The Rise of the Extreme-Right in the Old Continent: How It Will Inspire the Israeli Youth?

The number of pro-Israeli statements is increasing every day in the new Western ruling parties, especially with the emergence of the extreme right in many western countries of the old continent.

The most recent of these are the statements of the right-wing leader in Italy, Giorgia Meloni, after she won the elections on September 25, 2022.

"As you know, I am a huge Zionist, I am a huge supporter of Israel, and I know that we can take the UK-Israel relationship from strength to strength."

"Israel represents the only fully-fledged democracy in the broader Middle East, and we defend without any reservations its right to exist and live in security. I believe that the existence of the State of Israel is vital, and Fratelli d'Italia will make every effort to invest in greater cooperation between our countries."

Two statements, the first of which was made by the former British Prime Minister Liz Truss, to a Jewish crowd on October 3, 2022, while the second was issued by the new Italian Prime Minister Meloni on September 16, 2022.

 

The Right Wave

Before Meloni, there was a remarkable emergence of the right in France, Hungary, Sweden, the Netherlands, and others, which Israeli observers, writers, and politicians considered a historic opportunity for the Israeli occupation to make some gains with those governments and future parties.

The rise of the European right wing was also demonstrated by the Swedish Democrats, who received 21 percent of the Scandinavian country's vote on September 11, 2022, as an unprecedented bloc of the right and the far right won a slim majority.

The leader of the French right, Marine Le Pen, also participated in the French elections in April 2022 and obtained 40 percent of the vote for the first time in the country's history.

But before that, there was a strong presence of the Freedom party led by the far-right politician in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, along with the policies of the most dangerous man in Europe, the far-right president of Hungary, Viktor Orbán.

All of them expressed, in different positions, their support for "Israel" at the expense of the Muslims' concerns and the Palestinian cause and tried to win the voters by delighting the Israeli public in Europe.

This remarkable rise of the European right was expressed by Politico magazine in its report on October 3, 2022.

It reported that the extreme right-wing groups in Europe have emerged from the cycle of anger to become part of the main political trend in their country.

Monitoring of the American magazine confirmed that the right-wing Alternative German party grew rapidly in 2015 and 2016, and its popularity reached 14 percent.

The magazine pointed out that the right-wing Northern League party in Italy, at the beginning of 2015, gained 37 percent in 2019, highlighting its transition from weakness to power.

Politico provided a monitoring of the entry of far-right parties through partnerships with the governments of Austria, Finland, Estonia, and Italy, expecting other countries to follow the wave.

It also alluded to the presence of the Romanian right and the progress of the far-right party Vox in Spain, whose leader, Santiago Abascal, is considered an ally of Meloni.

In an article published by a Hebrew website on September 28, 2022, Ariel Kahane talked about the rise of the European right, saying: "When it comes to Jews and Israel, the Dutch right-winger Wilders loves Israel by all means."

He continued: "Le Pen got rid of the anti-Semitic elements in the National Front, and it was a step taken by the Swedish Democrats, as well as Orban, who helps the Jewish community in Hungary."

 

Immoral Alliance

With all the controversial right-wing figures, the newest version of the European right is Meloni, a journalist, politician, and leader of the Brotherhood of Italy who believes in the ideas of the late leader Benito Mussolini.

She is the first woman to hold the position of prime minister in Italy, one of the most important European democracies, and leads the third economy in the European Union; she pledged, in return for its support to "Israel," to combat immigration and the Islamic presence in her country.

In an interview with Israel Hayom on September 16, 2022, Meloni announced that she would do everything in her power to support "Israel" and expressed her hopes to visit it again, but as prime minister.

She referred to her friendships with members of the Likud party and her visit to Tel Aviv when she was a minister in Silvio Berlusconi's government, explaining that her plans consisted of economic cooperation and support for joint strategies and in the file of supplying gas from "Israel."

Concerning the importance of "Israel," she said that it represents to her the only full democracy in the Greater Middle East.

She also said she would defend its right to exist in peace without any reservations.

Speaking to the Hebrew website, she announced her rejection of calls to boycott or destroy "Israel" militarily, saying these calls are "evil."

But Meloni, despite declaring her full support for "Israel" and the Jewish culture, stressed that her government's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of "Israel" and the transfer of the Italian embassy there is a "very sensitive issue."

For the great victory of the Italian right, the Israeli interest in Meloni seemed great, and through an article on the Israel Hayom website on September 29, 2022, the writer Jonathan S. Tobin asked: "The Italian Meloni: friend or enemy of the Jews?"

He referred to the right-wing shift in Europe, Meloni's association with former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the presence of commonalities between the parties, Likud, Hungarian Fidesz, and the Brothers of Italy.

On the other hand, Channel 12's international affairs correspondent, Arad Nir, wrote on the channel's website on September 28, 2022, that "the Meloni victory once again revealed the immoral alliance made by the Israeli right with the fascist camp in Europe."

He believes that the welcome of the Israelis to the victory of the European right aims to establish strong political relations with it, returning "Tel Aviv" to the European continent, especially as these European right-wing parties are trying to get rid of their fascist past.

The right-wing rise in Sweden also sparked controversy, as the Palestinian expert on Israeli affairs, Adnan Abu Amer, monitored via the Middle East Monitor website on September 27, 2022, the impact of this arrival on Stockholm's relationship with "Tel Aviv."

He said that Sweden, in general, is not a friend of "Israel," pointing to the record of the era of former Prime Minister Stefan Lofven that presented pro-Palestinian stances.

He pointed out that "the right-wing parties are now showing a more positive attitude towards Israel, as an extension of the West in a hostile Islamic region," hinting at cautious Israeli optimism about the victory of the right in Sweden.

 

Ignoring Constants

According to Arab observers, this rise may prompt the formation of an alliance between the Israeli and European right at the expense of the Arab issues with Western governments and undermines the Palestinian cause.

The interesting thing is that in addition to the rise of the European right and its declaration of association and compatibility with the Israeli right, there is a tendency to break fixed rules in some Western European countries regarding the Jerusalem file, which has long been a constant of British policy, for example.

In her first foreign policy step, British Prime Minister Truss announced before the United Nations General Assembly on September 22, 2022, her intention to move her country's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, two weeks after winning the election.

This prompted some to expect that she would become the most supportive of "Israel," especially as she promised to put an end to the BDS movement.

Indeed, Truss exceeded all expectations by telling the British Jewish House of Representatives on October 3, 2022, that she was a big Zionist and a big supporter of "Israel."

She went on to announce her plans in support of "Israel" by emphasizing that Britain will never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon and that London should stand shoulder to shoulder with "Israel" so that her country and the Israeli occupation can be closer in the future.

The British-Israeli historian Avi Shalem responded by saying that Truss' plan to move the embassy to Jerusalem was a disaster.

 

Brussels and Prague

Not only the European Right and London, but the European Union, as well as Eastern Europe, are close to modifying previous positions on "Israel" that they took in support of the Palestinians.

After a 10-year hiatus, the European Union held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on October 3, 2022, through the Association Council, which has been frozen for nearly a decade between Brussels and "Tel Aviv," due to settlement policies in West Bank.

Josep Borrell, the European Union's foreign policy chief, said at the meeting that today is a good occasion to demonstrate the willingness to establish a positive and fruitful relationship with "Israel" and to press for peace.

Finally, the Czechs are trying to change the relationship of the European Union with "Israel," which was monitored by an article by writer Robert Anderson on October 3, 2022.

Anderson said that the Czechs have always resented what they see as the EU's excessively critical attitude toward "Israel," and now, as the current EU president, Prague may have a chance to change this.

The writer mentioned that the Czech Republic is the most ardent supporter of "Israel" in the European Union and that it tried, along with strong supporters of "Israel," such as Romania, to protect "Tel Aviv" by voting for it in the European Union and the United Nations.

The Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania vetoed European Union criticism of former US President Donald Trump's transfer of his country's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018.

Anderson believes that the European Union is more willing to build broader ties with "Israel" because the Arab countries began doing so under the Abraham agreements brokered by America in 2020 and when "Israel" established diplomatic relations with the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco.

 

This Is the Most Dangerous

Commenting on the rise of the European far-right, Egyptian researcher and academic Mohamed al-Zawawi said that this rise "was expected and obvious with the development of events, and the close relationships of countries in times of crisis, especially in light of the war in Eastern Europe, which caused waves of economic decline and an energy crisis."

Al-Zawawi added to Al-Estiklal: "Then people in those countries begin to blame immigrants and foreigners and the weaker parties in the political scene by criticizing and holding them responsible for the consequences of the economic decline and the bill for political failure."

The lecturer at the Middle East Institute at the Turkish University of Sakarya believes that these "courses are very prominent in times of wars and crises, as was the rise of Nazism, fascism and other extreme right-wing trends."

He stressed that "this right-wing rise is usually accompanied by internal closure, isolationism, and a reduction in external expenditures to confront internal pressures, but with extremist slogans to win the votes of angry voters."

Al-Zawawi concluded by saying: "Then the statements regarding the transfer of embassies to Jerusalem, for example, can be understood in that context, as US President Donald Trump promises to open the door to the right-wing extremism by supporting the Zionist entity."

He added: "However, the most dangerous thing from my point of view is the identification of Arab and Islamic countries with that trend and the inability to resist it, and even some people fall into the arms of Israel and the extreme right, especially repressive regimes linked to interests and deals with the regimes of those countries."

In his comment, the Palestinian researcher in Israeli affairs, Salah El-Din al-Awawda, said: "It is strange that the racist European right was and still is hostile to the Jews in the framework of what is called anti-Semitism."

He added to Al-Estiklal: "But in view of the Zionist entity, we find it closer and more supportive due to its hatred of Islam, Arabs, and other Islamic peoples."

He explained that "this hatred extends from the depths of history, through the Crusades, to modern colonialism."

The researcher at the Vision Center for Political Development in Istanbul believes that "the European and Western right feel the strength of Christian Zionism in their midst and play on Israel's support to appease its audience, taking advantage of the state of panic over the spread of Islam in the West [Islamophobia]."

He said that "the entity itself is aware of this and fuels this panic and even positions itself as a shield and a trench advancing for the Christian right in the face of the Islamic threat."

It is believed that "Netanyahu played this role perfectly, as he put himself in the trench of the West in what is known as the clash of civilizations."

The Palestinian researcher believes that "the European right, with its rise, constitutes an umbrella for the Zionist-Jewish right in its aggression against the Palestinians and Islamic sanctities. The Jewish right, especially the extremist settler religious Zionism, achieves religious and ideological goals for Christian Zionism."

He pointed out that "this umbrella is unlike what happens when the leftists win in Europe or the Democrats in America, where talk is active about the two-state solution and a peaceful settlement, which led to a semi-rupture between Netanyahu and US Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden."

Al-Awawdeh believes that they can cooperate in the "legal, diplomatic, security, military and economic fields, and against Muslims in particular, and Israel will find itself as the big brother to which the leaders of the European right turn."

He believes that "this means that it will get what it wants, especially in the human rights and political fields to protect its people from prosecution by European courts and international institutions, in addition to military support without restrictions related to the occupation, and economic support by canceling the boycott of settlement products."

Al-Awawda concluded by saying: "Therefore, Israel is going to one of the most prosperous eras in its history in all fields, in proportion to the extent of the control of the European and Western right."