Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli met with French far-right leader Jordan Bardella in Washington on Friday, further upending Israel’s longstanding boycott of France’s National Rally party, which was founded by a Holocaust denier and is opposed by the majority of French Jews.

Bardella said on X that he and Chikli held “fruitful discussions” on “Franco-Israeli relations, the international fight against Islamic terrorism and antisemitism, and future joint projects with Patriots for Europe,” the European Union parliamentary bloc that includes NR and far-right parties from Austria, Hungary, and the Netherlands.

Israel’s ruling Likud party, which counts Chikli as a member, joined the bloc as an outside observer earlier this month. Bardella serves as the bloc’s chairman.

Chikli and Bardella met while attending CPAC, an annual right-wing conference in Washington. The conference provoked controversy when Steve Bannon, a former adviser to US President Donald Trump, appeared to give a Nazi salute at the end of his speech on Friday.

Bardella subsequently canceled his planned speech. Without naming Bannon, he said that “while I was not present in the room, one of the speakers allowed himself, as a provocation, a........

© The Times of Israel