Published: 13 June 2024
Last updated: 13 June 2024
We find ourselves in a troubling world indeed when a far-right surge sweeps Europe and some people think it is good for Israel and therefore “good for the Jews”.
The results of the European parliamentary elections should be disturbing for anyone with the smallest knowledge of history or the slightest concern about human rights.
Far-right parties are set to win about 150 of the European parliament’s 720 seats, giving them unprecedented impact on the make-up of coalitions in the new parliament.
The far-right parties that made significant gains include Alternative for Germany (AfD), Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, Poland’s Confederation, and the coalition party Identity and Democracy (ID).
Among their successful candidates are Grzegorz Braun, who last Chanukah disrupted an event in the Polish Parliament, extinguishing the Chanukah candles and describing the festival as “satanic worship”.
They also include German Maximilian Krah, who caused a furore last year when he told an interviewer that he did not consider all members of the SS to be criminals.
Europe has not collapsed. The centrist European People’s Party (EPP) was the biggest single winner on Sunday night and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is seeking a second term, expressed hope that the group could still act as an “anchor of stability”.
Comments2
Rachel Sussman15 June at 10:59 am
Accusing Israel of befriending the faschists because this is what it also is, is truly shameful. While it is true that the current Government had undesireable elements of the far right, the author clearly failed to recognize that the Israeli public has been demonstrating and continues to demonstrate with the intention to defeat the current Government – which it will!
The author also keeps talking about the ‘centre’ but unfortunately the ‘centre’ has no power… it is the far- left that is ruling and dominating and the far left is just as faschist as the far right….
Israel is used to criticism and it certainly had not lost touch with human rights as the author claims, nor has it sank into pure self interest but it is equally foolish to deny self- interest… Israel is fighting for its survival right now and this seems to somehow fail the author’s attention – if Israel does not look after its interest it will simply fall because as is clear, no one else will look after it… 50 years of occupation are an undesireable state of affair but please remember it ‘takes two to tango’ and the ‘tango partner’ carries much responsibility for this state of affair… maybe the current pull to what the author perceives as the far- right will finally awake the left and prompt it to return ti the centre instead of sinking in its own mud – the far left…
Wesley Parish14 June at 03:57 am
A more succinct way of saying this, is: “The current leaders of Israel are comfortable with fascism and right-wing extremism in Europe, because they themselves are fascist and extremist right wing.” This is nothing new. Uri Avnery was well aware of this, and this was one of the reasons he was so angry about the conflation thus confusion of anti-Zionism with antisemitism – because what happens when the far right extremist European supporters of Israel turn on the Jewish communities in their midst? For not leaving Europe and going off to Israel? You’ve shouted “Wolf” too often, now everybody is so bored with you that they’ll ignore the howls and screams …