Can the global far-right help fight antisemitism? Israel sure wants to think so
A scuffle over an upcoming government conference has revealed an alarming schism
Jordan Bardella, the French far-right politician and president of the National Rally party on Feb. 24. Photo by Thibaud Moriz / AFP / Getty Images
Contributing Columnist Sruli Fruchter March 19, 2025
How useful can historically antisemitic political parties be in combating antisemitism? To the Israeli government, apparently, the answer is incredibly so.
The Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs’ International Conference on Combating Antisemitism, set to take place next week, has made waves for involving a band of far-right politicians from parties with demonstrated histories of antisemitic and neo-Nazi sympathies. Among them: Jordan Bardella, president of the French National Rally party — the founder of which minimized the atrocities of the Holocaust only a few years ago — and Kinga Gál of Hungary’s Fidesz party, which boasts its own record of antisemitism and Holocaust distortion.
Israel’s absurd justification for these invitations — “The way to reach people with different views than yours is to meet with them and discuss your differences,” a ministry spokesperson said — cannot be viewed as an isolated instance of poor judgment. It instead signals the belief that the far-right can be useful allies to Jews. That belief is foolish — and increasingly popular.
Well, not with everyone. Prominent Jewish figures, including Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, have dropped out of the conference in response to its far-right attendees.
“The motivation of extreme right politicians to come to this conference is not the love for Israel or to protect the Jews,” Ariel Muzicant, president of the European Jewish Congress, wrote in a letter, “but mainly to get a kosher rabbi stamp. And we, Jews or Israelis, should not be used as rabbi stamps.”
Despite these vocal protests, the trend of Jewish groups worldwide coming to think that the far-right can be an effective ally is unmistakable. And the dangers of that trend cannot be overstated.
This misguided belief hinges on accepting the faulty premise that the far-right has magically reversed course on antisemitism.
Take the French Nationalist Rally, which has notoriously rebranded to try and distance itself from its xenophobic, racist, and antisemitic identity. And yet, just two months ago, the same party venerated and praised its founding president, Jean-Marie Le Pen — a proud antisemite who dismissed the Nazi’s gassing of Jews as a “detail” in history — after his death. That doesn’t look like a true, heartfelt reversal to me.
Le Pen, the party said in a statement, was “a visionary,” a “fearless and indomitable fighter” and an “emblematic defender of the people.” A party leader called him “an immense patriot, a visionary, and an embodiment of courage.” How can a conference about fighting antisemitism and Holocaust denial invite a political party that so celebrates a Holocaust denier?
What’s more, Israel welcoming the National RAlly flies in the face of the Representative Council of French Jews’ longstanding policy to reject radicals. Now, as France faces rising antisemitism, Israel’s decision to normalize the party — which France’s own Jewish political body refuses to engage with — will no doubt have consequences for French Jews.
The same objection can be raised against Israel’s invitation of Spain’s far-right Vox party. Just six years ago, the party nominated a Holocaust revisionist, who called the Nuremberg trials a “farce,” to be a congressional candidate.
Does anyone truly believe antisemitism that noxious can be easily expunged from a party’s DNA?
Each of the far-right European parties set to be welcomed by Israel carries their own history of neo-Nazi affiliations, Holocaust denial and antisemitism. It might be politically expedient to ignore that, but doing so will endanger Jews in the long run.
The justifications for working with them are all rooted in the same illogical idea that working with the “soft” antisemites — far-right parties who support Israel — is our only option to fight the “real” antisemites — who, in the popular Jewish imagination in Israel, are generally seen as left-wing anti-Zionists. But this myopic perspective refuses to understand history’s testimony that while the far-right may not be today’s most pressing problem, it almost certainly will be tomorrow’s.
It’s true that the eruption of left-wing antisemitism since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war — including calls for “armed resistance,” expressions of support for terrorism against Israelis, harassment of Jewish students, and outright violence — has, for many Jews, changed the equation. Many Jewish organizations have come to feel that they cannot afford to alienate their supporters — wherever they are found, whatever baggage they may carry. For the state of Israel, that desperation is only intensified.
That’s why some outspoken opponents of antisemitism have decided not to boycott the conference. The politician Natan Sharansky, for instance, defended his decision to stay in a Facebook post, citing the need for bipartisanship in fighting hatred of Jews and hatred of Israel alike.
“For many years I’ve been stubborn and continue to insist even today that it’s important that the fight against antisemitism will include all political camps — from left to right,” he wrote, adding that those who “insist on antisemitic views” have no place in such a conference.
But desperation is not a sufficient excuse to ignore the pressing set of dilemmas that alliances with the far-right bring. Can a person or party support Israel, and still be antisemitic? If so, how should the Jewish community — in Israel, and in the diaspora — choose to interact with them?
I texted my friend Shabbos Kestenbaum, the Jewish activist and lead plaintiff suing Harvard for antisemitism, who is slated to speak at next week’s conference.
When I asked how he squares his attendance with the far-right attendees, his answer boiled down to pragmatism.
“American Jewish students have limited political leverage,” he replied. “My sole goal is to amplify, advocate, and protect Jewish college students. If I am given the opportunity to do so with the Diaspora Ministry, I would be foolish not to.”
Kestenbaum added that he would also meet with any global political parties affiliated with the far left who would “amplify Jewish students.”
I can see where he’s coming from. But I think that he, Sharansky, and others who have decided to still attend the conference are being shortsighted. The far-right can play nice with Israel and American Jewry right now because their interests align in combating left-wing movements. What will happen once they don’t?
I am reminded of Rabban Gamliel’s famous words in Pirkei Avot. “Be wary of the government,” he said, “for they only approach a person for self-serving needs. They appear as good friends when it benefits them, but they will not stand with a person in his time of need.”
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