Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday suggested that Israelis and Europeans were allies in a “decisive struggle for the future of the world” against radical Islam, far-left ideologies and unchecked immigration.
Netanyahu’s remarks were made from his office while hosting, along with Transportation Minister Miri Regev, five European Parliament lawmakers from the right-wing Patriots of Europe bloc, representing Spain, France and Austria.
The encounter highlighted the partnerships that Israel has been nurturing in recent years with politicians from Europe’s rising right-wing bloc amid attempts to isolate the Jewish state by a radicalized left wing—often with little pushback from centrist parties seeking governing alliances.
“The Western Judeo-Christian civilization is under attack. This is an effort carried out not by radical Islam alone, but in collaboration with forces which you know well: the deep radical left and the Islamists, who in theory should be rivals, but are united by one thing—the hatred of Israel and the Jews,” said Netanyahu.
“Many countries in Europe were numb; they opened their borders with no supervision whatsoever. Not just for a year or two; this has been a long-term struggle. In this regard, we are not just allies and comrades-in-arms, we are brothers and sisters in the decisive struggle for the future of the world. The gravest danger that the world faces is the link between militant Islam and nuclear weapons,” he continued.
Netanyahu thanked the Patriots delegation, calling them “friends of the Jewish people, for their steadfast and consistent support of the State of Israel, and for their courageous insistence on sovereignty in their countries and the safeguarding of borders and national identity,” according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The hosts also introduced to the visitors “the Patriots of Jerusalem – the first Israeli branch that will join the European Patriots group,” according to the statement.
Among the visitors were two lawmakers representing Spain’s right-wing Vox Party. Hermann Tertsch, the vice-president of the Vox parliamentary group at the European Parliament, wrote on X that he discussed with Netanyahu ”the weakness of European governments in the face of the invasion of illegal immigration.”
He visited with fellow party member Jorge Buxade, who headed the Spanish delegation, and Fabrice Leggeri and Virginie Joron from France’s National Rally Party of Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen. The remaining visitors were Harald Vilimsky of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ).
Both the Freedom Party and National Rally had faced a longstanding ban by Israeli officials, who did not meet or host them in their official capacities. This was due to the ties or sympathies that the founders of those parties had with Nazis and antisemites in their ranks.
In recent years, both parties have disciplined some members for antisemitic hate speech and distanced themselves from Nazism. However, the mainstream Jewish communal groups in France and Austria, the CRIF and the IKG, respectively, maintain their ban on direct, official contact with representatives of those parties.
Rabbi Yehudah Glick in 2019 met with then Austrian foreign minister Karin Kneissl, who was nominated to the position by the Freedom Party, during a visit to Vienna. Glick, who was a lawmaker for Netanyahu’s Likud party at the time, called on Israeli officials to lift the ban the Freedom Party.
