Italy’s support for Francisco Franco’s rebellion against the Spanish Republic during the Spanish civil war.

This is Part 1 of a six-part 1983 BBC documentary on that conflict: (2) 

Notes:

(1) Israel's Lost Taboo: How Netanyahu's Party Is Officially Embracing Europe's Far-right Extremists. Haaretz 03/17/2025. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-03-17/ty-article-magazine/.premium/israels-lost-taboo-how-netanyahus-party-is-embracing-europes-far-right-extremists/00000195-9e70-d865-ad95-9f7df0170000?gift=36a5b5fd0faa4bdbae9f962ca19f3f81 (Accessed: 2025-18-03),

(2) https://youtu.be/Lu5f9hp0IP4?si=uUDewRp2YRdpcig1">THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR - Episode 1: Prelude To Tragedy. Military Man YouTube channel 07/24/2025.