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by (Front Page Magazine)
Israel’s Minister for the Diaspora, Amichai Chikli explains the spread of antisemitism in Europe: “European rise in antisemitism a result of Islamic migration, Diaspora minister says,” by Eliav Breuer, Jerusalem Post, February 16, 2025:
Chikli expressed support for immigration policies in Hungary and Poland, as examples of places where Jews can walk around freely. The comment drew murmurs from the crowd, with one person claiming that Hungary had a fascist government.
Both Hungary and Poland have managed to keep Muslim migrants out. The border guards stop Muslims from entering those countries. If some Muslims manage to get into either country, they discover there are no welfare benefits to be had, and they quickly leave countries that are so obviously hostile to their presence.
Chikli also warned against the spread of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria via its new regime, which is backed by Turkey. Erdogan and Turkey had the “exact same ideology” as Hamas, and therefore the Syrian front was one Israel should be concerned about.
Erdogan is a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is the Gazan branch. His Turkish troops are now in northern Syria, apparently to stay, in order to prevent the Kurdish YPG (Kurdish Defense Forces) in that country from linking up with Kurds inside Turkey. That Turkish military presence in Syria is one more worry for the IDF.
Chikli is deeply suspicious of Abu Muhammad Al-Julani, Syria’s de facto ruler, and of the rebel group he headed, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Al-Julani claims that he years ago broke all his ties to Al-Qaeda and ISIS, and is now intent on rebuilding the broken nation-state of Syria, not in furthering a pan-Islamic caliphate. But the schoolbooks just adopted in Syria contain worrisome changes in their texts, that stress Islamic themes and anti-Israel propaganda.
Qatar also shares this ideology and does public relations for Hamas, Chikli said, adding that the Qatari Al-Jazeera network was the first to put out pictures of hostages shown [under threats from their guards] denigrating IDF soldiers. Chikli said that involving Qatar in negotiations was a mistake.
Qatar has not been a neutral party in the ceasefire negotiations. Qatar is a loyal friend to Iran, the malevolent godfather to all the anti-Israel forces in the area — Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Assad’s army in Syria. Qatar has for years provided refuge to Hamas leaders. Living in Doha, those leaders are provided by Qatar with a safe place from which to plan and direct attacks, and to rally their members and to conduct their propaganda worldwide. Qatar has behind the scenes managed to persuade Hamas to hold firm in its demands both as to the timetable of the various phases of the exchange, and as to the numbers of Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged for each Israeli hostage to be released. Hamas leaders have followed Qatar’s advice, with the results — 1,900 Palestinian prisoners to be released for fewer than 70 Israeli hostages — we have all seen.
Chikli thinks the hostages-for-prisoners exchange is a bad idea. He believes that the numbers are intolerably lopsided, as they were with the 1,027 prisoners exchanged for Gilad Shalit in 2011, and that many of the 1,900 prisoners now being released will return to terrorism. He knows that according to the Shin Bet’s head, Ronen Bar, 82% of those released in 2011 resumed terrorist activity, and in Chikli’s calculation, those now released will be responsible for many more deaths than the number of hostages now being freed.
He also thinks it was unwise to let Qatar take part in the negotiations, as if it were a neutral party. Qatar has for years supported Hamas, not least by providing a secure refuge to its leaders. And behind the scenes, Chikli thinks that Qatar urged Hamas remain firm in its maximalist demands.
But what is of greatest interest is Amichai Chikli’s comment that the Muslim migrants in Europe are now the main carriers of antisemitism, and Israel should be making common cause with the so-called right-wing parties in Europe, such as Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National and Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party (Partij voor de Frieheid), for they are prepared to halt Muslim immigration and to deport, for various reasons, Muslims already in their countries. At the same time he thinks Israel should reach out to those countries — Hungary and Poland lead the list — that have managed to keep out almost all would-be migrants from Muslim lands. As a consequence, Jews in those countries have no fears of being assaulted, unlike Jews in London, Paris, Berlin, and Rome.
Until Chikli, no Israeli leader has so forthrightly addressed the link between the spread of antisemitism in Europe and the great increase in the continent’s Muslim population. He’s the first, but he won’t be the last. And he was speaking to Jewish leaders from around the world, who have now had that connection made, linking Muslim migrants to a precipitous rise in antisemitism, so that they too can bring that same message back to the Jewish communities they represent around the world. There’s no longer any excuse for avoiding the subject that is on the minds of many Jews — the connection between the spread of antisemitism and the increased numbers of Muslims in the West.
