Amsterdam report blames the Jews

So let’s see if I understand this. Because Maccabi fans reportedly shouted slurs and tore down a Palestinian flag, they are to be blamed for the ensuing Jew-hunting that followed.

Really?

So they are comparing yelling and shouting, to beating and Jew-hunting? Are they stupid? Or are they themselves antisemitic?

How can people equate the two? How can one even contemplate equating? Shouting is the same as beating up? Chanting is the same as kicking and knifing? Screaming is the same as hunting Jews, as they did eighty years ago when many Dutch police and citizens helped the Nazis round up the Jews?

Really?

How can a person even think of comparing it?

It’s not the same. Shouting and beating up are not the same. Shouting and looking for Jews to beat up are not the same. Shouting and reenacting what the Nazis did eighty years ago are not the same.

Another point. There’s a difference between Israelis shouting that Israel has a right to defend itself, and pro-Hamas demonstrators condoning the October 7 massacre.

The Maccabi fans were yelling, were chanting, were insulting, were standing up for the right of Israel to defeat its arch-enemies, to fight in self-defence the way any country does. America and its allies attacked the attackers of 9/11; and even though about 400,000 civilians were killed, that didn’t stop the Americans and their allies from defending themselves, by hitting back and destroying its enemies and destroying Isis.

What Israeli fans were really shouting, was that Israel had the right to defend themselves against terrorists. Their shouts were insulting? OK. Riling up others? Yes. But is that the same as rounding up and beating Jews for being Jewish? No. They are not the same.

The police in Amsterdam seem quite inept. They had eight hundred policeman and they couldn’t prevent what happened. Maybe the report blaming the Israeli fans, is the police and politicians’ way of deflecting blame from themselves.

It’s not clear if the warning from the Mossad reached the police; but there is one story that is being reported, that numerous Dutch policemen have refused to guard Jewish sites, and this is tolerated by the police.

In fact, Europe tolerated a lot of antisemitic demonstrations in the past year. By tolerating and allowing people to say that they are in favour of killing Jews, that they support the October 7 massacre by Hamas, Europe is telling its people that it’s OK to condone the massacre of Jews.

When Congresswoman Stefanik asked the university presidents if calls for genocide against Jews would be going against university rules of bullying, the famous reply was that it depends on the context.

Indeed it does depend on the context. The context is that eighty years ago six million Jews were murdered. The context is that a year ago over a thousand Jews were murdered. The context is that many antisemites want to kill Jews. The context is that when people scream genocide against Jews, it should be no different than screaming fire in a crowded theatre, which, a Supreme Court Justice famously said, is not allowed under the law of free speech.

When Israelis shout that they have a right to defend themselves, that’s understandable. When pro-Hamas demonstrators shout that Hamas was right to massacre Jews October 7, that’s despicable. And when Amsterdam hunts and beats up Jews, that’s criminal.

So Amsterdam, it’s time to think about life, to think about your past history, and to think about what’s happening now.

Europe, it’s time to think about whether you should fan the flames of hatred by allowing people to freely condone the October 7 massacre of Jews.

World, it’s time to realize.