How come Dutch racists do not turn against Geert Wilders the way Hungarian fascists ousted Csanád Szegedi?

Please, first read this beautiful moving well-written story of A whole new Jew: The anti-Semite who turned out to be one of the Jews he despised. Szegedi had no clue that his mother’s mother was a Jewess – and his step-grandfather a Jew. Jews were aliens and his Aryan looking grandparents had to be part of the good folks. When history caught up with him and his prejudices, his leadership of the fascists was over.

The story also give a “nice” peek into how neo-Nazism is run and propagated in Europe.

So what’s with Geert Wilders, who is a decade ago ousted as a Jew from his mother’s mother’s side, and a half-blood?

Well, let’s first of all be very clear that a politician’s ethnic background is completely irrelevant. To mention it negatively in relation to the person’s thinking is probably always racist. Maybe there is some place to say a positive thing like: Because she suffered so much as a …, she is very clear about standing up for …, but also that could be kosher only if it’s said by the politician herself. After all, one doesn’t need to have been oppressed to recognize justice sharply.

Having said this, I think that we might have a special case with Geert Wilders. He’s not only pretending to be an Aryan (everyone has the right to pass as any identity he chooses) – but he does that for a bad cause, with his peroxided coiffure. It would be perfectly OK if he would say (including himself) “We the Dutch,” if he wants to say that his Jewish and West-Indian ancestry does not take away his right to fully belong. However, when he says “We the Dutch,” he uses that to say that Muslim Arabs and their offspring who settled in The Netherlands do not belong there. Why would it then become 100 % kosher to mention his ethnicity?

The anti-fascist and mainstream news media prefer to ignore Wilders’ non-Aryan side – as if they would be racists by stressing this point. Are they right or is this political correctness going bonkers?

Maybe we can answer that with a few comparisons. We know that democracy demands that everyone has an equal right to vote and to be elected. However, there are people who want to use the democratic political system to get to power and then overthrow democracy. Those people should not be allowed to participate as candidates in elections. That is not a limit on democracy – that is the protection of it. These people are not thrown out of democracy – they threw out themselves.

Another comparison. No politician or public figure should be outed for being gay. The media must respect leaders’ right to privacy – especially when they otherwise would be targeted because they are members of a vulnerable group. However, gay activist have concluded years ago that there is an exception. When a secretly gay leader as part of his policy degrades or condemns gays, he should be outed.

Similarly, when a politician propagates racism (not in a slip of the tong or having a questionable idea, but furthering outright hardcore racial discrimination), and himself hides his for racists unacceptable ethnic background, we should give that publicity, to show how this leader for them should be rejected.

The Sages teach us that who is nice to the wicked will end up being wicked to the nice. When we do so, we are not lowering ourselves to their standards. Rather, we give them a taste of their own medicine.

Geert Wilders, by spearheading Dutch and European racism, has forfeited his right not to have his ethnic backgrounds considered.

Therefore I believe that we may draw attention to the fact that Dutch and European fascists and racists accepting Wilders as their leader are just opportunists. We know that they have no integrity, but they also have no backbone? If they have no one else, they’ll even march behind a known Jew and half-blood, as long as it brings them the popular vote, is making racism seem OK and promises them racist laws?

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Egypt, with its popular deep-seated hatred of Jews, has a president whose very mother was Jewish. But mothers’ lineages mean nothing in Arab culture, so he’s accepted as a full Arab through his father, just like Jews accept him as a full Jew through his mother. He doesn’t need to hide his mother’s Jewishness – it’s just not relevant.

In the US, all the media would ask a Jewish half-blood skinhead activist continuously: How can you be so full of racist hatred if you are of mixed racial background and a Jew for Jewish Law? They wouldn’t get enough of asking this. Not so in Europe!

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N.B.: Wilders’ political party has only one member: Wilders himself. This way he doesn’t need to deal with opponents inside his party. His party is expected to get at least a whopping 25% of the Dutch vote to become the largest fraction in the always heavenly fractured Dutch Parliament!

So, maybe therefore he’s not ousted: there cannot be any party opposition. It’s not only that Dutch neo-Nazis have no backbone having Wilders as one of their prominent leaders – he outsmarted them – all of them. Without him, his leading party does not exist and will get zero votes at the election in The Netherlands.

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And if you would think that I can’t get any crazier, follow this one: The Dutch Deputy Prime Minister mild-mannered Lodewijk Asscher has been chosen to be the leader of the Dutch Labor Party. He repeatedly is identified as a Jew, especially by anti-Semites, although only his great-grandfather (his father’s father’s father) was a famous Jewish leader – with the same Jewish family name.

In the upcoming Dutch national elections, a Goy leading the Socialists is scolded for being a Jew, and a stealth Jew and West-Indian is leading the neo-Nazis and racists. You can’t make it up like that; or at least I can’t.

About the Author

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. * This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2000 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe too, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. * Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. * Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight reality), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. * Chronologically, his most influential teachers are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. * He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. * He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. 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