By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

In a FloodGate interview with Robert Inlakesh, Tony Greenstein explains how pro-Israel politics have long enabled far-right antisemitism—and why Gaza is accelerating fractures on the Western right.

In a wide-ranging interview on the FloodGate podcast, journalist Robert Inlakesh spoke with British author and anti-fascist activist Tony Greenstein about Israel’s long-standing relationship with the far right, the political uses of antisemitism, and the dangerous realignment now unfolding inside Western right-wing movements.

Drawing on Greenstein’s book Zionism During the Holocaust, the discussion traced how Zionism has historically converged with antisemitic forces, how Islamophobia has replaced older conspiracy narratives, and why Israel’s present political strategy may ultimately accelerate its own isolation.

What follows are five key takeaways from the conversation.

A Cover for Antisemitism

Greenstein challenges the widely promoted idea that antisemitism and anti-Zionism are interchangeable. Instead, he argues that support for Israel has often served as a shield for explicitly antisemitic actors, allowing them to “kosher” their racism.

“We see repeatedly people who are antisemitic being excused because they are pro-Israel,” Greenstein said. “Despite the fact that when it comes to Jews as individuals, they are as atrocious as any common-and-garden antisemite.”

He pointed to historical cases where regimes that persecuted Jews internally maintained close military and diplomatic ties with Israel, using that relationship as proof that they could not be antisemitic — even while Jews were being tortured, disappeared, or murdered.

“The argument was always the same,” he added. “They can’t be antisemitic because they support Israel — despite persecuting Jewish people.”

From “Jewish Conspiracy” to “Islamic Threat”

The interview traced how far-right conspiracy politics have shifted over time. While Jews once occupied the central role in imagined global conspiracies, Muslims now serve as the primary racialized “enemy” in Western far-right discourse.

“Muslims today are taking the place that Jews previously occupied in the 1930s,” Greenstein explained. “They are the major scapegoats — the ‘other’ for racists and ruling elites.”

He argued that Zionism has actively facilitated this transformation by positioning Israel as a civilizational outpost against Islam, thereby aligning itself with Islamophobic movements across Europe and North America.

“Zionism has aided and abetted that every step of the way,” he said. “It fits perfectly with the dominant racism in Europe and the United States today.”

Israel’s Alignment with the Far Right Is Structural

Responding to questions about whether Israel’s far-right alliances represent a strategic error, Greenstein rejected the idea that this shift is merely tactical or recent.

“Zionism was always a settler-colonial project,” he said. “And when there’s a conflict between socialism and nationalism, Zionism always wins.”

While early Labor Zionists marketed Israel as a progressive, egalitarian society, Greenstein argued that this was largely a public relations strategy aimed at Western audiences.

“They were cleverer in the past,” he said. “They spoke the language of social democracy, but underneath, nothing has really changed.”

Today’s openly racist and genocidal rhetoric, he argued, is not a deviation but the unmasking of a project that no longer feels the need to disguise itself.

Gaza Has Accelerated the Right’s Internal Fractures

Inlakesh and Greenstein discussed growing divisions within the US right over Israel, particularly following the genocide in Gaza. While some factions remain fiercely pro-Israel, others have begun to question US support — not out of concern for Palestinians, but due to nationalist and isolationist impulses.

Greenstein warned that this shift carries serious risks.

“For those on the right who identify Israel with Jews, if they turn against Israel, they’ll turn against Jews,” he said.

He argued that Jewish communities aligning themselves with far-right movements are placing themselves in profound danger.

“The right is not, and never has been, your friend,” Greenstein said. “If you ally with forces like this, you cannot complain when they turn against you.”

Holocaust Memory Has Been Weaponized

The interview concluded with a sharp critique of mainstream Holocaust institutions, which Greenstein accused of abandoning universal anti-racist principles in favor of unconditional defense of Israel.

“Not one single Holocaust memorial organization has spoken clearly about the genocide in Gaza,” he said.

Instead, Greenstein noted, institutions have condemned comparisons, retracted statements, or remained silent — even as mass civilian destruction unfolds.

“Their message is not ‘Never Again’ in any universal sense,” he said. “It is support for apartheid in Israel and everything that follows from it.”

Rather than preventing atrocities, Holocaust memory has been transformed into a political instrument — one that justifies violence rather than confronting it.

The Biggest Disaster

Throughout the interview, Greenstein returned to a stark conclusion: Israel’s current path is unsustainable.

“Zionism is the biggest disaster Jewish people have ever had,” he said. “It brought them no safety, and it has aligned them with forces that will ultimately turn against them.”

As younger generations, including younger Jews, increasingly reject apartheid and genocide, the gap between state power and moral legitimacy continues to widen.

Whether Zionism can survive that contradiction, Greenstein suggested, is no longer an open question.

(The Palestine Chronicle)