Binyamin Netanyahu is soft on anti-Semitism when it suits him

ISRAEL has long seen itself as the protector of Jews everywhere and a bulwark against anti-Semitism globally. It has brought Nazis such as Adolf Eichmann to justice; it rescued Ethiopian Jews threatened by war and famine in the 1980s and 1990s. Just last week it denounced a notice in a Swiss hotel telling “Jewish guests” to shower before entering the swimming pool. So Israel’s government could reasonably have been expected to condemn the protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, which featured neo-Nazis chanting “Jews will not replace us”, and to criticise the mealy-mouthed response by President Donald Trump, who has energised the white-supremacist movement in America.

Instead, the anti-Semitic rallies, which descended into violence, and Mr Trump’s tepid early comments were met with silence by the government in Jerusalem. Only after Mr Trump’s carefully scripted denunciation of “the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups” did Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, issue a tweet saying, “Outraged by expressions of anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism and racism.” Mr Netanyahu made no reference to where these expressions were made, nor to who was making them. He did not react to Mr Trump’s later comments, which pinned blame for the violence on both the neo-Nazis and the people who turned out to oppose them.

Mr Netanyahu has said that Israel has no greater friend than Mr Trump, and is pleased that America is not pressing Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians. But his reluctance to speak out against anti-Semitism in America is about more than that. Mr Netanyahu and his supporters seem to believe that the people opposing the white supremacists are at least as dangerous to Israel as the neo-Nazis. Take Mr Netanyahu’s son Yair, who condemned the neo-Nazis on Facebook, but added that the counter-protesters of Antifa and Black Lives Matter “hate my country (and America too in my view) just as much”.

Most American Jews are liberal. More than 70% of them voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, not least because of the anti-Semitic undertones of Mr Trump’s campaign. But some prominent Jewish leaders have reached out to the president, whose son-in-law is Jewish and whose daughter converted to Judaism. After Charlottesville, many of them are despairing. Even Rabbi Marvin Hier, who recited a prayer at Mr Trump’s inauguration, blasted him last week. Other rabbis said they will not join a conference call with the president ahead of Jewish holy days next month.

Such denunciations stand in stark contrast to Mr Netanyahu’s reaction, and are indicative of a rift between the Israeli government and the Jewish diaspora. Mr Netanyahu and his Likud party have won three elections, in part by accusing the left of undermining Israel’s security. This, along with the prime minister’s co-operation with Orthodox Jewish parties, has alienated those American Jews who identify with the opposition in Israel. To some it looks as if Mr Netanyahu is more likely to see anti-Semitism in those who oppose his policies.

Consider his treatment of Viktor Orban, Hungary’s populist prime minister. Mr Orban’s government has been accused of running an anti-Semitic poster campaign against George Soros, a Jewish-American financier with Hungarian roots who funds liberal causes, and organisations that are critical of Mr Orban. The Israeli ambassador to Hungary, Yosef Amrani, condemned the posters. A day later the Israeli foreign ministry retracted the criticism, saying that Mr Soros, a Holocaust survivor, “undermines Israel’s democratically elected governments by funding organisations that defame the Jewish state.” Mr Soros finances various Israeli and Palestinian organisations that support human rights. Some also call for a boycott and sanctions against Israel. Mr Orban, on the other hand, is one of Mr Netanyahu’s closest allies in Europe.