Sorting out the European Right
Since Anders Behring Breivik murdered 76 Norwegians two weeks ago, there have been numerous accusations made of ties between Israel (as in the Israeli government) and various organizations of the European Right. Some of the ties are real, others involve individual MK's and not the government. Some of the European counterparts are legitimate conservative parties while others might better be considered part of the 'radical right.' Benny Weinthal tries to sort things out. Prof. Barry Rubin, an Israeli Middle East expert and director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, said the depiction of connections between the Netanyahu government and the FPÖ is “very misleading.”Read the whole thing. For those who have forgotten or who lump all of the European Right into one big group, you may want to watch this speech by former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, which I was privileged to attend last year.
“The only real link that can be shown is one or two members of parliament [the Knesset] acting alone. Israel has boycotted the Austrian FPÖ – a point the article deliberately ignored – and there are no Israeli officials who have met with these parties in any direct way. The real story, then, is the exact opposite: how limited Israel’s contacts are with parties that proclaim they are pro-Israel,” Rubin said.
He continued that “a few months ago the Israeli Embassy in London took the unprecedented step of condemning the English Defense League. I’m not passing judgment on these different parties, but clearly there are hardly any ties between Israel and any of them, and that means both Israel’s government and major political forces in Israel.”
Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, an Israeli who has written several books on Norwegian- Israeli relations, said Europe is “in a totally confused situation.”
In contrast to the Spiegel report, Gerstenfeld does not see a unified politically right-wing movement in Europe. Besides the liberal and conservative Right, there are three types of right-of-center political organizations, he said. The Progress Party in Norway and Geert Wilders Party for Freedom are pro-Israel and stay away from anything that “smells of Nazism.”
Italy’s Northern League falls into a second category on the European Right. It is primarily a separatist movement.
The third component includes Belgium’s Vlaams Blok party, the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement, the British National Party, France’s National Front, and Austria’s FPÖ, which, according to Gerstenfeld, meet the standard of radical right-wing groups.
Gerstenfeld said the FPÖ, for example, along with other radical-rightist parties “are people on the European Right who think they can whitewash themselves with ties to Israel.
“Israel is in the forefront of the enormous totalitarian threat to all humanity coming to out of the world of Islam, which also threatens Muslim moderates, Europe and anything Western. Former prime minister of Spain Jose Maria Aznar also sees it this way and wrote an article saying that if Israel goes down, the entire West goes down,” said Gerstenfeld.
Labels: Anders Behring Brievik, British National Party, English Defence League, Geert Wilders, Jose Maria Aznar, Norwegian Progress party, Vlams Belang
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:51 PM
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