The Good Strat Editorial Team
Selected Snippets from Good Strat members posted on social media. September 2026.
Martyn Rhisiart Jones
Howard D. Gerson
I never understood why people preferred to use the term antisemitism rather than racism towards Jews. It’s like willfully using the language of racists and haters as if their terminology had any credence, relevance or value. It’s almost counterproductive in its selectivity.
Language shapes conceptual clarity. Preferring antisemitism over anti-Jewish racism adopts the framing of 19th-century racial supremacists while fragmenting universal anti-racist frameworks.
1. Rooted in Pseudoscience – Coined in 1879 by German nationalist Wilhelm Marr, Antisemitismus gave religious prejudice a pseudo-scientific racial justification. Weaponising the linguistic term “Semitic,” Marr framed anti-Jewish hatred as an ideological “racial conflict.” Using this vocabulary today grants lingering validity to racial pseudoscience.
2. The Fallacy of Exceptionalism – Isolating anti-Jewish hatred under a unique term detaches it from legal protections against racism, xenophobia, and ethnic discrimination. It creates a false hierarchy of prejudices rather than treating anti-Jewish bigotry as a branch of a single pathology: racism.
3. Precision and Accountability – Describing anti-Jewish hatred directly as anti-Jewish racism:
Strips legitimacy from historical hate terminology.
Places Jewish protection squarely within universal human rights law.
Establishes clear boundaries between opposition to state policies and racial bigotry.
Are there Nazis and fascists in Israel?
Yes, in a factual and historical sense, radical far-right, fascist, and Neo-Nazi elements have existed and continue to exist within Israel, though they occupy distinct categories and are defined differently in law and public life.
1. Jewish Supremacist and Neo-Fascist Extremism (Kahanism)
The most prominent manifestation of fascist ideology within Israeli society comes from the Jewish far-right, historically rooted in Kahanism (the ideology of Meir Kahane).
- Ideological Tenets: Kahanism promotes explicit racial hierarchy, the forcible expulsion (transfer) of non-Jews, the segregation of Jewish and Arab populations, the revocation of non-Jewish citizenship, and the replacement of democratic institutions with a teocratic state.
- Fascist Characteristics: Prominent Israeli and international legal scholars, as well as mainstream Israeli politicians, have repeatedly classified Kahanism as a form of Jewish fascism or “Judeo-Nazism” (a term famously coined by the Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz in the late 20th century to describe the moral degradation of the occupation).
- Mainstream Integration: Historically, Kahane’s party (Kach) was banned from the Knesset under anti-racism laws in 1988 and declared a terrorist organization. However, modern successor parties—such as Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power), led by figures like Itamar Ben-Gvir—represent the direct lineage of this fascist ideology and currently hold major cabinet portfolios in the Israeli government.
2. Neo-Nazi Movements
While extremely rare given the state’s founding context, actual Neo-Nazi cells have occasionally emerged within Israel, primarily formed by fringe elements among post-Soviet immigrants.
- Patrol 36 (2007): The most famous case occurred in 2007, when Israeli police dismantled a Neo-Nazi gang named “Patrol 36” operating in Petah Tikva. Composed of young men who had immigrated from the former Soviet Union under Israel’s Law of Return (having at least one Jewish grandparent), the group had swastika tattoos, targeted Orthodox Jews, gay people, and foreign workers, possessed weapons, and explicitly swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler.
- Legal and Legislative Impact: The discovery of Patrol 36 shocked the Israeli public and directly prompted the Knesset to amend the Law of Return to allow the revocation of citizenship and deportation of individuals who actively engage in Neo-Nazi activities or racial hatred.
3. Structural and Analytical Perspectives
Beyond fringe criminal gangs or explicit neo-Nazis, human rights analysts, legal scholars, and political scientists point to the systemic growth of ethno-fascism within state policies:
- State Mechanisms: The growth of violent settler militias operating with state backing in the West Bank, the dehumanization of Palestinians in mainstream political rhetoric, and legislative moves like the 2018 Nation-State Law are widely analyzed as key markers of fascist drift within the state apparatus itself.
- Domestic Resistance: Israeli anti-fascist groups, human rights organizations (such as B’Tselem), and progressive activists explicitly describe their struggle as combating rising state-sponsored fascism from within.
The post discusses Israel’s profound global isolation, driven by negative public perception, legal rebukes from international courts, and severed diplomatic ties. A 2026 survey highlighted 67% of respondents view Israel unfavourably. Israel’s defensive strategy, targeting international institutions rather than seeking diplomacy, has exacerbated its isolation amid humanitarian concerns.
“Add to this the insistence that any meaningful opposition to Israeli policy is antisemitic by definition. This fits the description of delusion-as-defense mechanism. As the world presents evidence to counter the delusion, the delusion calcifies around more outlandish and extreme claims. I will note in all seriousness, it’s almost always true that a person with paranoid delusions has good reasons to be paranoid.”- C.D. LinkedIn
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