Kate McMahon
Mondoweiss / January 28, 2025
After igniting outrage for raising a Nazi salute at a Trump inauguration event, Elon Musk tweeted: “So I am both a Zionist AND a Nazi?” He meant it mockingly, but the historical and ideological affinities between Zionism and white supremacy run deep.
In an ominous incident at Donald Trump’s inauguration, Elon Musk performed a gesture widely perceived as a Nazi salute. Much of the world expressed shock and outrage. In response to the criticism, Musk tweeted in jest: “So I am both a Zionist AND a Nazi?”
He meant it mockingly, but it’s not an outlandish proposition. Musk has expressed support for both Israel and Germany’s far-right AFD party, which has been widely condemned for its attempts to rebrand Nazism. Speaking at an AFD campaign rally this weekend, still reeling from the salute controversy, Musk reaffirmed his support for the party and urged Germans to move past “their guilt.” He also claimed the AFD was the only chance to preserve German culture. Evidently, Musk believes his support for the Israeli state absolves him of ties to the burgeoning neo-Nazi movement. But one can in fact be both a white nationalist and a staunch supporter of Israel.
How? Well, the ideology of Zionism – and subsequently the state of Israel – was built on the foundations of antisemitism and ethnic cleansing. Zionism was predicated on the idea that the Jewish people do not fit into the rest of the world and must emigrate to a national homeland in Israel, all while displacing the indigenous Palestinian population already living there. The original founder of Zionism, Theodore Herzl, even wrote in 1895: “Antisemites will become our [Israel’s] most dependable friends, the antisemitic countries our allies.” Herzl and the antisemites of the time had the same end goal: a massive migration of the Jewish population out of Europe.
Both Zionists and antisemites were violently against Jews assimilating in their home countries. In Israel’s early days, Zionists murdered their own people to encourage the exodus of Middle Eastern Jews to Israel. In 1951, a pair of Jewish Zionists carried out a series of bombing attacks against Jewish sites in Baghdad. They wanted to falsely blame the attacks on antisemitic terror and give credence to the idea that Jews outside of Israel were not safe, and that Israel must exist to protect them. And they were willing to kill Iraqi Jews to make that point.
It’s unsurprising then that Zionists have always been willing to cooperate with unsavoury characters to justify Israel’s existence on Palestinian land. Today, they’ve found many allies in the Republican Party and the far-right parties across Europe and Latin America. For instance, American Christian Zionists often parrot racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories while loudly proclaiming their love for the Jewish state. Take Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, who has tweeted outlandish antisemitic conspiracies about “Jewish space lasers” while expressing her support for Israel and voting to fund its Iron Dome.
In another example of the absurd contradictions of antisemitic support for Israel, the American pastor John Hagee – who is the leader of Christians United for Israel – once said in a sermon, “God sent Adolf Hitler to help the Jews reach the Promised Land.” Christian Zionists believe the world’s Jewish population must be concentrated in Israel to fulfil a Biblical prophecy. Much of Christian Zionism involves rabid antisemitism but rarely does the Israeli government, or its supporters, distance themselves from the group – which donates millions to Israel every year. In the wake of October 7th, Hagee was even invited by The Jewish Federation to speak at the March for Israel.
Besides collaborating with antisemitic religious zealots, the Israeli government is openly embracing white nationalist groups with Nazi ties. In 2023, the Israeli ambassador to Romania was widely criticized after meeting with the leader of Romania’s far-right AUR party. The AUR is directly descended from the fascist Iron Guard in WWII, which rounded up and executed Jews in Bucharest. The meeting was part of a larger goal to promote cooperation between Israel and far-right European parties to gain support for illegal settlements in the West Bank.
These incidents are part of a wider pattern of Zionists and the far-right not only aligning but actively collaborating. As long as groups support Israel in its occupation of Palestinian lands, the antisemitism they espouse is forgiven in service of Zionism. This is clearly demonstrated by the Anti-Defamation League, which allegedly exists to monitor and report antisemitism, but has spent the bulk of its time since October 7 harassing pro-Palestine student protesters. The ADL has previously compared a keffiyeh – a Palestinian scarf – to a swastika.
But in response to the Musk incident, the organization called for people to give him the benefit of the doubt. Evidently, a keffiyeh is antisemitic, but a Seig Heil is ambiguous. It’s clear the ADL exists to garner support for Israel, defend its supporters, and silence its critics; it has no interest in countering legitimate antisemitism because much of it comes from allies. If a politician or tech billionaire who espouses support for Israel does something blatantly antisemitic, the ADL downplays the incident. If a college student so much as whispers “Free Palestine,” the ADL brands them a raging antisemite.
As Israel itself is overtaken by its own far-right, the extent it’s willing to collaborate with white nationalists is unsurprising. While much of far-right support for Israel is driven by the desire for the world’s Jewish population to be concentrated in Israel – whether it’s because of Biblical prophecies or racist anti-assimilationist beliefs – there is also the simple fact that the far-right sticks together. Israel’s extensive apartheid system, subjugation of its indigenous population, and belief in ethnic supremacy are greatly admired by white nationalists.
This sentiment is not new. At the beginning of the first Trump administration, well-known alt-right leader and neo-Nazi Richard Spencer made headlines for referring to himself as a “White Zionist” as he advocated for a white ethnostate and a return to slavery. In a 2017 interview with Israel’s Channel 2 following the white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, Spencer laid out these connections clearly:
“As an Israeli citizen, as someone who has a sense of nationhood and peoplehood, you should respect someone like me who has analogous feelings about whites. You could say that I am a White Zionist – in the sense that I care about my people, I want us to have a secure homeland, just like you want a homeland in Israel.”
This is what happens when you build an ethnostate, in which citizenship, power, and influence are determined along racial lines. The white nationalists are listening, and Israel is an inspiration to them.
The ways Israel has subjugated the Palestinians in service of ethnic supremacy and “securing the homeland” offers a clear blueprint for the way forward. Zionists also understand how their cooperation with the far-right is leading to its legitimization, but they look away in service of nationalism. Theodore Herzl’s dream is being realized: Israel is embracing the groups that seek to destroy its people, but strengthen its state.
Kate McMahon is a writer and journalist focused on the MENA region