Benjamin Netanyahu triggered a potential new row with Europe on Sunday by claiming that “a wave of Islamisation” was sweeping the continent as police in Germany banned an anti-Muslim group from holding a mass rally amid a reported jihadist death threat against its leader.
The comments by Mr Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, were made as he disclosed Israel’s plans to expand trade with the Far East because of perceived rising hostility in Western Europe, the country’s biggest export market.
They risked being interpreted as a vindication of populist European anti-Islamist protest groups and came as the biggest such movement, Germany’s Pegida (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the Occident) was forced to call off Monday’s planned demonstration in Dresden.
“We definitely want to reduce our dependence on certain markets in western Europe,” Mr Netanyahu told a weekly cabinet meeting ahead of the visit by Shinzo Abe, Japan's prime minister, who arrived in Israel with a vast Japanese trade delegation.
“Western Europe is undergoing a wave of Islamisation, of anti-Semitism, and of anti-Zionism. It is awash in such waves, and we want to ensure that for years to come the state of Israel will have diverse markets all over the world.”
Credit to The Telegraph
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