Islamophobia has become Israel's Trojan Horse to win over westerners

Israel's Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli has explained his own strategy more candidly than any critic could.

Antisemitism, he told an interviewer, does not much interest the average European or American, whereas fear of "radical Islam" interests them "very, very much", and Israel therefore needs "to take advantage of that".

Here is a senior cabinet minister admitting that Islamophobia has become a Trojan Horse for Israel to win over European and American hearts and minds.

And it is the clearest account yet of what his ministry has become under Benjamin Netanyahu; an office that once existed to protect Jewish communities abroad now works to turn European fear of Muslims into political capital for the Israeli government.

But while his predecessors asked what would keep Jews safe, Chikli asks what narrative can be weaponised to make an easier sell. The most effective selling point, he has concluded, is not Israel at all but fear of somebody else.