Senior figures from Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party have described Austria’s Freedom Party as friends of Israel and of the Jewish people, after a meeting with Herbert Kickl in the European Parliament.
The conference, titled “Islamism and Antisemitism: Threats to Europe’s Freedom”, was staged in Strasbourg on Wednesday by Harald Vilimsky, the FPÖ’s delegation leader in the Patriots for Europe group.
The conference focused on the Hamas attack of October 7,2023 and the growing anti-Semitism in Europe.
The Likud representatives warned that the attack was not only directed against Israel, but also against the Christian-Jewish foundations of Europe.
Kickl flew in, as did Likud’s political director, Ariel Bulshtein, Knesset member Ariel Kellner and two rabbis.
Deputies from Hungary’s Fidesz and Spain’s Vox attended, as did a representative of Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
Vilimsky called it a “friendship axis” and said he did not care what “the left in Vienna” thought.
The Likud guests thanked Vilimsky and Kickl by name. Israel, they and the FPÖ agreed, is a bulwark against Islamism; the EU, they said, lines up against the Jewish state.
Kickl replied that if he became chancellor the Freedom Party would be a “loyal and unshakeable friend of Israel” and would defend Europe’s “Jewish-Christian heritage”.
Contrary to the Israeli government, Austria’s official Jewish community still will not meet the FPÖ.
The party was founded by a former SS officer, Anton Reinthaller who after a short denazification sentence was allowed back into mainstream politics as the FPÖ’s first leader.
When Likud first edged towards Patriots last year, a Netanyahu adviser told Die Presse that the FPÖ had not yet taken a “firm, public and unambiguous” line for Israel and that the party’s history remained a problem.
Now, the focus has moved significantly, towards radical Islamism.
Under the guise of persecution, Islamists have founded “parallel societies” in Europe, it sounded.
Kickl stressed that he did not want to make “a blanket judgment” against Muslims, he spoke of an “alarming escalation of anti-Semitism in Europe”.
He said he stands on the side of Israel and the Jewish people.
When he will be Chancellor in Austria, Kickl said, he will show oneself to be a loyal and unwavering friend of Israel.
Herbert Kickl, leader of the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party, has scored a final win in a year-long legal dispute against a political opponent who indirectly compared him to Adolf Hitler. https://t.co/ZA0J3xUVjQ
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) September 4, 2025
