Austria’s newly formed governing coalition includes the Freedom party (known by its German acronym FPO), which was founded by an ex-SS officer in 1956 and has long been a magnet for bigots, quasi-fascists, and Nazi apologists. Yet, argues Isi Leibler, the party has changed a great deal since the departure of its longtime leader Jörg Haider in 2005, and it would be foolish for Israel to shun Austria because of the FPO’s past:

With the broadening of support for the FPO, [its current leader, Heinz-Christian Strache], seeks to . . . purge it of the anti-Semites and fascists and concentrate on becoming a popular anti-immigration party. In fact, Strache openly courts Jews and Israel.

The coalition government’s program, published jointly by the FPO and [Prime Minister Sebastian] Kurz’s Austrian People’s party, . . . proclaims that combating anti-Semitism in Austria is one of the government’s principal objectives and that Nazism was “one of the greatest tragedies in world history.” The country that, until recently, claimed to be a victim of Nazism now vows to commemorate those who underwent “terrible suffering and misery” arising from the Anschluss, Austria’s 1938 unification with Nazi Germany.

The new government also explicitly commits itself “to Israel as a Jewish state”—a major departure from previous Austrian policy—and calls for a “peaceful solution in the Middle East, with special consideration for Israel’s security interests.” . . .

Israel does not need to endorse the policies of the Austrian government or the FPO. . . . Other than the East European states, Israel has no allies in the EU, which is now notorious for its shameless bias and double standards against the Jewish state. Under such circumstances, subject to the Austrian coalition government’s adhering in practice as well as in word to its policy statements concerning Jews, Israel should maintain relations with the Austrian government.

While it is commendable that administrators of several universities finally called upon police to crack down on violent and disruptive anti-Israel protests, the actions they have taken may be insufficient. At Columbia, demonstrators reestablished their encampment on the main quad after it had been cleared by the police, and the university seems reluctant to use force again. The school also decided to hold classes remotely until the end of the semester. Such moves, whatever their merits, do nothing to fix the factors that allowed campuses to become hotbeds of pro-Hamas activism in the first place. The editors of National Review examine how things go to this point:

Since the 10/7 massacre, Columbia’s Jewish students have been forced to endure routine calls for their execution. It shouldn’t have taken the slaughter, rape, and brutalization of Israeli Jews to expose chants like “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the Zionist state” as calls for violence, but the university refused to intervene on behalf of its besieged students. When an Israeli student was beaten with a stick outside Columbia’s library, it occasioned little soul-searching from faculty. Indeed, it served only as the impetus to establish an “Anti-Semitism Task Force,” which subsequently expressed “serious concerns” about the university’s commitment to enforcing its codes of conduct against anti-Semitic violators.

But little was done. Indeed, as late as last month the school served as host to speakers who praised the 10/7 attacks and even “hijacking airplanes” as “important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”

The school’s lackadaisical approach created a permission structure to menace and harass Jewish students, and that’s what happened. . . . Now is the time finally to do something about this kind of harassment and associated acts of trespass and disorder. Yale did the right thing when police cleared out an encampment [on Monday]. But Columbia remains a daily reminder of what happens when freaks and haters are allowed to impose their will on campus.