Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday a wave of anti-Semitism and what he called “Islamisation” in Western Europe are factors in a Jewish state push to expand trade with Asia.

Europe is Israel’s biggest trading partner, but deepening diplomatic disputes over policy towards the Palestinians and anti-Jewish incidents such as a Jan. 9 attack by an Islamist gunman on a Paris kosher deli have triggered Israeli worries.

Netanyahu, who is also finance minister and a free-market champion, cast his courting of China, India and Japan over the past two years as a partial response to European developments.

He was due to host a Japanese government and business delegation led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday.

“I put emphasis on markets to the East not because we want to give up on other markets. But we definitely want to reduce our dependence on certain markets in western Europe,” Netanyahu told his cabinet in remarks at which reporters were present, without naming specific countries.

“Western Europe is undergoing a wave of Islamisation, of anti-Semitism, and of anti-Zionism. It is awash in such waves, and we want to ensure that for years to come the State of Israel will have diverse markets all over the world.”