Frederiksen - The Not Great Dane

The prime ministers of Austria and Denmark travelled to Israel last week to discuss possible collaboration with Israel in research and production of vaccines.

 

I have no expectations, moral or other, of Austria’s prime-minister Kurz. It is, however, a bloody shame that the Danish social-democrat Frederiksen hands a propaganda asset to beleaguered corrupt Netanyahu, two weeks before a general election is held in Israel.

 

There was no need for such a top-level meeting, only to discuss vaccine collaboration – unless it was all about the show: Denmark and Austria expressing their unhappiness about von der Leyen’s failed vaccine procurements. To achieve that, they were willing to meet Netanyahu.

 

Mrs. Frederiksen – in case your intelligence briefing forgot to mention this – Israel is now being investigated by the International Criminal Court for war-crimes. Moreover, in January, the renowned Israeli NGO B’tselem has issued its report “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid.”

 

Pfui Frederiksen.  

The Mossad and Austria’s VICE…chancellor

As soon as the story emerged about the entrapment of Austria’s Herr Strache, rumours started circulating that the Mossad is behind it.

In the past, rumours about the Mossad being behind a variety of clandestine operations, the outcome of which was deemed to be in Israel’s interest, pleased some, amused others, made some Israelis and diaspora Jews proud and probably strengthened the preconception about Israel’s all-powerful secret service. Antisemites who believed in a Jewish world domination conspiracy will also have had this pet theory of theirs reinforced.

These days, it has become fashionable to see Antisemitism everywhere and one finds various commentators speaking of this Mossad rumour as antisemitic. Relax, it ain’t necessarily so.  

Whoever did it, Israelis generally are pleased by the notion of a successful Mossad that gets whatever it wants. Moreover, the Mossad itself has been said to occasionally take credit for operations that were not theirs. Planting false stories in international media is all in a day’s work for secret services.  

More than only Schadenfreude?

Everyone (I know) seems mighty pleased about the fact that Austrian FPÖ’s leader Strache was forced to resign, after a secret video showing his alleged entanglement in a serious corruption scandal, came to the light.

I do not share this feeling of satisfaction, beyond my natural shadenfreude, at the fall of a member of the mighty: let many others fall in his footsteps.

The real issue with Austria is not that one politician was found out to be corrupt. The real problem are the right-wing tendencies of its population – a phenomenon that can best be explained by Austria’s historical refusal to accept responsibility for its fascist and Nazi past. They always saw themselves as victims of Nazi Germany instead of accepting the truth, which is that they were part of the Nazi machine in ideology, in action and in fervour. As a result, there is a lot of the same still to be found in that country. FPÖ had 26% of the popular vote in the last general election and was evidently a natural bed-fellow of the country’s conservative party, Sebastian Kurz’s ÖVP (31%).

Now, the Chancellor has called for a snap election. Will we find that Austrians are longer attracted by racism, Islamophobia and populist rhetoric? I doubt that. There is, as yet, nothing to be happy about. Much work still needs doing.