29
SEP
2026
Efforts to initiate close cooperation between extreme right-wing forces in Europe and Israel were first made more than two decades ago – in Belgium. In 2002, Filip Dewinter, chief ideologue of the far-right Vlaams Blok (VB, today: Vlaams Belang), offered the Jewish community in Antwerp, which was exposed to a wave of severe anti-Semitic violence, a joint action against violent Islamists. The aim was to present the VB as no longer anti-Semitic in order to gain acceptance of it as a possible coalition partner of conservative parties. The plan did not work. In 2005, Dewinter went on to turn to the State of Israel instead of the Jewish community: He was "interested in visiting Israel," he now announced. 1] In addition to the aim of shaking off the - accurate - accusation of anti-Semitism against the VB, the project also had a strategic component: "The State of Israel" is "a kind of outpost of our Western society", he said in 2005 - and namely an outpost against the "greatest threat to the West", "the radical fundamentalist Islam". 2] Over the years, other extreme right-wing organizations in Europe have also sought relations with Israel, but have largely failed to do so far from individual contacts with Israeli right-wing extremists and a few Likud politicians.[ 3]
However, the relations of the extreme right in Europe to Israel have flourished since an ultra-right government coalition including the Likud and the extreme right-wing parties Otzma Jehudit (Jewish Strength) around Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Mafdal HaTzionut HaDatit (Religious Zionism) around Finance and Settlement Minister Bezalel Smotrich came into office at the end of 2022. Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli (Likud) appeared in April 2024 at the far-right conference CPAC Hungary [4], in May 2024 at the Europa Viva conference of the far-right Spanish party Vox. In June 2024, he then promoted the also extreme right-wing Rassemblement National (RN) before the parliamentary election in France. In February 2025, the Likud received observer status in the Patriots for Europe (PfE) party alliance around the RN, Vox, the Vlaams Belang and the FPÖ. 5] In May 2025, Jair Netanyahu, one of the two sons of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, appeared at CPAC Hungary - just like politicians from Vox, the FPÖ and the AfD, which was represented by its federal chairman Alice Weidel. Finally, at the end of 2025, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar inster instred the diplomats of his country in France, Spain and Sweden to make direct contact with the major parties of the extreme right: the RN, to Vox and to the Sweden Democrats.[ 6]
At that time, the Israeli right-wing government had already begun to officially invite extreme right-wing parties from Europe to Israel – to events that have been held every year since then under the International Conference on Combating Antisemitism. The initiator has so far been the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs under Chikli. At the first of these conferences in March 2025, Jordan Bardella (RN) and Vox functionary Hermann Tertsch, among others, appeared as speakers alongside Prime Minister Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Sa'ar, among others. The chairman of the Swedish Democrats, Jimmie Åkesson, and of Vox, Santiago Abascal, were invited to the second conference. Before the conference began, Netanyahu had personally received a delegation of the Patriots for Europe (PfE) – in addition to politicians from France (RN), Spain (Vox) and Hungary (Fidesz) also the FPÖ MEP Harald Vilimsky. Vilimsky announced on the same day that for the first time in the history of the FPÖ one of their politicians had been received by the Israeli government. 7] The FPÖ stands - like other PfE parties - in historical tradition of Nazi collaboration. The conference, which was received in Jerusalem, was held on 26. /27. January 2026 and thus also on the day of commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust.
Most recently, a speech made waves by the FPÖ chairman Herbert Kickl on 16. September at a conference of the PfE Group in the European Parliament on the subject of "Islamism and anti-Semitism". Some representatives of the Likud took part in the PfE conference. Kickl claimed there: "We are the new patrons of Jewish interests."[ 8] "The unprecedented crime against humanity of the Holocaust" should "never be forgotten"; "the fight against anti-Semitism" and "the fight against anti-Zionism" should be "part of the program of a federal government that I would like to lead". Kickl also expressed himself positively about the de facto annexation of the West Bank. His speech was approved by members of the Israeli government. While Foreign Minister Sa'ar welcomed the speech [9], the FPÖ MEP Vilimsky quoted Israeli diaspora minister Chikli with the statement that she was a "historic turning point in the relationship between the FPÖ, the state of Israel and the Jewish population" [10]. Immediately after the Bundestag election last year, Chikli had already declared that the party in Germany that most clearly took a position against support for "anti-Israeli groups" was the AfD. If she could detach herself from individual "voices" that, for example, trivialise the Waffen-SS, cooperation with her is also possible.[ 11]
The Israeli right-wing foreign government is systematically expanding its cooperation with the extreme right in Europe, while it seeks to strengthen the power position of its country in the Middle East with war and expulsion up to genocide. The Federal Government supports it with an expansion of military [12] and arms cooperation [13]: In the current upheavals in the Near and Middle East, whose countries are increasingly seeking to escape the once dominant Western influence, Israel is considered the safest ally; as the "outpost of the West" in the Arab-Islamic world, which must be supported at all costs. The extreme right in Europe, which has been living its racism for a long time under the guise of the fight against Islam, is classified by the Israeli right-wing government as a cooperation partner.
At the same time, Israel's right-wing government and the governments of Europe are increasing the pressure on forces that are positioning themselves against Israel's policy of violence and thus questioning Europe's almost unconditional pact with Israel at the moment. These are mostly left-wing or left-liberal forces that express clear criticism, for example, of the Gaza War and the de facto annexation of the West Bank. Recently, for example, Israel's ambassador to the Federal Republic, Ron Prosor, claimed that the election victory of the Left Party Die Linke in Berlin brought an "immediate existential danger" for the Jewish community in the capital; he must greatly worry every person who "is important to the continuation of Jewish life in this city". In the party Die Linke, "completely uninhibited anti-Semitism ... broke the way". 14] Similarly uninhibited claims can also be heard from German politicians and commentators. A scientific study was published in February on the spread of anti-Semitic resentment in the political milieus in Berlin. It comes to the result that in milieus that are characterized as "center-left" or "left-outside", different variants of anti-Semitism were measured - 2.8 to 8.4 percent of the respondents had anti-Semitic attitudes. In milieus that are described as "center-right" or "right-outside", it is 19.7 to 48.8 percent.[ 15] However, right-wing milieus prove to be helpful in pursuing important geostrategic goals of the Israeli right-wing foreign government and the political elites in the West. They are therefore courted, while left-wing specters are exposed to a completely uninhibited state campaign, completely regardless of their blatant anti-Semitism.
[1], [2] Adi Schwartz: Between Haider and a Hard Place. haaretz.com 08/28/2005.
[3] Jörg Kronauer: The Fire Players. Cologne 2026. S. 157-168.
[4] S. to this "The Age of the Patriots".
[5] S. to this Guest in Israel.
[6] Andrea Nüsse: The firewall falls in Israel - Europe's right-wing extremists are the new allies. tagesspiegel.de 22.03.2025.
[7] Jörg Kronauer: The Fireders. Cologne 2026. S. 157-168.
[8] Oliver Grimm: FPÖ: "We are the new patrons of Jewish interests". diepresse.com 09/18/2026.
[9] Israel's Foreign Minister praises Kickl speech in Strasbourg. orf.at 18.09.2026.
[10] Positive reactions from Israel to Kickl's Islamism speech in Strasbourg. fpoe.at 18.09.2026.
[11] Reaching out to Europe's rising Right: Israel's Diaspora Minister Chikli explains approach to German AfD party. allisrael.com 25.02.2025. S. to this Guest in Israel.
[12] S. to this military cooperation with Israel.
[13] S. to this arms cooperation with Israel.
[14] Israel's ambassador sees Jewish life in Berlin at risk. zeit.de 22.09.2026.
[15] Gert Pickel, Oliver Decker, Katrin Reimer-Gordinskaya: The Berlin Monitor 2025. Berlin – Between democratic attitude and widespread resentment. Berlin 2026.