'World War Jew': How Israel's antisemitism conference became a far-right populist rally

14 snips

Jan 29, 2026

Linda Dayan, Haaretz correspondent who covers Israeli politics, antisemitism and the hostage movement, reports from a charged Jerusalem conference where far-right leaders framed antisemitism as a fight against radical Islam aided by the “woke” left. She describes the conference’s anti-Muslim messaging, Christian nationalist overtones, divisions in the American and European right, and the contrasting unity of the Hostage Square movement.

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INSIGHT

Holocaust Memory Linked To Islamist Threat

The event framed radical Islam as the central threat and tied Holocaust memory to contemporary Islamist violence.
Amichai Chikli and other speakers equated modern Islamist threats with Nazi‑style atrocities to justify that framing.

INSIGHT

Charlie Kirk Award Spotlights Political Tradeoffs

Charlie Kirk was posthumously honored for staunch pro‑Israel advocacy despite promoting Great Replacement ideas.
Linda Dayan found the award and the pastor's Christian‑nationalist speech to be a chilling endorsement of Islam as the enemy.

INSIGHT

US Right Is Splitting Over Israel

The conference debated a fissure on the US right where figures like Tucker Carlson have shifted toward anti‑Israel conspiracy theories.
Speakers worried about losing pro‑Israel support from parts of the nationalist right and discussed strategies to respond.

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For the right-wing populist political leaders who gathered in Jerusalem for the Netanyahu government’s second International Conference on Combating Antisemitism this week, the formula for fighting Jew hatred is simple, according to Haaretz correspondent Linda Dayan, who attended and reported on the two-day event.

Organized by the Diaspora Affairs Ministry led by far-right Likud MK Amichai Chikli, Dayan tells the Haaretz Podcast that the message of the majority of prominent speakers at the conference is that Jews “have one enemy” – radical Islam – “and that enemy is propped up by the woke left” with a shared agenda of destroying the West.

Later on the podcast, Dayan – who has covered the protest movement in Israel for the return of the hostages led by their families since October 7 – reflected on the end of the struggle following the return of the final hostage’s remains earlier this week and the end of the vigil in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square.

The movement, she said, transcended politics; it was a deeper fight to preserve the national ethos of never leaving anyone behind. Dayan explained: “From the very beginning, you would hear in the speeches in the square that this isn't just a battle to return our daughters and sons and parents and grandparents. This is a battle for the values of the country – a battle for the version of the country we want our children to grow up in and we want the next generation to inherit.”

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