Israel is tightening its ties with the European far right even as its standing abroad keeps slipping, and that shift is now colliding with a fresh dispute over Jordan Bardella. After Mediapart reported alleged antisemitic writings attributed to him, Amichai Chikli went on X to defend the leader of the Agrupación Nacional, calling him one of the clearest voices in Europe against Hamás.
The timing matters because Bardella is not being praised in the abstract. He visited the places hit in the 7 de octubre de 2023 attack by Hamás, the assault that triggered the war in Gaza, and Israel is using that political alignment to show it still has allies in Europe. Chikli’s intervention was a public signal that Israel is willing to stand by a far-right figure under fire if he is seen as useful on Israel’s core security concerns.
That reach is broader than France. Israel has already normalized relations in Austria with the Partido de la Libertad, or FPÖ, a party founded by former Nazis, and Israeli officials have also courted far-right leaders in Suecia, España and Reino Unido over shared concerns about Islam and immigration. In América Latina, the diplomatic opening has shifted after pro-Israel hard-right leaders were elected in Argentina and Colombia. The AfD remains outside that strategic shift for now, but the pattern is clear: the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is narrowing ties with far-right parties while accusing critics of feeding hatred against Jews.
The cost of that strategy is becoming harder to ignore. Jeremy Issacharoff, who served as Israel’s ambassador in Berlin from 2017 to 2022, said those parties are seeking “una especie de certificado kosher” to wash away antisemitic histories. He said he understands the benefit Israel gets from the relationship, but that it comes at a price to Israel’s values and its reputation abroad. More pointedly, he said Israel should first assess the effect of that support on Jewish communities in France and Austria, where some leaders are already watching the outreach with unease.
That unease is not theoretical. Some Jewish leaders in the United Kingdom were distressed by Tommy Robinson’s visit to Israel, and the same political opening has also brought friction with mainstream critics at home and abroad. Azriel Bermant has described Netanyahu’s courtship of the far right as a strategic move, which is exactly what makes it so volatile: Israel is betting that common ground on Islam and immigration will matter more than the antisemitic histories that still shadow several of these movements. The question now is not whether the outreach exists. It is how far Israel is prepared to take it, and whether Jewish communities in France and Austria will pay the price for that calculation.
