Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Tuesday that France is facing an "invasion of extremist Islam," a provocative characterization of the weekend riots that erupted in Paris and other major cities. Speaking to i24News, the right-wing leader dismissed the economic grievances driving the unrest, insisting the chaos was fueled by a failure of French leadership to combat radical Islamists. "They did not prepare in time, they simply gave up," Netanyahu said, according to the interpreter’s French translation. "They succumbed to the invasion of extremist Islam."
The comments landed like a grenade in a room already tense with diplomatic friction. France recognized Palestinian statehood last year, a move that infuriated Jerusalem and strained bilateral relations. Netanyahu’s rhetoric echoes the language of far-right politicians across Europe who have long promoted baseless narratives about Islamic law taking over Western cities. His advice to Paris was blunt: "Fight back, do not pursue a policy of appeasement -- fight against the extremists."
The Prime Minister linked the European unrest directly to the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023. He claimed to have warned President Emmanuel Macron that if Israel did not eliminate the threat domestically, France would eventually face it too. "If we do not eliminate them here, you will have them in Paris -- and that is exactly what is happening," Netanyahu stated, offering no evidence to support the causal link between the Gaza war and the French civil unrest.
Washington echoed the sentiment. President Donald Trump, who made combating illegal immigration a central pillar of his 2024 campaign, seized on the French chaos to push his border-hardening agenda. Speaking in Washington on Monday, Trump told reporters that the situation in France was purely an immigration issue. "It’s immigration, and I told President Emmanuel Macron, close up your borders," Trump said.
This is not Netanyahu’s first foray into such territory. In August, he derisively referred to Britain as an "Islamic republic," a remark that prompted London to label the comments "completely unacceptable." As European leaders grapple with domestic instability, these high-profile endorsements of nativist rhetoric threaten to further polarize public opinion and deepen the rift between Israel and its traditional Western allies.