Thu Sep 11 12:41:10 UTC 2025: Okay, here’s a news article summarizing and rewriting the provided text:
**Germany’s Anti-Semitism Fight Fuels Far-Right, Critics Say**
Berlin, Germany – A new investigation suggests that Germany’s intense efforts to combat anti-Semitism are having a paradoxical effect: empowering the far-right and stifling legitimate criticism of Israel.
Australian-Jewish journalist Antony Loewenstein, whose family history is deeply intertwined with the Holocaust, has returned to Germany to explore the increasingly strict measures being taken against those who criticize Israel’s policies, particularly regarding Gaza.
According to Loewenstein and some critics, this zero-tolerance approach has created an environment of censorship, with individuals facing job losses, arrests, and bans for expressing views deemed critical of Israel. One Jewish philosopher described the situation as a “McCarthyism” for the 21st century.
Loewenstein, granted German citizenship in 2011, aims to understand why German authorities are so determined to suppress criticism of Israel. He will be interviewing those impacted by these policies, the enforcers, and members of the far-right who claim to support Israel.
The core issue, according to Loewenstein, is the irony of how a nation’s commitment to fighting anti-Semitism is, in practice, bolstering the very forces historically responsible for it: the far-right, with their roots in Germany’s fascist past. This investigation raises serious questions about the balance between combating anti-Semitism, safeguarding freedom of speech, and upholding democracy in Germany.
First Piper 