The stunning triumph of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in a German state election represents a true “challenge to democracy” and has shaken the country’s Jewish community, said author and activist Dr. Ofer Waldman, speaking on the Haaretz Podcast

“It's the first time that a right‑extremist party has had such a landslide victory in Germany,” said Waldman, who heads the Heinrich Boll Foundation office in Tel Aviv. 

Haaretz writer and editor David Issacharoff, who joined Waldman on the podcast for a discussion of the election results, said that state of Saxony-Anhalt, which gave 44 percent of its vote to the controversial AfD party, is populated by voters who “feel abandoned, forgotten, and very isolated,” blaming the state and mainstream parties for their situation and channeling their resentment in an extremist political direction.

This is worsened, both Waldman and Issacharoff said, by the fact that East Germany was not part of the post-Holocaust democracy education push in the West. "Keeping Jewish memory there is a real struggle of individuals in that state, and they're up against real forces of neo‑Nazis,” Issacharoff noted, 

Both commentators pointed to the contrast between the expressed deep worry and concern of the German Jewish community regarding AfD antisemitism, and the resounding “utter silence” coming from the Israeli government – together with comments from Israel’s ambassador in Berlin during the election campaign that highlighted antisemitism on the left, while downplaying the AfD’s positions. 

"When Israel and its representative in Germany focus all the fire towards the left, then they're totally absolving the right from its responsibility for antisemitism. And when the representatives of the Jewish state say that, it matters in Germany," Issacharoff said. 

Waldman added the source of the dissonance was “what is perceived as a mutual enemy” by Israel’s far-right government. 

“The AfD is perceived as the enemy of the Muslim community in Germany and, as such, a possible ally to the current Israeli administration,” Waldman said.

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