Half fascist, half idiot

Amichai Chikli, Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs, is the new Werner Goldberg, not as a historical coincidence but as a recurring tragicomedy where fate delights in placing the unwary in scenes of brutal irony.

Werner Goldberg, a young German soldier, was photographed in a moment of fleeting glory, an image immortalized by the “Berliner Tageblatt” as “The Ideal German Soldier.” The glaring irony—Goldberg, son of a Jew, was classified as a “Mischling of the first degree,” serving the regime that sought to erase his very lineage. He was used as a symbol of Aryan purity until he was expelled by the same Nazi machine that idolized him—a face, a burden, a story that screamed the madness and hypocrisy of racism.

Chikli, on the other hand, needs no photograph to become a symbol. His voice and actions are enough to perpetuate the contradiction. Instead of diplomacy, he opted for incendiary activism, diving headfirst into the French electoral campaign, offering unconditional support to Marine Le Pen. He did not see the abyss of his alliance; worse, he saw it and chose to ignore it. Israeli and French authorities watch in bewilderment as the minister transforms into a “diplomatic bomb,” compromising relations between the two countries with voluntary blindness.

It wasn’t just discreet support; it was public acclamation. Since Emmanuel Macron announced early elections, Chikli has proclaimed that Le Pen would be excellent for Israel, ignoring that the election was not for president but for parliament. The absurdity of his declarations only grew, praising Le Pen and attacking Macron, disregarding the French president’s efforts to support families affected by Hamas attacks. Chikli seemed blind to Le Pen’s history, to the echoes of anti-Semitism that still resonated beneath her polished discourse.

Chikli’s political folly reached its zenith when he dragged Prime Minister Netanyahu into his theater of horrors, claiming the latter shared his opinions. Netanyahu, with his silence, allowed the farce to continue. The minister, now wholly entangled in his webs, exposed his myopia and an alarming diplomatic ignorance.

Chikli embodies a cruel paradox, like Werner Goldberg before him. A man who defends something that, at its core, is opposed to his interests and those of his people. Goldberg was the involuntary face of genocidal propaganda; Chikli, the fervent supporter of a far-right figure who, no matter how much she denies it, carries the shadow of anti-Semitism.

In Chikli’s case, the term “mischling” acquires a new and bitter connotation: half fascist, half idiot.