Kurz called for an early election after his vice chancellor resigned due to covert video.

By World Israel News Staff and AP

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called Saturday for an early election after his vice chancellor, Heinz-Christian Shrache, resigned over a secret video that showed him apparently promising government contracts to a beautiful Russian “investor.”

The video was filmed in secret and appeared to be part of a sting by unknown actors to compromise Strache. The woman only posing as an investors, pretending to be the niece of a Russian oligarch.

Kurz said he would ask President Alexander Van der Bellen to set a date for a new election “as soon as possible.”

Vice Chancellor Strache, head of the far-right, anti-immigrant Freedom Party, which is in Austria’s ruling coalition with Kurz’s People’s Party, had resigned earlier Saturday, a day after the video was published.

The video hit a nerve amid broader concerns about ties between Russia and right-wing populist parties critical of the European Union, the more so because the Freedom Party is part of a Western government. In 2016, Strache went to Moscow to sign a “cooperation pact” with the United Russia party, which is loyal to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Strache’s resignation was also a black eye for the populist and nationalist forces who favor tighter European immigration policies. It came only a few days before the May 23-26 elections in 28 European Union nations to fill the 751-seat European Parliament. Nationalists and populists across Europe are competing to achieve a strong showing in that vote.

At a news conference late Saturday, Kurz said talks with other officials from the Freedom Party showed they were not willing to make the changes that Kurz felt were necessary to continue the current coalition. Kurz also said a possible coalition with the center-left Social Democrats would derail the government’s program of limiting debt and taxes.

Austria’s public ORF television reported analysts saying the vote could take place in September.

Two German publications, the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and the weekly Der Spiegel, published extracts Friday of a covert video purportedly showing Strache during an alcohol-fueled evening on the Spanish resort island of Ibiza offering Austrian government contracts to the Russian woman, who claimed she was interested in investing large amounts of money in Austria.

In his resignation statement Saturday, Strache apologized but said he was set up in a “political assassination” that illegally used surveillance equipment. He conceded his behavior in the video was “stupid, irresponsible and a mistake.”

The 49-year-old politician said he had been in a state of “increasing alcohol intoxication” and had “behaved like a teenager” in an attempt to “impress the attractive host.” He said he had had no further contact with the woman and she did not donate to his party.

The publications declined to say where they got the video. In it, Strache and party colleague Johann Gudenus are heard telling the unnamed woman she could expect lucrative construction work if she bought Austria’s Kronen Zeitung newspaper and supported the Freedom Party.

In the video, Strache also appeared to suggest ways of funneling money to his party via an unconnected foundation to circumvent Austrian rules on political donations.

A spokesman for the opposition Social Democratic Party, Hannes Jarolim, has asked prosecutors to look into the video, the APA news agency reported. Jarolim reportedly claimed the statements in the video could constitute offenses or attempted offenses such as misuse of office, bribery and money laundering.

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The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee debated Israel’s policy of “non-engagement” with Austria’s far-right Freedom Party.

By: World Israel News Staff

The Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee convened on Monday and held a heated debate over Israel’s policy of  “non-engagement” with the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO).

Founded in 1956, FPO emerged from the short-lived Federation of Independents, launched after World War II by former Nazis who had been stripped of their voting rights. Its first head was an ex-member of the Nazi Waffen SS unit.

The far-right Freedom Party of Austria is led by Heinz-Christian Strache, political heir of former party head Jörg Haider, who was notorious for his anti-Semitism and pro-Nazi opinions. When the party joined the Austrian government in 2000, Israel recalled its ambassador in a diplomatic crisis that continued until 2003.

Israel’s policy since last year’s Austrian elections has been to keep contacts with FPO-led ministries at the level of the civil service only.

During the debate, which was held at the request of Members of Knesset Yehuda Glick and Ksenia Svetlova, Svetlova contended that Israel should continue its non-engagement policy with the party.

”We report on many anti-Semitic incidents in which FPO activists are involved,” she said. “This party should know that if it wants relations with the State of Israel, it must change. It is our moral and Jewish duty.”

Glick, on the other hand, argued that because Israel constantly fights boycotts against the country, it should not boycott the second largest party in Austria. He read excerpts from FPO’s manifesto, according to which the party rejects any form of violence and totalitarianism and acknowledges that all humans are born equal.

MK Amir Peretz, chairman of the Israel-Austria Parliamentary Friendship Group, called to support the Foreign Ministry’s policy of not engaging the FPO, which he said is also backed by the Jewish community in Vienna.

”It sends a message to the entire world that the State of Israel will not give ‘discounts’ to anti-Semitic parties, wherever they may be,” he explained.

Senior Foreign Ministry official Zvi Tal told the committee that “Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed his office to avoid all contact with the party. We get the impression that Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz understands our concerns, and his recent speech, in which he spoke of Austria’s commitment to the State of Israel and its security needs, is proof of this.”

Austrian Ambassador to Israel Martin Weiss, who was present at the debate, asserted that the current Austrian government is the friendliest towards Israel since he began his diplomatic career in 1990.

He described Austria’s economic and tourism-related ties with Israel as very strong, and stated that it took Austria a while before it acknowledged its responsibility regarding the Holocaust, as for years there was a “tradition of hiding behind the Austrian victims.”

Today, Austria recognizes its role in the Holocaust, “and this position is shared by many parties, including the Freedom Party,” Weiss said

Representatives of the Jewish community in Austria gave a presentation connecting the FPO to anti-Semitic acts, and they urged the Israeli government not to forge relations with the party.

Committee Chairman MK Avi Dichter concluded by saying that the committee would revisit the issue after the Knesset’s spring recess and will monitor the progress in the talks between the Foreign Ministry and Chancellor Kurz.

“This issue is not only the Foreign Ministry’s problem,” he said. “It is a national issue of great significance.”

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While the official purpose of a conference on anti-Semitism was to discuss current and future challenges, much of the expert panel appeared to be mentally stuck in the past.

By: Daniel Krygier, Political Analyst, World Israel News

A high-profile conference on anti-Semitism was recently held in Vienna, Austria. While the official purpose of the conference was to discuss current and future challenges, much of the expert panel appeared to be mentally stuck in the past. Disproportionate energy and time was focused on populist right-wing governments in Europe instead of the threat emanating from militant Islam that seeks Israel’s destruction and terrorizes Jews and non-Jews in Europe and beyond.

A conference on Jew-hatred in Vienna undoubtedly brings images of the city’s troubled Nazi past. However, we live in 2018 and not 1938. While many people have reservations regarding the populist right-wing governments in countries like Austria, Poland or Hungary, none of them have policies that threaten the Jewish state or European Jews. Quite the contrary. Despite the controversial Holocaust legislation issue, Poland and countries like Hungary remain some of Israel’s staunchest supporters in the European Union.

A large protest banner at the anti-Semitism conference stated, “Mr. Kurz! Your government is not kosher!” However, there were no banners decrying the explicitly anti-Semitic regimes in Gaza, Ramallah, Damascus or Teheran.

Yes, it is true that the current Austrian government includes the controversial populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), with its troublesome past Nazi links. However, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is certainly not an anti-Semite and supports strong ties with Israel and the Jewish world. The current FPÖ chairman, Heinz-Christian Strache, has abandoned the anti-Israel position advocated by his predecessor Jorg Haider and supports moving the Austrian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Epicenter of Jew-hatred has clearly moved

Some observers suggest that FPÖ’s warming towards the Jewish state is part of the populist right-wing party’s strategy to cultivate a new image of political moderation. Whether true or not, none of the governments in Vienna, Warsaw or Budapest advocate the destruction of Israel or threaten the Jewish people.

While right-wing extremism remains a problem in much of the West, the epicenter of Jew-hatred has clearly moved from Christian Europe to the Islamic Middle East. The star of the conference, French-Jewish philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, did admit that Nazism has been exported to the Arab world. However, Levy failed to recognize that indigenous Middle Eastern Islamo-fascism is no less lethal than imported Nazism from the West.

Like Hitler, Islamists have imperial ambitions and are driven by an obsessive genocidal Jew-hatred. Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas do not merely oppose specific Israeli policies, but explicitly seek the destruction of the Jewish people. Islamists also do not make a distinction between Israel and Jews living in the Diaspora. Iran’s terrorist proxy Hezbollah has, over the years, carried deadly attacks on Jewish targets abroad, such as the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, the Israel embassy in Argentina and Israeli tourists in Bulgaria.

So why is the threat from fringe far-right movements exaggerated while the much more serious threat from Islamists is largely ignored or understated? Unfortunately, the answer is political correctness, post-colonial guilt and the racism of low expectations towards the epicenter of current Jew-hatred: the Muslim and Arab world. As long as there is no international pressure on the Islamic world to moderate, the menacing challenges affecting Jews and non-Jews alike will only continue to grow in the future.

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