Published: 21 June 2018
Last updated: 4 March 2024
The Israeli PM has been similarly friendly towards the Austrian Chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, even though Mr Kurz’s coalition includes the Freedom Party, an outfit with recent roots in neo-Nazism. The Jewish community in Vienna is distressed, but Mr Netanyahu is unmoved.
What’s this about? Why would Netanyahu be so comfortable with those who so clearly dislike Jews? Until recently, my answer would have been a variation on “My enemy’s enemy is my friend.”
But with Bibi, it goes deeper. It relates to a calculation he seems to have made about the future viability of the Jewish diaspora. According to those who know him well, Netanyahu has concluded that non-orthodox Jewish life outside Israel is doomed. Liberal, secular or cultural Jews in the US or Europe are, thinks the Israeli PM, a dying breed. Within two or three generations they will be gone altogether.
That means future support for Israel from abroad will come from two groups, either evangelical Christians or Orthodox Jews.
FULL STORY Benjamin Netanyahu thinks non-Orthodox Jewish life outside Israel is doomed (Jewish Chronicle)
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