This builds on my article today, "Europe's Jews vs. Israel," starting with some addenda.
(1) In commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Benjamin Netanyahu agreed with one part of this essay:
Antisemitism from the right is not a new phenomenon there. What is new in Europe is the combination of Islamic antisemitism and the antisemitism of the extreme left which includes anti-Zionism, such as has recently occurred in Great Britain and in Ireland.
(2) In contrast, Deborah Lipstadt, an American historian, provided a perfect specimen today of diaspora criticism of Israel's government, writing that its
political leadership has donned blinders of its own as the [antisemitic] threat gathers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised Hungary's illiberal Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as a "true friend of Israel" committed to "the need to combat antisemitism." ... Mr. Netanyahu has been similarly misguided and ahistorical in his outreach to Poland's own xenophobic, right-wing government.
Jan. 31, 2019 update: Despite the delicacy and controversy of this article's topic, I have encountered general agreement with pointed argument on one point only, namely the sentence that, "With the partial exception of France, Europe's Jews tend to adopt quasi-anti-Zionist views to appease Israel's critics." I realize in retrospect that I should have written "Europe's Jewish leadership," but even that is countered by Joël Rubinfeld, president of the Ligue Belge Contre l'Antisémitisme, who writes me:
Regarding your article "Europe's Jews vs. Israel," I disagree with the statement that "With the partial exception of France, Europe's Jews tend to adopt quasi-anti-Zionist views to appease Israel's critics."
In various capacities since 2007 – president of the Belgian Jewish community, vice-president of the European Jewish Congress and co-chairman of the European Jewish Parliament – I have had the opportunity to meet Jewish leaders from most European countries. Yes, they differ in opinions when it comes to Israel, but they are all united in an unshakable commitment to the idea of Zionism and, more or less vocally, in their support for Israel's right to defend itself. There do exist, in several countries, small "quasi-anti-Zionist" Jewish groups, but they are in the single-digits of percent and this outlook remains largely marginal.
That said, we sometimes do have to deal with political pressure. I experienced this personally at the height of the 2008-09 Gaza War and the ensuing surge of antisemitism in major European cities. I met as part of a group with Hans-Gert Pöttering, the then-president of the European Parliament. In response to my urging him to make a public statement against rising antisemitism, Pöttering advised us to decrease antisemitism in Europe by criticizing Israel and its defensive war against Hamas terrorists! Few European Jewish leaders, however, give in to this kind of pressure.
Feb. 10, 2019 update: Gol Kalev reviews the tension described above, then offers an unlikely parallel from Austria in 1897, when the Viennese
elected an anti-Semitic mayor. To the relief of Vienna's Jews, the emperor refused to approve Karl Lueger, but [Theodor] Herzl lobbied the prime minister to accept the people's choice, arguing that boycotting the populist leader would only increase hatred of Jews. "If you deny him, you will be responsible for the whole of Jew hatred," he told the prime minister.
Lueger served as mayor of Vienna until 1910. Kalev concludes from this that
today's Israeli politicians would do well to heed a lesson from the country's ideological forefather—that snubbing right-wing Austrian leaders is not necessarily the wisest move if their goal is fighting anti-Semitism and keeping Jews safe.
Comments: While I agree with the gist of Kalev's argument that Israel should engage with the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), I have three reservations:
- What indication is there that allowing the foul Lueger into office for 13 years turned out to be better than denying him the mayoral position?
- Lueger, a vicious antisemite, cannot be compared with the leadership of the FPÖ. This is a distortion.
- What has that remote circumstance of a large and cowed local Jewish population to do with today's, when an Israel that is similar in population and economy to Austria, and vastly greater in terms of demographic rates and military strength, is the issue?
Mar. 2, 2019 update: Cnaan Liphshiz has a courageous article in the Times of Israel, "Polish, Hungarian Jews say communal leaders use anti-Semitism to avoid scrutiny: Hiding behind claims of racism is an easy way to divert attention from muddy financial affairs, say local Jewish critics."
Mar. 3, 2019 update: I referred above to the "verbally-warm-but-substantially-cool pattern of Europe's legacy parties" and singled out Angela Merkel as a leader in this regard. Today, Manfred Gerstenfeld looks in depth at this topic at "Germany Promotes Antisemitism and Anti-Israelism."
Mar. 15, 2019 update: I visited the Berlin Jewish Museum's "Welcome to Jerusalem" exhibit today.
The good news: That logo I pictured above is gone, replaced by one showing a menorah.
 A sign in the elevator of the Berlin Jewish Museum. |
The bad news: Neturei Karta's bizarre anti-Zionism dominates one room.
 Neturei Karta's bizarre anti-Zionism dominates one room of the Berlin Jewish Museum. |
June 14, 2019 update: Good news: Peter Schaefer, the director of Berlin's Jewish Museum, has resigned.
Sep. 27, 2019 update: This article has now appeared as a chapter, "Diaspora und Israel: Über die politischen Auswirkungen einer Dichotomie," in Was Juden zur AfD treibt (Verlag Antaios). The title translates as "What drives German Jews to the AfD." Artur Abramovych translated it.
Feb. 18, 2020 update: Martin Lichtmesz, who identifies himself as a freelance publicist and translator, has written a critique of this analysis, "Die Versprechen des Daniel Pipes" (The Promises of Daniel Pipes). Curiously, his critique requires more than twice the number of words as does my original article. He is particularly annoyed by the post-Holocaust moral authority of Jews.
Aug. 8, 2020 update: Yonatan Shay, a Jewish Agency representative in Germany, excoriates the Central Council for tarring him with an AfD brush and fighting him every step of the way, also for its focus on fighting civilizationists rather than the Jews' real enemies.
Aug. 25, 2021 update: Orit Arfa writes in JNS:
most German-Jewish leaders cannot criticize the government since their institutions, including security, depend on state funding. This is particularly true for the umbrella Jewish organization, the Central Council of Jews in Germany. ... The co-dependent relationship between Jewish communities and the government leaves Jews in a Catch-22: When politicians seem to endanger Jewish life, they can't speak out for fear of disrupting Jewish life. "Official Jewish institutions are nothing but the mouthpiece of the government," said [German-Jewish writer Chaim] Noll.
Sep. 12, 2021 update: I apply this argument today to one country at "Germany's Jewish Leadership vs. Israel." The topic is a disgraceful document initiated by Germany's Central Council of Jews (Zentralrat der Juden), a dependency of the German state, that 68 other Jewish organizations endorsed. Titled "Jews against the AfD," it calls on Germans to vote for any party other than the AfD.
Dec. 3, 2021 update: During a trip to Warsaw at the invitation of the Polish government, Marine Le Pen, leader of the France's civilizationist party, the National Rally, visited the monument to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto in Warsaw. One might expect Jewish spokesmen to welcome this gesture, especially coming from the daughter who stood up against the antisemitism of her father. But, alas, no. Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, no doubt speaking for his European counterparts, called her presence at the monument "political chutzpah" and "an affront to the memory of the victims who perished in the Warsaw Ghetto."
Feb. 10, 2022 update: The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the U.K.'s top mainstream Jewish umbrella organization, tweeted in Hebrew that it "rejects the abominable views and the hate-provoking ideology of [the Religious Zionism party leader] Bezalel Smotrich. We call on all members of the British Jewish community to show him the door. Get back on the plane, Bezalel, and be remembered as a disgrace forever." This came in response to Smotrich visiting British and French Jewish communities to rally opposition to Israeli governmental plan to reform state-controlled Jewish religious practices.
Feb. 17, 2022 update: Marco Koska argues in "Fracture ouverte chez les juifs de France" that the response to Eric Zemmour reveals the split between the Establishment and everyone else in the French Jewish community.
Apr. 19, 2022 update: As the second round of presidential elections takes place in France, the country's two leading Jewish institutions go all-out for the establishment candidate:
As during her previous two presidential runs in France, the country's main Jewish groups have gone partisan and called on Jews to vote against the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. But this time the call has triggered a community-wide debate about the role of French Jewish institutions that has highlighted the growing polarization of French Jewry.
The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, or CRIF, a group that lobbies the French government on Jewish issues, and the Consistoire, which provides religious services and employs the country's chief rabbi, have become increasingly partisan over the past decade, amid a rise in the popularity of the far-right, which they and many other French Jews consider dangerous.
June 8, 2022 update: Josef Schuster, president of the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland (Central Council of Jews in Germany), bizarrely announced that "Jewish life in Germany continues to be massively threatened. The greatest danger comes from the right-wing extremist scene."
Mar. 24, 2024 update: Rina Bassist updates the civilizationist-Israel tie at "How Israel's far-right is courting European populist, nationalist parties."
Apr. 10, 2024 update: In a variation on this theme, European Jewish Congress President Ariel Muzicant has stated that "Each time that [Israeli politician Itamar] Ben Gvir makes these statements [about Jewish settlement in Gaza], you see a spike in antisemitism."
June 17, 2024 update: In the aftermath of civilizationist gains in the European Union parliamentary elections on June 9. European Jewish Association chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin noted that it's "absolutely" possible that a civilizationist party's rise is good for Israel but bad for the Jews of that country, adding that "We could work with some of them, but it has to be in a very specific, very practical, very detailed way." Interestingly, Margolin offered Hungary's Prime Minister Victor Orbán as a model European leader from the Jewish perspective.
June 27, 2024 update: Shirit Avitan Cohen writes, in an article titled "Who is Israel's foreign minister? It depends on the country,"
In a departure from Israel's traditional foreign policy, Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli has been quietly cultivating relationships with far-right parties across Europe, many of which have shown unprecedented support for Israel following the October 7 attacks. ...
In recent months, he has visited France and Hungary and addressed an official conference of the national right-wing Vox party in Madrid. Last month, he traveled to the United States, meeting with several senators to bolster support for Israel. His future plans include visits to Portugal, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico. ...
Chikli has emerged as a new de facto foreign minister, consistently cultivating official government relationships with those who have become prominent supporters of Israel in its war against terrorism. ...
Chikli finds a receptive audience among parties like Vox in Spain, Marine Le Pen's National Front in France, Viktor Orbán's government in Hungary, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, the Conservatives in Britain, and many others.
Feb. 25, 2025 update: Israel's new Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar has recently decided to establish low-profile contacts and discreet talks with the National Rally in France, Spain's Vox Party and the Swedish Democrats Party, three parties it had previously boycotted.
Mar. 1, 2025 update: Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar explained his reasoning in lifting boycotts on civilizationist parties in Spain, France, and Sweden:
Europe is experiencing a desire to preserve national identity, cultural heritage, and address immigration-related threats including terrorism and radicalism. Within the rising right, there are various factions. The classic, established conservative right faces the challenge of retaining voters against more radical right-wing alternatives. We're analyzing these developments proactively rather than reactively. ...
We conducted thorough assessments of all nationalist, populist and radical right-wing parties, examining whether meaningful dialogue was possible. We evaluated their histories against two key criteria: their current stance toward Israel, and evidence of antisemitism, Holocaust denial, or pro-Nazi positions among leadership and membership. After careful review, we identified three European parties for potential relationship development: the National Rally in France (Marine Le Pen's party), the Sweden Democrats, and Spain's Vox party.
Sa'ar then explained not engaging with the Alternative für Deutschland and Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs.
Certain aspects still concern us. We have responsibilities to past, present and future. We're monitoring these movements closely. Some right-wing European parties are actively working to eliminate antisemitism, while others remain uncommitted to values we consider essential. Simultaneously, we're addressing other concerns about policies that restrict Jewish life, such as bans on kosher slaughter and circumcision—we're working to ensure continued Jewish community viability across Europe.
Mar. 2, 2025 update: Europe's Jewish leadership denounces Israel's making contact with some but not all civilizationists. Ariel Muzicant, president of the European Jewish Congress, explains:
We don't have a problem with right-wing populist parties. We have a problem with parties that cross a certain red line, on the Left and Right, when it comes to antisemitism and to national-socialist ideas. The AfD in Germany and the FPÖ in Austria are classic examples of that. ... We cannot talk to the AfD and FPÖ at all. This is categoric, and it is not going to change. I have an ongoing fight with some members of certain Israeli parties who think that they have to meet and talk to AfD and FPÖ politicians.
Comment: This is progress.
