The horrific events of October 7 shocked many around the world. However, despite the great outpouring of sympathy for Israel, some quarters supported Hamas and its brutal onslaught. Most of them were from Arab countries and from radical elements. However, Hamas also received support from a surprising element, whose ideology, on the face of it, is inconsistent with that of the radical Islamic organization – the white supremacists and the neo-Nazis.
Leaders of white supremacist organizations openly celebrated Hamas’ attack against Israel. They applauded the atrocious videos posted on social media by Hamas supporters, in which the massacre, slaughter and abductions were filmed in southern Israel. These leaders applauded at length the explicit descriptions of violence against Israel while inciting for increased anti-Jewish violence all over the world following Hamas’ onslaught on October 7. With this they created an alarming trend in which Hamas’ popularity has increased among radical elements all over the world. It has been placed in one class with the world’s most notorious terrorist organizations – and it also provides it with a broad base of admirers from among the radical right, neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Neo-Nazi group leaders, centered in the United States, took advantage of Hamas’ horrific massacre to embark on an “anti-Semitism festival” all across the social media.
Thus for example, the leader of GDL (Goyim Defense League) Jon Minadeo, did an online podcast in which he expressed his excitement at the cruelty Hamas exhibited. He addressed his audience by saying “Guys, one day, in the near future, when the Americans awaken, this is what’s going to happen. I think we have a better scenario, tell you the truth.” Another group, NSF (Natsoc Florida), posted an image of a T-shirt with anti-Israeli lettering on it with the following accompanying text: “The Israeli people deserve zero sympathy. To hell with Israel. They deserve what they’re getting now. I hope Hezbollah and the Taliban manage to make it to the battle.”
Yet another group with numerous social media channels is the WLM (White Lives Matter) group, which has many offshoots all over the United States. It sprang up following the slogan White Lives Matter, which first appeared in 2015 as a paraphrase of the social justice movement Black Lives Matter, which started a few years before. This slogan also served neo-Nazi groups like the Ku-Klux-Klan and others to recruit new members and for organizing demonstrations under that same banner.
On October 8, a group of individuals related to white supremacy, White Lives Matter California, posted a photograph on Telegram showing several of its members holding a banner with “No More Wars for Israel” on it. “No More Wars for Israel” is an anti-Semitic slogan used primarily by extreme right-wing anti-Semites, such as the neo-Nazi white supremacists. It has been circulating for years. The slogan alludes to the assertion that the Jews and Israel effectively control United States foreign policy and that the United States’ military involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places was all purely for the benefit of Israel.
On top of that, many neo-Nazi channels, with thousands of followers, applauded the pictures from Hamas’ onslaught. One of those channels was inspired by Hamas’ crimes, telling its followers to “think how well-organized white people, who are relatively stronger, could kill Jews in even greater numbers.” The absurdity is that radical right-wingers and neo-Nazis are using the Hamas actions to advance antisemitic and also Islamophobic narratives. Why do such elements support Hamas in spite of their objection to Muslim immigration to the West and their past harassment of pro-Palestinian demonstrations? The respective goals of Hamas and the neo-Nazis might appear to be ideologically opposed. However, content posted on Telegram by neo-Nazis show that they believe they share certain characteristics with Hamas and that they regard the Israel-Hamas conflict an opportunity to radicalize, to recruit new members and to cause violence against the Jewish community. Those same neo-Nazis seek to exploit this to align the global situation due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in such a way that it would suit their overriding goal – racial conflict.
War of the races
white supremacists have an interest in seeing conflicts, like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, escalating to suit their neo-Nazi mythology that advocates racial conflict. This is consistent with a term used by white supremacists – Accelerationism. This notion of accelerating refers to their “desire to accelerate the collapse of society as we know it”. Accelerationism is usually used in the context of anti-white genocidal conspiracy theories that believe whites are under threat and are systematically targeted through immigration and other means. They believe that the collapse of modern socio-political structures and systems are the only means through which these injustices against white people can be stopped. And indeed, many accelerationist groups seek this collapse and call for replacing modern society and governance with an ethno-national regime, with emphasis on white nationalism – where the collective national identity is reserved for whites only.
When neo-Nazis use the term “racial conflict”, they are not referring to racist violence in its narrow interpretation, or between specific racial groups – they are referring to an all-out clash between races. In other words, it is a call for conflict between whites and Afro-Americans, Hispanics, Jews and any other minority.
Some neo-Nazis regard this as focusing on the goal of a “white revolution”, in which white supremacists will control government, whereby they will then be able to create the “white ethno-state” – a nation ruled by whites only and removal of whoever does not belong to the white race. Others view racial conflict as a separatist conflict, in which whites will be able to set up a white stronghold in part of the United States. The one thing they all have in common is that they regard racial conflict as being inevitable.
The White Jihad
The connection to Hamas predated the October 7 massacre. White supremacists have sought to assist Hamas in the past. In September 2020, two members of Boogaloo Bois – a self-styled anti-government militia – were arrested attempting to supply material support to Hamas.
Content posted on Telegram by Accelerationists show that they believe they share certain characteristics with Hamas and that they regard the Israel-Hamas conflict an opportunity to radicalize, to recruit new members and to cause violence against the Jewish communities in the west, and particularly in the United States.
Basing themselves to a large extent on anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and ‘white genocide’ conspiracies, the Accelerationists perceive the Jews to be one of the greatest threats to the ‘whites’. They therefore regard the October 7 attacks against Israel as helpful to their cause. They regard the Jews as a common enemy of themselves and of Hamas and they believe they have a “shared mission” in their “fight for survival” against the Jewish People through violence. The increased neo-Nazi support for Hamas is based neither in religious or cultural ideology. It is about uniting against a common enemy: the Jews and the “corrupt” west that supports them. My enemy’s enemy is my friend.
Moreover, neo-Nazis have even expressed their support for the methods used by Hamas, saying that its brutal methods and their guerilla-style warfare ought to be adopted and applied by neo-Nazi activists in the United States. The neo-Nazis are also using the October 7 events to recruit supporters and activists.
The data emerging from the Accelerationist neo-Nazi Telegram and Terrorgram channels indicate that despite their hate for Muslims, wherever there is mention involving Israel and Hamas post-October 7, there have been expressions of support for Hamas and the tactics it uses against Israel.
Until the October 7 events, these channels were occupied primarily with spreading anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish hate (usually being supportive of Muslims and Jews while they were killing each other). However post-October 7, the anti-Muslim traffic on these channels has diminished, and most of the posts related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were hateful of the Jews.
Apparently besides Jew-hating, a link might have been formed between neo-Nazi Accelerationists and Islamist radicals, based on their common hatred of the perceived oppression by international western institutions like NATO. This enables them to amplify the narratives of hostile factors focusing on the west’s corruption, such as Russia and Iran. The neo-Nazi Accelerationists express their solidarity with Hamas through the use of slogans like Allahu Akbar (God is Great) to express their satisfaction with the attacks on Israel. This is not to say that the neo-Nazis now believe in Hamas’s or any other Jihadist Islamic ideology – their admiration is due to the benefit they believe is gained from this kind of violent uprising, as perpetrated by Hamas.
Moreover, Hamas’ strategy dovetails with the goals of the neo-Nazis in the United States, particularly in the context of carrying out invasions inside the United States. Neo-Nazi groups in the United States, like White Lives Matter, refer to the tactics Hamas used in its October 7 onslaught. They draw inspiration for action that can be done on United States soil against certain local communities and infrastructures. The surprise nature of a guerilla-style onslaught and the resourcefulness in producing home-made rockets – are also an inspiration and are praised by neo-Nazis in the United States.
Finally, this convergence of green-white interests, might increase its influence on public debate around the world and in the United States in particular. The anti-Semitic ideology the neo-Nazis, and particularly the Accelerationists, share with Hamas, exposes a disturbing, though not unknown problem in which the Jews are the arch-enemy, the ultimate opponents. Many neo-Nazi activists, when they plan the establishing of a white ethno-state, despite their racist world view, have found common ground with the Hamas-Islamist ideology from the Muslim Brotherhood’s incubator. The white supremacists are seeking the match that will ignite the “white revolution”. Neo-Nazi groups in the United States are searching for inspiration like Hamas’s murderous actions and are forming a network of ties with similar groups in Europe in preparation for the day of action. They consider escalations between “inferior” ethnic groups like the Jews and Muslims to be the beginning of the race war they are awaiting, in order to “avenge” the white race. Whereas these days the focus is on the radical, progressive left, which has long ago become mainstream in the conversation among members of the lefty in American Society, the next group in line to coming close to the mainstream is the group of neo-Nazi white supremacists. The very fact of their support for Hamas and the Palestinians, forms a common denominator for them and the radical left against a common enemy (again, as in the case of the common denominator with Hamas): the Jews. Despite white supremacy supporters’ intense hatred of anything the progressives represent: multiculturalism, LGBTQ rights, radical feminism, advancement of disadvantaged populations (like the black community, which is also an object of the white supremacists’ scorn) – they might find a convergence of interest in their struggle against the common enemy: the Jews, the capitalists who “rule the world”.
The article was originally published on ynetnews
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the movement