In September and October, three states in the eastern district of Germany will be holding elections that could have a major impact on national politics. The three states – Saxony, Brandenburg, and Thuringia – are considered the home turf of the German radical, nationalist Right. Fifteen years ago, neo-Nazi parties were elected to the state governments in Saxony and Brandenburg, and for years a neo-Nazi underground that is behind the murders of dozens of people, mostly Turkish immigrants, has been active in Saxony.
According to polls, the nationalist-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is expected to garner enough success in the upcoming elections to shake things up – for the first time since it was established six years ago, AfD is posing a viable challenge to the two biggest parties in Germany, the Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party, as well as to the far-left party Die Linke (the Left Party). AfD could become the second-biggest party, and even the biggest in some state governments, which would pave the way for it to become a significant political power on the national stage.
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The belief that it was a populist party that would soon vanish has proven incorrect. AfD continues to gather strength from one election to the next because of the worsening reality created by the refugee crisis, and because of the ideological and leadership crises that are engulfing the big parties. Thus far, the rest of the German political parties have boycotted AfD after it was labeled as extreme right-wing and Nazi. But the day isn't far off when the collective boycott could break down, and the leaders of AfD think what will start to happen after the upcoming local elections.
Israel's official policy – taking into account the position of the local Jewish community and a lack of desire to be drawn into a conflict with the ruling parties or be cast as "anti-Muslim" – has been to avoid any contact with AfD. But how wise is that policy? AfD does include some minority groups that are in the grip of nostalgia for the Third Reich and drip racism and anti-Semitism. But the German Left isn't free from anti-Semitism, either – it merely spreads it in the guise of opposition to Israel. In recent weeks, both the German Foreign Ministry and the weekly paper Der Spiegel, which is identified with the liberal Left, have exhibited anti-Semitism that isn't far from what exists in AfD.
In 2005, when the Left Party, whose members include anti-Semites and anti-Zionists, made it into the Bundestag, Israel made valiant attempts to find members with whom it could hold dialogue and found some. It was important for Israel to be able to talk with all the parties which were elected to the German government. Even though some Left Party members took part in the Mavi Marmara flotilla to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, and even today the party promotes measures in favor of BDS and delegitimizing Israel, its leaders were invited to meet with the president of Israel.
Why are Israel's attempts to form ties with a radical left-wing party, which has not cast out its anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist members, not applied to a radical right-wing party, which is not necessarily Nazi (as its opponents claim), but simply expresses a patriotic-survivalist sentiment among the German public? Can Israel continue to ignore the fact that the establishment parties in Germany are the ones that maintain a two-faced attitude toward Israel, while AfD exposes that very hypocrisy?
Israel should take care of its own national interests and look at where it can find those who will help promote them – and AfD has already tried to promote a few pro-Israel initiatives. The biggest threat today to Israel and European Jewry doesn't come from the Right but rather from the Left and its partner-voters in the Arab and Muslim immigrant communities. This doesn't mean that Israel must form alliances with anyone. But any entity that commits to certain conditions of dialogue and conduct should be considered a partner for dialogue. The Jewish communities are increasingly speaking out in favor of this approach.
Dialogue with nationalist right-wing parties should not be taken as anti-Muslim, either. In the end, Muslim anti-Semitism is the biggest problem for both Israel and European Jewish communities. After the Muslim communities in Europe address that problem among themselves, we can consider opening a dialogue with them, and not before.
