The latest conference on antisemitism in Jerusalem illustrated the now absolute alignment of the Israeli government with Trumpist rhetoric, with dangerous consequences for Israel and, by extension, for Jews around the world.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest attack on former president Joe Biden, blaming him for the deaths of Israeli soldiers due to a lack of ammunition, is not merely another sign of ingratitude or the habitual deflection for which the prime minister is known, always quick to avoid assuming any responsibility.
It is also a message he knows will resonate with US President Donald Trump, given his hatred for Biden, that drives an even deeper wedge between the Israeli government and the Democratic Party, and by extension between the State of Israel and the liberal camp in the United States – first and foremost young people.
Conference on antisemitism in Jerusalem
It is within this context that the conference on antisemitism held in Jerusalem risks further widening this rift. This gathering was so aligned with the Trumpian rhetoric, it could have been labeled the Jewish CPAC or the Israeli Turning Point.
It is impossible to deny the impact of immigration from Arab and Muslim countries on the rise of antisemitism, with an Islamist or jihadist component combined with far-left anti-Zionism. But reducing the antisemitic threat to this single dimension and framing the fight against antisemitism around it almost exclusively is incomplete, biased, and highly problematic for the effectiveness of the struggle against the phenomenon, as antisemitism is rising today in the Republican Party to alarming levels.
Immigration is a crucial issue in the United States today. For too long downplayed by Biden (a mistake Barack Obama did not make, having deported large numbers of undocumented immigrants), it played a major role in Trump’s reelection and is now being weaponized by him. The backlash against the brutal methods of ICE is very real today.
Israeli government's alignment with Trump
Israel’s diplomatic and political alignment with Trump, along with the conference’s emphasis on immigration using Trumpian rhetoric, allow some of the most progressive activists in the West to drag Israel into their crusade, conflating the people arrested by ICE with Palestinians arrested by the IDF. As so often happens, the bad faith is glaring, but these activists find in the Israeli government ideal accomplices, even if unwitting ones.
Similarly, when US Sen. Lindsey Graham threatens judges of the International Criminal Court with sanctions should they go after Netanyahu, Israel finds itself drawn into the battle over judicial independence – just as Israel is pushed into the camp of autocratic states when the country decides to join Trump’s Board of Peace.
Netanyahu’s obsession with pleasing Trump, and the rightward drift of certain ministers such as Amichai Chikli, Bezalel Smotrich, or Yariv Levin, provide golden ammunition to Israel’s determined adversaries. They can freely exploit the statements or actions of these figures to justify their rejection or hatred of Israel to a public that is already biased against it, credulous, or insufficiently informed.
No amount of hasbara (public diplomacy) will be able to compensate for this complete alignment of the Israeli government with Trump, who is rejected by a majority of Americans – especially young people – and by a large part of international public opinion.
“Protect me from my friends; I can take care of my enemies,” said Voltaire. Israel’s military superiority allows it, thankfully, to crush its enemies. May Israel’s leaders understand that certain friendships, when too visibly flaunted, could ultimately prove very costly for the country, and by extension for Jews around the world, as eternal and vulnerable scapegoats.
Born and raised in France, the writer is the correspondent of French Jewish radio, Radio J, in the US, where he has been living for 16 years. He also holds US and Israeli citizenships. His opinions are his only.