How Netanyahu’s alliance with the far right could be Israel’s undoing

Israel recently lifted its diplomatic ban on three far-right European political parties: France’s National Rally, the Sweden Democrats, and Spain’s Vox. This marks a significant shift in Israel’s foreign policy, as it engages with parties previously shunned due to concerns over antisemitic and extremist ideologies.

This policy change aligns with Israel’s broader strategy of forging alliances with European far-right movements, many of which have rebranded themselves as pro-Israel while maintaining xenophobic and anti-Muslim stances.

These alliances are often based on shared opposition to Islam and immigration, reflecting a convergence of interests that raises ethical and strategic questions.

The tides of history are unforgiving, yet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sails them with reckless abandon. Across Europe and the US, he has forged a treacherous alliance with those who, not long ago, would have found common cause with history’s worst enemies of the Jewish people.

In his desperation for diplomatic support, Netanyahu has aligned with movements steeped in xenophobia, anti-Muslim hatred, and – beneath their polished pro-Israel rhetoric – the same insidious antisemitism that has haunted Jews in Europe for centuries. It is an embrace that echoes past betrayals; a chilling reminder that political convenience often trumps moral clarity.

This courtship spans the continent. In Spain, the far-right Vox party – repeatedly challenged in court for its Islamophobic rhetoric – was welcomed in Israel in December 2023, meeting with Likud ministers to discuss the supposed threat of “radical Islam” and the defence of “European values”. 

This is not the language of Jewish safety. It is the language of ethno-nationalists who see Jews as useful for now, but disposable in the long run.

Exclusionary vision

Vox leader Santiago Abascal returned to Israel last year to denounce Spain’s recognition of Palestinian statehood, standing beside Netanyahu in defiance of the Spanish left. A man whose ideology bears the fingerprints of supremacist thought now finds a home in Tel Aviv’s halls of power.

In the Netherlands, far-right leader Geert Wilders has led his Party for Freedom into government, promising to look at moving the Dutch embassy to Jerusalem and entrenching Holocaust education – not out of genuine concern for Jewish history, but as a means of reinforcing an exclusionary vision of Dutch identity.

Wilders, whose career is built on anti-Muslim fervour, nearly appointed a minister with alleged Mossad ties – a move blocked only after being flagged by Dutch intelligence. That Netanyahu’s government is deeply enmeshed with a man who thrives on ethnic scapegoating is yet another damning indictment of such alliances.

But no country represents Netanyahu’s cynical realpolitik more than Hungary, where he has embraced Prime Minister Viktor Orban, despite Orban’s government unleashing antisemitic tropes in a state-sponsored campaign against Jewish financier George Soros. While Hungarian Jewish communities raised the alarm over rising antisemitism, Netanyahu remained silent, ensuring Israel’s ambassador withdrew a rare statement of criticism.

The reason is clear: Orban, despite his dog whistles and nationalism, is a loyal defender of Israel in European institutions. Netanyahu has traded Jewish safety for political advantage before, and he is doing so again.

The rationale behind these alliances is deceptively simple. Firstly, Netanyahu has let far-right parties define Israel as the spearhead of “Judeo-Christian civilisation”, portraying it as the West’s frontline against Islam. Wilders has called Israel “the West’s first line of defence”. This is not support; it is appropriation. These forces do not love Israel for what it is. They love it for what it justifies in their own countries.

Secondly, this relationship offers the far right an escape from its antisemitic past. Parties tainted by Nazi nostalgia, Holocaust revisionism and anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, can cleanse themselves through an alliance with Israel. Orban, Wilders and Abascal no longer have to answer for their ideological roots; Netanyahu has given them the ultimate shield.

Thirdly, in exchange for this absolution, these movements offer unwavering political backing for Israel in institutions like the EU, shifting European policies towards uncritical support for Israeli actions, no matter how controversial. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar recently boasted about Europe’s rightward shift benefitting Israel.

Apocalyptic fantasies

The same story unfolds in the US, where Netanyahu prioritises his alliance with evangelical Christian Zionists over his longstanding ties with American Jewish leaders. Evangelicals see Israel not as a Jewish homeland, but as a prophetic tool for their apocalyptic fantasies.

Figures like John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel, embrace Israel while simultaneously preaching antisemitic beliefs – such as the claim that Hitler was sent by God to drive Jews to Israel. But Netanyahu does not care. He has made this alliance his priority, preferring to spend time with billionaire Elon Musk and evangelical leaders over meeting American Jewish families of hostages during a recent US trip.

And then there is US President Donald Trump, Israel’s self-proclaimed greatest ally. In 2019, he declared that Jews who voted Democrat were either ignorant or disloyal. He repeated this claim in 2022 amid the fallout from his dinner with white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. He reiterated it again more recently before last year’s presidential election, lamenting that having only 40 percent of Jews voting for him was “not acceptable”, and that the remaining 60 percent were voting “for somebody that hates Israel”.

In fact, according to an Associated Press/Fox analysis of online polling, Jews voted for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris over Trump 66 percent to 32 percent. The implications of this Trump loyalty test are clear: the two-thirds of American Jews who do not align with Trump’s politics are deemed traitors to their own people. It is the same rhetoric that has fuelled antisemitic paranoia for generations.

Trump’s ideological architect, Steve Bannon, has gone even further. Once the mastermind of Trump’s nationalist agenda, Bannon now openly flirts with fascist imagery. At the 2025 CPAC conference, he stood before a cheering crowd and, in a moment caught on video, raised his hand in a salute eerily reminiscent of Nazi rallies. The gesture was unmistakable, the symbolism chilling.

Bannon’s latest remarks reveal the dangerous trajectory of this movement, as he asserted in an interview at CPAC that the “biggest enemy” of Israel was not Islamists, not Iran, but progressive American Jews.

It was a chilling declaration, an attempt to divide Jewish communities into “good” and “bad” Jews – those who support the far-right’s vision of Israel and those who stand against it.

Eroding support

This is not the first time Zionist leaders have believed they could strike deals with antisemitic forces. Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism, once wrote: “The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the antisemitic countries our allies.”

Former Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion was even more explicit, stating: “Even if my Jewish feelings urge me to go to France, I shall not do so … Zionism is the most profound thing in Judaism, and I think we should act according to Zionist considerations and not merely Jewish considerations.”

This logic reached its most grotesque form in the 1933 Haavara Agreement, when the Zionist movement, including the Jewish Agency, brokered a deal with Nazi Germany to facilitate Jewish emigration to Palestine with special financial arrangements. The Nazis benefitted, evading international boycotts. The agreement transferred 53,000 Jews to Palestine over six years until the outbreak of the Second World War.

Meanwhile, the Revisionist Zionists, the ideological ancestors of Netanyahu’s Likud, forged ties with Mussolini’s fascist regime in the 1930s, training their youth in Italy until racial laws made the alliance untenable.

Now, Netanyahu’s reckless alliance with the far right is contributing to an unprecedented erosion of Israel’s support in the West. In the US, Gallup’s latest annual World Affairs survey revealed that only 33 percent of Democrats view Israel favourably – half the 67 percent recorded in 2020. For the first time, a majority of Democrats (60 percent) hold an unfavourable opinion of Israel.

Netanyahu’s embrace of the far right is not a departure from history; it is its logical continuation. But the consequences are already unfolding. Senator Chuck Schumer, one of Israel’s staunchest defenders in Washington, last year issued a stark warning, saying Netanyahu had “lost his way” and Israel “cannot survive if it becomes a pariah”.

But Netanyahu does not listen. He believes he is playing a masterful game, securing short-term support from those in power today. He does not see the abyss opening beneath his feet.

The far right does not change. Their hatreds do not disappear, just temporarily redirect. And when their racist nationalist vision returns to its roots, overtly targeting Jews once again, and Netanyahu’s Israel is no longer useful, who will be left to stop them?