How Netanyahu's war on Islam fuels antisemitism in Europe

In recent days, Israel’s minister of diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, invited far-right extremist Tommy Robinson to visit Israel. This was not diplomatic courtesy, but an ideological embrace.

Chikli hailed Robinson as “a true friend of Israel and the Jewish people” and praised him as “a courageous leader on the front line against radical Islam”. He vowed on X (formerly Twitter) that together, they would “build stronger bridges of solidarity, fight terror, and defend Western civilization”.

But this is not solidarity. It is strategy - and a dangerous one.

Israel is openly aligning itself with the European far right, weaponising Islamophobia as political currency.

Robinson built his career by inciting hatred against Britain’s Muslims, leading mobs through working-class towns and transforming bigotry into performance. Now, Israel’s government is rewarding him for it. 

The irony is almost biblical: a minister for “combating antisemitism” embracing the very forces that stoked it.

Britain’s Jewish community has reacted with alarm. The Board of Deputies, one of Israel’s staunchest supporters, called Robinson “a thug” who “represents the very worst of Britain”. In a remarkable statement, the board accused Chikli of ignoring the overwhelming majority of British Jews “who utterly and consistently reject Robinson and everything he stands for”. 

The Jewish Leadership Council added its condemnation, warning that such alliances undermine efforts to combat extremism and foster community cohesion.

Moral rupture

This is not a diplomatic misstep. It is a moral rupture - a moment when Israel’s leadership chose to stand with those whom Jewish communities have long warned the world about.

Israel’s embrace of Robinson is no isolated act; it is a continuation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s worldview - one that frames Islam as the civilisational enemy of the West. By aligning with far-right figures, Israel casts itself as the vanguard of “western civilisation”; the first line of defence against an imagined Muslim threat.

And the consequences are already visible. Just weeks ago, Robinson led an unprecedented racist march through central London. 

The beast Netanyahu now feeds is the same one that once hunted his people

A chilling investigation by YouTuber Niko Omilana captured participants calling for Muslims to be expelled or killed. One woman proudly described carrying knives to use on a Black person. A main speaker from the stage declared: “Islam is our real enemy. We have to get rid of Islam.”

These were not fringe mutterings; they were the main chorus of the demonstration. And now, the man who led it is being celebrated by a minister of the Israeli government.

Netanyahu has long nurtured this logic. He has blamed Europe’s criticisms of Israel on its “large Muslim populations”, claiming that “Europe was conquered by unchecked immigration”. 

“Don’t feed the crocodile,” he warned European leaders, “because it will come after you, after it devours Israel.”

In Netanyahu’s story, Islam is the crocodile. But history tells another truth: the crocodile that devoured Jews in Europe wore a swastika, not a keffiyeh. The beast Netanyahu now feeds is the same one that once hunted his people.

Heirs of fascism

This courtship between Israel and the far right is no passing flirtation. In 2018, the hardline pro-Israel Middle East Forum admitted to funding Robinson’s legal defence and organising his “Free Tommy” rallies in London. 

Its director, Gregg Roman, previously worked for Israel’s defence and foreign ministries. Its president, Daniel Pipes, has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Centre as an “anti-Muslim activist”.

And this year, Israel went further still. It lifted its diplomatic ban on three of Europe’s most extreme far-right parties - France’s National Rally, Spain’s Vox, and the Sweden Democrats - and invited them to a conference in Jerusalem. Jewish leaders across Europe boycotted the event in disgust. Netanyahu’s Israel, however, has chosen its friends: the heirs of fascism.

The normalising of Islamophobia in UK public life is fuelling hate and violence

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The cost is written in the rise of Islamophobia across Britain. Nearly 40 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes now target Muslims. The Home Office last year recorded a 25 percent annual rise in religious hate crimes, the highest count since records began more than a decade ago, while Tell Mama logged more than 900 incidents between June and September of this year, including attacks on mosques and Islamic centres. 

At the same time, online abuse has exploded, fuelled by conspiracy theories spread by the same far-right influencers Israel now embraces.

This is not coincidence; it is contagion. From Tel Aviv to London, the same script repeats: they hate us, they threaten us, we must defend civilisation.

And that script is being mirrored by politicians in Britain itself. In the wake of the recent Manchester synagogue attack, ministers have sought to restrict pro-Palestine demonstrations, framing them as threats to public order. 

Jewish human rights activists have warned that these moves will only deepen divisions, handing victory to those who seek to pit Jews and Muslims against one another. The same government that condemns hate now criminalises solidarity.

'Woke liberal elitists'

As the climate of fear intensifies, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Sharren Haskel - known for dismissing Gaza’s famine as “complete lies” and calling protesters “useful idiots” - appeared in Manchester last weekend wearing a bulletproof vest, saying she no longer felt “safe” in the UK’s streets. The image went viral: an Israeli official donning body armour on British soil, as her own government rolled out the red carpet for Robinson.

When Channel 4’s Cathy Newman pressed Haskel to condemn the invitation, she refused, insisting that “people are entitled and allowed to speak out their mind”. 

The refusal was telling. Haskel defended the invitation of a man who had just attacked the Board of Deputies as “woke liberal elitists” who had betrayed the Jewish community, while lauding Netanyahu’s government as “conservatives” and “the real Zionist Jews”.

The irony runs deep. While Robinson brands Britain’s Jewish leaders as “woke liberals”, Netanyahu attacks his own critics on the political right in the US as the “woke Reich” - likening them to Nazis merely for questioning Israel’s actions, while he enthusiastically aligns with Europe’s actual far right and real antisemites. 

The two men sing from the same hymn sheet: united in an anti-Muslim campaign that brands dissenters - whether Jewish or Christian - as “woke”.

The pattern only grows clearer. Chikli went further still this week, mocking Prime Minister Keir Starmer by calling him “Palestinian” after the British leader condemned the Robinson invitation. The insult was revealing: to be called “Palestinian” is now, in the language of Netanyahu’s allies, an accusation.

Stoking Islamophobia

Netanyahu’s alliance with the far right is not a show of strength; it is a symptom of weakness. He believes that if he can turn Europe against its Muslim citizens, he can isolate sympathy for Palestine. But the plan is collapsing.

A Washington Post poll last week found that 61 percent of American Jews believe Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, and nearly 40 percent believe it has committed genocide. In Britain, representatives of the Jewish community now lead calls for justice for Palestinians.

Israel’s embrace of Tommy Robinson is not confidence. It is decay. A state that claims to fight antisemitism now embraces its architects.

Netanyahu believes that by demonising Muslims, and by fuelling Islamophobia across Europe, he can suffocate sympathy for Palestine and silence the conscience of the world. But in doing so, he has unleashed the very forces that once preyed upon Jews themselves.

The irony is cruel. In trying to shield Israel through fear, Netanyahu is endangering Jews everywhere

The hatred he stokes does not stay contained. It mutates. It travels. It feeds on whatever difference it can find.

The irony is cruel. In trying to shield Israel through fear, Netanyahu is endangering Jews everywhere.

He imagines he is building an alliance of protection - but he is fanning the embers of persecution. The same mobs that cheer the vilification of Muslims today will turn their fire on Jews tomorrow.

The forces of hatred that feed on one will feed on the other. They always have.

As Israel’s leaders conspire with the architects of division, they remind the world of a truth history never forgets: hatred, once unleashed, knows no master - it devours everything that feeds it.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.