Saturday, November 09, 2024

11/09 Links: Hostage families rally to mark 400 days since Hamas attack; Iran wants war with the United States; Amsterdam Pogrom Is the Quintessence of Anti-Zionism

From Ian:

‘Why is they still in Gaza?’: Protesters in Tel Aviv mark 400 days since October 7
Hundreds gathered outside the IDF’s Tel Aviv headquarters on Saturday evening for the weekly protest demanding a hostage deal, as many of the captives’ families leading the demonstration marked 400 days since their loved ones were abducted.

The crowd appeared slightly larger than in recent weeks. This weekend’s rally on Begin Road was the first since the major one that spontaneously unfolded on Tuesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who was considered a proponent for a hostage deal.

While weekly protests earlier on in the war attracted thousands, Home Front Command restrictions put in place in September cap such gatherings at 2,000 people.

A massive sign reading “Why are they still in Gaza? 400 days” hung from the pedestrian overpass down to street level, while big white cardboard letters on the street spelled out: “400 days — the shame of Netanyahu.”

Though overtly partisan politics are usually absent from the Begin Street protest, the youth wing of the opposition Yesh Atid party set up an informational stand by the demonstration.

A block away, some 500 people assembled at Hostages Square for the main weekly rally organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

With a band of mothers clad in white, Niva Wenkert, the mother of hostage Omer Wenkert, kicked off the rally with a call to join “Shift 101,” a silent protest group. Demonstrators calling for the release of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip outside protest in Tel Aviv, November 9, 2024. (Itai Ron/Flash90)

After Wenkert, actor Lior Ashkenazi, the regular MC at the forum’s rallies, spoke against the government’s politicking at home while the captives have languished in Gaza. He noted that Saturday’s rally fell on the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht, drawing a direct line between the Nazi pogrom and Hamas’s actions on October 7, 2023.

Steffen Seibert, Germany’s ambassador to Israel, also spoke at the rally, saying in Hebrew that for some Israeli politicians, “the fate of the hostages is just one of the [war’s] aims, and certainly not the primary one” — a not so subtle shot at members of Netanyahu’s hardline government.

Seibert added that he was speaking “as the representative of Germany and out of responsibility” to hostages with German citizenship. “I must admit that until now, we have failed to bring everyone home. All the talks with those who have influence on Hamas” have failed to materialize.

Naming hostages who have German citizenship or are related to German citizens, Seibert said: “These are Germans, or family members of Germans, and we want them back.”
Families of four pairs of sibling hostages held in Gaza mark 400 days of captivity
Sylvia Cunio doesn’t live in Kibbutz Nir Oz right now, but when she visits, she has only one wish: To go to Gaza and find her two sons who were taken hostage last October 7.

“I was in Nir Oz the other week and I said to my friends, to my family, ‘Let’s go to Gaza, let’s go, let’s go get them,'” she said. “I just want to go to Gaza and bring them out myself.”

The Cunios are part of a distinct circle within the broader group of hostage families — those awaiting the return of two siblings held by Hamas in Gaza.

Many sets of siblings were taken hostage on October 7, but only four pairs are left in the enclave, with their families bereft and anxious about the future of their loved ones: David and Ariel Cunio, Eli and Yossi Sharabi, Iair and Eitan Horn and twins Gali and Ziv Berman.

Sylvia’s sons David Cunio, 34, and Ariel Cunio, 27, were each taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz. David was taken with his wife, Sharon and their three-year-old twins, along with Sharon’s sister Danielle and niece Emilia who were visiting Nir Oz that weekend. Ariel was taken hostage with his girlfriend, Arbel Yehud.

On November 27, sisters Sharon and Danielle and their three young children were all released home to Israel under the week-long truce. David was left behind, injured, rail thin and terrified, as described by his wife, Sharon, who was aghast at the idea of leaving him behind in Gaza.

Ariel and Arbel are also still held in Gaza. Sylvia Cunio, far left, with her husband, Louis, and three of her four sons, Ariel, (third from left), David and Eitan; Ariel and David were taken hostage to Gaza on October 7, 2023 (Courtesy)

“I have hope and that’s the last thing I’ll lose,” Sylvia said. “But I won’t believe they’re coming back until I see them with my own eyes, next to me, and hug them, smell them and cook for them.”
Noa Argamani on Instagram: 'The abandonment continues'
Noa Argamani, who was rescued from Hamas captivity in Operation Arnon, posted an Instagram story marking 400 days since October 7, 2023.

''I don't even know how to describe to you the frustration I experienced while still in Hamas captivity. Another day passes and another day passes amid complete uncertainty wrapped in despair,'' she wrote.

Speaking about of her captivity drawings, she added: "'When will it be my turn to go home?' 'Have they forgotten me? Left me behind?' These are sentences that I would raise on a daily basis. But the most frustrating moment is when another hundred days join the previous hundred; it's the time when I started counting from the beginning again. Although the counting was restarted, the conditions only worsen, and the despair only increases. It is impossible to put aside the fact that for already 400 days there are 101 hostages who are just waiting for someone to come and save them. 400 days and the abandonment continues, 400 days too many.''

Meanwhile, the families of the hostages held a statement this evening at the Begin Gate in Tel Aviv. Einav Tsangauker, the mother of the hostage Matan, said: ''After 400 days, it's time to say clearly, everywhere, and on every channel: We must end the war in Gaza and bring everyone back. Yoav Gallant said this week that conditions are ripe, achievements have been secured, and there is nothing left to do in Gaza. The entire security system says this. Everyone understands that the only way to bring back the hostages is to end the war in Gaza. There is no other way.''

She claimed, ''But Netanyahu refuses to end the war for criminal political considerations. Because of Netanyahu, the hostages are dying in captivity. Because of Netanyahu, soldiers are being killed in a war that has achieved its goals. Instead of ending the war in Gaza, the government promotes Israeli towns in Gaza. Instead of acting according to the national interest, Netanyahu acts according to the interests of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. The people understand this, the people support the deal and ending the war. Every Israeli patriot should demand from Netanyahu: End the war in Gaza and bring back all the hostages. What else is there to do in Gaza besides a hostage deal?''


Richard Kemp: Iran wants war with the United States
There is no question that Khamanei and the IRGC meant business. The regime has successfully carried out multiple political assassinations since it came to power in 1979, and has attempted to murder many others.

On its own, Iran’s intent to assassinate Donald Trump is a casus belli, demanding the decapitation of the regime. But Tehran’s aggression goes beyond even that. In the last year alone, Iran’s proxies have carried out almost 200 attacks against US forces in Iraq, Syria and Jordan. On 7 October last year, more than 40 Americans living in Israel were murdered by Iranian proxies and 12 kidnapped, some of whom are still held hostage. Trump has warned Hamas and their Iranian sponsors: “We want our hostages back, and they better be back before I assume office, or you will be paying a very big price”.

This suggests that, when Trump re-enters the White House, Washington’s protection of Iran will come to a dramatic end. It is vital for the Middle East and the West that it does. Thanks to Obama’s nuclear deal and Biden’s appeasement, Tehran is now on the cusp of becoming a nuclear armed state. It is believed to have sufficient highly enriched uranium to manufacture at least ten nuclear weapons and the ability to deliver them by ballistic missiles, and may be about to gain the capability for weaponisation.

Prior to the recent Israeli response to Iran’s October missile attacks on its territory, Biden pronounced targeting of Tehran’s nuclear capabilities off-limits. Conversely, Trump said that Israel should “hit the nuclear first and worry about everything else later”. Whatever action Trump decides the US should directly take against Iran, he should remove all the shackles Biden has clapped on Israel. Not only should he unequivocally support whatever action Jerusalem needs to take to defend itself from this threat, he should equip it with whatever military resources it needs to effectively destroy the Iranian nuclear programme.

Such a move should be fully backed by the West, including the UK. Sir Keir Starmer, whose government has ground to make up in its relations with the future Trump administration, could secure an easy win now by proscribing as a terrorist organisation the IRGC, would-be assassins of its number one ally’s president-elect.


Judea and Samaria leaders hail Trump, eye sovereignty push
Leaders and activists across the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria were nearly unanimous in their response to the outcome of the U.S. presidential election: the defeat of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris by Republican contender Donald Trump.

Israel Ganz—head of the Binyamin Regional Council and Yesha Council chairman—celebrated with his staff by taking part in a festive toast at the Psagot Winery, as it launched a new special edition of “Trump” wine.

“Trump’s victory is a great opportunity for the United States, Israel and the global community towards stability and eradication of the axis of evil that threatens the countries of the free world,” Ganz told JNS. ”The key is to radically change the policy of the previous administration in relation to Judea and Samaria; remove the sanctions [on Jews]; and apply Israeli sovereignty to this area, which is both geographically, strategically and biblically the essence of the land of Israel.”

Ganz added that Trump’s win “will send a message of moral clarity to the world and a message to Iran and the entire axis of evil that it is no longer possible to destroy the State of Israel or place it within narrow, indefensible borders.”

Yaakov Berg, CEO and owner of the Psagot Winery, stated: “Especially in these complex days when the State of Israel is still fighting its enemies and losing its finest sons, we thought it was fitting to celebrate the victory of a true friend and lover of Israel, President Trump. We all pray that his victory will bring closer our complete victory over our enemies and the swift return of our sons and daughters to their homes.”

Attorney Marc Zell, a resident of Tekoa in Gush Etzion who serves as chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel, told JNS, “In the previous Trump administration, the secretary of state [Mike Pompeo] stated unequivocally that Jewish presence, settlement and development in Judea and Samaria is both legal and appropriate. The Harris-Biden-Obama administration rescinded this policy and reverted to the Obama-Biden administration policy, which treated Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria as an obstacle to peace and ‘illegitimate.’ This will likely change dramatically during the coming Trump administration—for the better.”


Prominent Gaza Islamic scholar issues fatwa condemning Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught
A prominent Islamic scholar in Gaza has issued a fatwa condemning Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught against Israel.

The six-page ruling by Salman al-Dayah, a former dean of the Sharia and Law Department at Gaza’s Islamic University, criticizes Hamas for “violating Islamic principles governing jihad.”

“If the pillars, causes, or conditions of jihad are not met, it must be avoided in order to avoid destroying people’s lives. This is something that is easy to guess for our country’s politicians, so the attack must have been avoided,” reads the Fatwa translated by BBC.

Dayah says the massive numbers of civilian casualties and widespread destruction in Gaza demonstrate that Hamas’s attack contradicted the teachings of Islam.

He argues that Hamas failed in “keeping its fighters away from the homes of defenseless [Palestinian] civilians and their shelters.”

He cites verses in the Quran that restrict Jihad that provokes an excessive response.

He stresses that Muslim leaders are obligated to ensure the safety of non-combatants. The majority of those killed on October 7 were civilians.
Spanish port denies entry to Danish ship, alleging it’s carrying arms to Israel
A Maersk container ship has been denied entry to the Spanish port of Algeciras, the Danish shipping company said Saturday, denying that the vessel is transporting arms to Israel.

“The cargo to be transshipped through the port does not include any military weapons or ammunition,” Maersk said in a communique.

Spanish daily El Pais earlier this week cited Spanish government officials saying that the ship, as well as another also belonging to Maersk and due to dock later this month, “will not stop in Spain,” according to the press, because its cargo includes weapons being delivered to Israel.

Spain, which is seeking to convince other European countries to recognize a Palestinian state, has refused to dock ships transporting arms to Israel.

“To gain clarity for future operations, we have consulted the Spanish authorities to understand why entry was denied for cargo no different than previous shipments that have routinely been transshipped through this port without incident,” the Danish company said.

“It is our understanding that Spain has in its discretion changed its criteria and is now rejecting vessels that carry anything military-related going to, or from, Israel, notwithstanding such cargo being legal.”


Europe can no longer turn a blind eye to the reality of modern anti-Semitism
On October 7 last year, everything changed. Anti-Jewish racism proved itself to be a light sleeper, and increasingly came to shape the contours of the Jewish experience. The streets, universities, and institutions of Europe ignited with Jew hatred. Students proudly paraded through their campuses, voraciously screaming for violence against Jews. “From London to Gaza, globalise the intifada,” they shouted.

Are governments doing enough to tackle the rise of anti-Semitism across Europe?

Across Europe, it stopped being socially expensive to incite hatred if the targets were Jews. For much of the Left, including among those who would proudly describe themselves as anti-racists, Jews and Israelis became the acceptable target of prejudice and bigotry. It should have been far from surprising that these threats and incitement would lead to the painful consequences we have seen in the videos from Amsterdam, proudly shared on social media by vicious attackers convinced that their assaults of Jews were virtuous. Globalise the intifada, they say?

The situation has gradually worsened over the past year. Across the world, Zionism has been used as a term of abuse. To believe in a Jewish homeland is to lose your membership of the community of the good, as the sociologist David Hirsh calls it. Once this premise is accepted, the unjustifiable can be so easily justified.

Scenes across the UK from recent weeks – of protests outside a Jewish community centre hosting a Left-wing conference on Israel, of the stealing and decapitation of the bust of Zionist leader Chaim Weizman, and of the graffitiing of pro-Israel organisations – should be condemned rather than celebrated. Authorities appear to be unwilling or unable to crack down on these shameless displays of hatred and the British Jewish community feels increasingly vulnerable.

The horrific display of hatred on the streets of Amsterdam should be a warning to us all, for these scenes can so easily be repeated on the streets of London. Authorities must take Jew-hate seriously if we are to stop this. But this must come in addition to a deep societal reckoning with the permissibility and acceptance of anti-Semitism. The implications of not doing so do not bear consideration.
Don’t close your eyes to the chilling return of anti-Semitism
Racism against Jews has become increasingly normalised in Britain and around the world since the 7 October attacks. The pro-Palestinian marches with their hateful slogans and open support for genocidal terrorist groups. The targeting of Jewish students at universities. The failure of broadcasters to report events in the Middle East with the necessary objectivity, context and balance. The out-of-control racist toxicity of social media. All of these things have led inexorably to a world in which Jewish people this week faced violent mobs on the streets of Europe.

It is time for our society to wake up. It is time for a national conversation about how it has come to be that Jewish schoolchildren have been forced to hide signs of their identity, British synagogues require tight security and pro-Hamas content is freely accessible online. It is time for zero tolerance of anti-Semitism on our streets, in our schools and universities, at broadcasters and in every workplace in our country.

All of this requires the kind of leadership that has to date been in woefully inadequate supply amongst politicians, business leaders, media executives and education chiefs. They must ask themselves what steps they have taken to protect Jewish people from harm, from isolation, from racism.

They must ask themselves whether they have done enough to stand up to Jew-hate and what more they can do. They have a choice as to whether to be passive bystanders to the growth of this racist poison in our society or active participants in a generational fight against anti-Semitic violence and abuse.

My thoughts keep returning to the image of a Jewish man hiding in a boat, pretending to be dead, hoping to be rescued. It has dreadful echoes of the experience of Jewish people through history. Of Jewish people in fear, hiding from racist attack. Of Jews seeking protection from those who want to do them harm but not able to find the support they need. Of Jewish people wondering whether the end has come just because they happen to be Jewish.

When it comes to anti-Semitism we no longer just require a warning from history. The warning is right here, right now in the heart of Europe.
Seth Mandel: Amsterdam Pogrom Is the Quintessence of Anti-Zionism
As the 1929 Palestine pogrom spread to Hebron, the chief rabbi’s son, Eliezer Slonim was told by the town’s police chief and district governor that the Jews would be safe so long as they stayed inside. Journalist Yardena Schwartz describes the scene: “Eliezer went from house to Jewish house, joined by the city’s lone Jewish policeman, Chanoch Brozinsky, and Feivel Epstein, son of the head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Epstein. None of them were armed. Brozinsky’s rifle had been confiscated that day, presumably because [police chief] Cafferata feared he might shoot the rioters. The 32 other policemen on Cafferata’s force were Arabs. Their guns had not been taken. Slonim, the only other Jew with a gun in Hebron, had never used it before.”

Thirty-three police officers: 32 Arabs and one Jew. The Jew was disarmed because there was a pogrom about to happen. Arab policemen watched the slaughter, with some joining in. Over in Jerusalem, Jewish self-defense units were kept out or arrested by the British authorities while the rioters and police let loose.

The institutional colonial regime was Arab and British, and so—as in Amsterdam yesterday—there was no security, by design, for the Jews.

And this was only one example. A decade earlier, Jewish battalions serving as part of the Royal Fusiliers helped General Allenby liberate Palestine from the Turks. The British reneged on their promise to give these Jewish soldiers land after the war, and in fact kept them from being decommissioned because although the Jewish battalions weren’t needed once the war was over, keeping them under British control ensured that the Jews of Palestine would remain defenseless. A group of these soldiers were doing a training exercise in Jaffa when the rumblings of a riot began; the British immediately stopped the training exercise and transferred the Jewish soldiers out of the area so they couldn’t help protect civilians.

The British-Arab colonial project continued in this manner until the Jews won independence for both—though the Palestinian Arabs rejected their half of the offer.

The Amsterdam police were simply continuing a long tradition of malign neglect of duty whenever Jews are threatened. It was the norm until 1948, even in Eretz Yisrael. You can see why “anti-Zionism” remains popular in Europe; it is simply nostalgia for unfettered pogroms.
Last Night’s Pogrom in Amsterdam
For the North Africans living in Holland, the dominant Jewish story of the twentieth century is not Auschwitz, it is Israel, which in their distorted conception is an illegitimate, one-directional criminal enterprise directed at an innocent population. Nor—and this is crucial—is this merely an attitude about a conflict. They believe it is the crime of the twentieth century, conferring ultimate guilt on the Jewish people. “Palestine” is a phrase felt to carry the gravity of “Holocaust,” grotesquely inverting the perception of the Jewish experience.

For Holland’s Jewry, this reality has been palpable for decades. Yet nothing—no politician, no policy—has altered this reality. In the aftermath of every single violent attack—as will most likely be the case now—the political answer has been a room-temperature broth of subsidies, youth centers, dialogue forums, visits to Islamic pensioners clubs, and interfaith dialogue.

So it did not surprise me when international media outlets, like The Associated Press and The New York Times, covered this widespread attack as if it was the unfortunate, but perhaps expected, result of the Israeli fans’ conduct before and during the match, such as reportedly taunting Ajax fans with inappropriate slogans. Further, the AP wrote, the attack followed a Palestinian flag being “torn down from a building in Amsterdam on Wednesday,” and the rioters were angry because “authorities banned a pro-Palestinian demonstration near the stadium.” The Times originally pinned the attack on differences over sport and on taunts, as “violence tied to a match between Dutch and Israeli teams,” and reported that “the tensions in the hours leading up to the violence” was in part caused by “one man [being heard] saying in Hebrew, ‘The people of Israel live,’ while others shout[ed] anti-Palestinian chants using expletives.” (The Times has apparently stealth-edited its reporting numerous times since publication.)

In other words, if all you read were the initial reports, you might think that the Israelis started it, or at least had it coming.

What the reporters and media fail to understand is that this was an attack on Israeli football fans, but not one carried out by football hooligans. The Ajax team is itself Jewish friendly—fans of Amsterdam’s Ajax are affectionately (and sometimes not-so affectionately) referred to as “super Jews,” and Ajax is understood as the “Jewish team,” so it would make little sense that Ajax supporters would attack Jews or Israelis for their ethnicity—even if they are fans of an opposing team.

No, this was straightforward: According to the accounts of witnesses and victims, it was an attack by immigrant, Muslim communities against Israelis and Jews.

Between 1977 and 2002, more than 700,000 immigrants and refugees from Islamic countries settled in the Netherlands, now making up about 5 percent of the Dutch population. For decades, issues surrounding the integration of these minorities have riled passions and dominated Dutch politics—first in the form of the assassinated populist leader Pim Fortuyn; then filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was murdered in broad daylight 20 years ago this month; and most recently Geert Wilders, who lives under permanent police protection.

In other words, modern antisemitism in the Netherlands has, for the past several decades, been an affliction of the immigrant and secular communities, which few care to do anything about. In secular Dutch society, teachers find it increasingly difficult to teach the country’s recent history—its complicity in the Holocaust—in schools with large immigrant communities. (As the Algemeen Dagblad related as early as 2015, if a teacher says “Holocaust,” students reply, “That’s all bullshit” and “You are on the side of the Jews.”)

The most alarming thing of all is the transformation of the people who are meant to protect us: the police. Just last month, Dutch police officers indicated they would not be comfortable guarding Jewish institutions over their “moral objections” to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

Surely the dark irony of the Dutch refusing to protect their country’s Jews—citizens or visitors—would not be lost on anyone. But lost, it seems to be. Will a pogrom in 2024 be sufficiently horrific to wake Europe up?
The Intifada Is Globalized
Despite overwhelming evidence pointing to a premeditated assault, some American media outlets tried to frame the violence as an escalation of a brawl between opposing soccer fans, alleging that Israeli fans had torn down a Palestinian flag and chanted anti-Arab slogans before the game. Even if true—and it’s still unclear that it is—nothing justifies hordes of bloodthirsty assailants rampaging through a city and attacking anyone they suspect of being Israeli. To suggest otherwise should be unthinkable in the twenty-first century. This is the West. People may say and do ugly things, but that never warrants the violence that transpired last night.

For their part, Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew both condemned the attack. The events in Amsterdam could easily be replicated in the United States, where American Jews have faced surging anti-Semitism since October 7.

In fact, last night, pro-Palestinian activists attempted to derail comedian Michael Rapaport’s event in Chicago, promoting flyers that read, “Racists and Zionists are not welcome in our cities.” Simultaneously in Bergenfield, New Jersey—home to a significant Jewish population—pro-Palestinian groups intimidated the community by chanting for “intifada” and brandishing images of Adolf Hitler.

This follows over a year of calls echoing across the U.S., from public squares to college campuses, where radical activists have shouted, “Globalize the intifada.” The intifada has indeed been globalized.

The leap from “Zionists not welcome” and Hitler imagery to events like the Amsterdam rampage is not nearly as vast as it seems. Just as it was in Amsterdam, the writing is on the wall in America. If only those in power would pay more attention. What happened in the Netherlands can easily happen stateside. American officials and law enforcement must remain vigilant before Amsterdam’s horrors find their way to the U.S.


Geert Wilders says no arrests were made during the Amsterdam pogrom
Dutch politician and leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) Geert Wilders said that he was "speechless," on X/Twitter, citing Amsterdam Police saying that no one was arrested during the pogrom against Israeli Jews in the Dutch capital on Thursday night.

"I am speechless. Amsterdam Police just confirmed that NO ONE has been arrested during the Islamic Jewhunt in Amsterdam Thursday night.

"All arrests have been made before and during the soccer match and NOT during the pogrom," he wrote.

Dutch police arrested 62 people on Thursday night, but only 10 remain in police custody, according to Chief Prosecutor Rene de Beukelaer, as reported by ANP.

Amsterdam Police Chief Peter Holla brought in around 800 officers from around the country in preparation for the event, which is "exceptionally large" for Amsterdam standards, according to a report from the Jewish News Syndicate.

He said in a press conference on Friday in Dutch that "it is very difficult for the police to act against these flash moments spread throughout the city. This is despite the great presence of police until late at night.” A person is detained by the police as Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters demonstrate in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 7, 2024, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. (credit: Michel Van Bergen/via REUTERS)
Austrian bishop calls antisemitic incident in Amsterdam a ‘deeply alarming sign’
Amsterdam’s mayor, Femke Halsema, characterized the violence as an “eruption of antisemitism,” while Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof called the attacks “unacceptable” and vowed to hold perpetrators accountable.

Archbishop Franz Lackner of Salzburg, president of the Austrian bishops’ conference, described the event in a Nov. 8 interview as a “deeply alarming sign.”

He noted that the incident in Amsterdam happened just days prior to the annual commemorations of Kristallnacht, the brutal pogroms that the Nazis perpetrated against Jews in Germany, the annexed country of Austria, and other Nazi-controlled areas. Throughout Nov. 9–10, 1938, the Nazis vandalized and destroyed hundreds of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes.

Lackner called for prayers for peace in Israel and Palestine. He added that any ideology, including religious or political opinion, that permits or justifies violence against Jews has no place in society.

“We must stand up against this,” he said.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog described the incident on social media as an “antisemitic pogrom.” The Dutch king, Willem-Alexander, reportedly called Herzog to apologize for the incident.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government swiftly arranged special flights to evacuate Jewish people from Amsterdam on Friday and Saturday.

St. Paul VI’s 1965 encyclical Nostrae Aetate made clear the Church’s condemnation of hatred and violence against Jews and Judaism, decrying all “hatred, persecutions, displays of antisemitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone” (Nostra Aetate, 4).

The U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League has been tracking a sharp rise in the number of antisemitic attacks and incidents since Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. According to that group, antisemitic incidents surged by more than 350% in the first 100 days after the invasion.

The majority of those incidents, according to the group’s data, involved either “verbal or written harassment” or “rallies” involving antisemitic rhetoric and “expressions of support for terrorism against the state of Israel and/or anti-Zionism.” Dozens of instances of assault and hundreds of reports of vandalism were also recorded.

For their part, the Catholic bishops of the United States have condemned in recent years what they call a “reemergence of antisemitism in new forms.” In a statement released before the start of the current Israel-Hamas conflict, the bishops called on Christians to join them in opposing acts of antisemitism and reminding the faithful of Christianity’s shared heritage with Judaism.
Call Me Back PodCast: POGROM IN AMSTERDAM – with Ayaan Hirsi Ali & Omer Bigger
Hosted by Dan Senor
Last night in Amsterdam, dozens of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans suffered a pogrom in the streets of Amsterdam, following the soccer team’s match against Ajax. According to most accounts, this ambush was planned and coordinated in advance.

And according to Israeli authorities, 10 Israelis were injured throughout the night, as mobs of antisemitic rioters ambushed, chased, and attacked the Israeli soccer fans. Dozens have been arrested, and the Israeli government dispatched planes to Amsterdam to return the Israeli fans safely to Israel. The Amsterdam police was observed to be largely ineffective in attempting to protect the Israeli fans from the assailants.

To unpack these disturbing events, and discuss the climate of antisemitism that has erupted in the Netherlands and across Europe, we are joined by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Omer Bigger.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Somali-born Dutch-American activist, author, and a former Dutch member of Parliament. She is known for her outspoken criticism of Islam.

Ayaan has just launched a media platform called Courage.Media, which aims to amplify the voices of those who are showing great courage by standing up to the anti-western, anti-liberal, anti-democratic movements that are taking root in our media, our politics, our schools, and our communities.

Omer Bigger is an Israeli tech worker living in Amsterdam.




Revealed: How Pro-Palestinian mob organised via WhatsApp to ‘Hunt Jews’ across Amsterdam
The most famous and revered stop on Amsterdam’s tourist trail is the four-storey house on the Prinsengracht canal where the diarist Anne Frank lived in hiding for two years.

Now a museum, it is one of Europe’s most powerful reminders of the Holocaust, with a near-sacred status as a memorial to Jews like Anne who were exterminated by the Nazis.

On Thursday night, a terrible echo of the “Jew hunts” that took place during the German occupation played out just a few hundred yards from Anne Frank’s House as Israeli football fans were pursued through the streets and attacked.

The parallels were too obvious to ignore, prompting the Dutch king to say his country had failed Jewish people just as it did during the Second World War.

A pro-Palestinian demonstration had coincided with a European football match between the Maccabi Tel Aviv, the Israeli side, and Ajax, the local team whose fans refer to themselves as the “Super Jews”. The result was as shaming as it was foreseeable.

Videos posted on social media showed fans of the two teams being punched, kicked and humiliated as pro-Palestinian marchers shouted anti-Semitic slurs at them.

Now it has emerged that the attacks on the Jewish football fans were planned in advance and co-ordinated using WhatsApp and Telegram.

The Telegraph has seen messages from a group chat called Buurthuis, a Dutch word for a type of community centre, which were posted on Wednesday, the day before the match.

One message says: “Tomorrow after the game, at night, part 2 of the Jew Hunt.

“Tomorrow we work them.”

Another member of the group says: “Who can sort fireworks?” adding, “We need a lot of fireworks”. Participants refer to “cancer dogs”, a particularly vile insult in the Netherlands.

The previous day had some skirmishes, which the Jewish fans escaped by going into a local casino. One of the messages sent by the pro-Palestinians said: “They won’t go to the casino any more.”
Jewish boycott forming against Uber following Amsterdam lynch
The involvement of Muslim Uber drivers in the attack on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in Amsterdam has resurfaced a longstanding problem facing Jews and Israelis worldwide since October 7, with Israelis and Jews increasingly being targeted.

It's known that Israelis traveling abroad often change their names on ride-hailing apps to more international names, especially when they notice that the driver assigned to them has a Muslim name. From New York to Berlin, many drivers on these apps are Muslim immigrants, and as a result, many Israelis are now reluctant to ride with drivers who appear to be of Muslim background.

This fear of ride-hailing services is not limited to Israelis alone; Jews around the world also share similar concerns. YWN (Yeshiva World News) issued calls over the past weekend to boycott Uber, citing the attacks on Israeli fans by drivers affiliated with the company, some of whom even transported passengers to pre-planned ambushes.

The initiative encourages Jewish passengers to switch to other companies, such as Lyft, until Uber responds to the events in Amsterdam.

Tonight (Saturday evening), events are set to take place across Europe commemorating Kristallnacht. There are concerns that taxi drivers might again target Jewish passengers, viewing them as vulnerable when they enter their cabs.

The Dutch press reported last night that over the past year, some taxi drivers in Amsterdam have refused to pick up passengers with Jewish or Israeli names. Furthermore, some Jewish passengers who changed their names in the app still experience verbal abuse, curses, and, since October 7, even violent assaults by North African drivers.
'Jew hunt': Rioters planned Amsterdam pogrom in Telegram groups in advance
Violent attacks against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans following a soccer match in Amsterdam on Thursday evening left several Israelis wounded and were likely to have been a result of a pre-planned attack against Jews organized in a Telegram group, Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported on Friday.

An alleged "Jew hunt" was announced well in advance in the messaging app Telegram, prompting rioters to travel from far outside Amsterdam to attack Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and Jewish people, De Telegraaf reported.

Already on Wednesday nights, Amsterdam's city center had been the site of similar incidents, the Dutch paper noted.

Several taxi drivers were also reported to be involved in the attack on Israelis, as they arrived in central Amsterdam to target groups of Israelis, De Telegraaf stated.

One Israeli ended up in one of Amsterdam's canals, while others hid at the Holland Casino. An investigation by Holland Casino revealed that a hired security guard was active in one of the Telegram groups where information was exchanged between perpetrators, De Telegraaf alleged.

The Dutch paper reported that, according to the casino, the security guard will no longer be hired back.

Following the attacks on Thursday night, individuals in the Telegram groups spoke of a follow-up attack.
Jewish lawmakers press Dutch ambassador for answers on Amsterdam attack
A group of Jewish House members spoke to the Dutch ambassador to the United States on Friday, asking her for information about the mob attack on Israeli and Jewish fans of the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team in the streets of Amsterdam on Thursday.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), who organized the call, told Jewish Insider that all individuals involved need to be held fully accountable for their actions under Dutch law, including facing deportation if applicable. Sherman said the Dutch ambassador, Birgitta Tazelaar, will be briefing lawmakers again next month with further details, which “will be very important.”

He said he was grateful to hear from Tazelaar that all missing Israelis had been accounted for and that all injured Israelis had been released from the hospital.

Sherman said that Tazelaar is set to report back to lawmakers on why police were apparently unaware of and unprepared for the attack, as well as whether and how those involved in the attack will be prosecuted.

“The people who did this, the pogrom perpetrators, they organized in advance, and they are not the CIA. They are not even the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps],” Sherman said. “In this case, the Dutch don’t seem to have monitored the internet traffic of amateur criminals.”

“If you told me that 6,000 Israelis were flying to any town in Europe … I would have said, ‘Yeah, you better have some more police officers there,’” Sherman continued.

Sherman said he had also pressed Tazelaar on a report in a Dutch Jewish newspaper, predating Thursday’s attack, that Dutch police officers had refused to protect Jewish sites; he said he expects Tazelaar to be able to account for that report, paragraph by paragraph, in her next briefing.

“I need to be absolutely assured that there’s nobody being paid to be a policeman in Holland that has refused to protect Jews or Jewish property, or Jewish institutions, or Jewish gravesites,” Sherman said. He said Tazelaar had assured him that any officer who refused to protect a specific group would be fired.

Sherman also pushed back on claims advanced by some that the attack was provoked by disrespectful or hateful chants by Israelis or by Israelis tearing down Palestinian flags.

“That does not mean you can go out and do violence, even to that one Israeli, let alone every Israeli and every Jew you can find in the city of Amsterdam,” Sherman said.
Israeli official rips NYT over coverage of ‘antisemitic pogrom’ at Amsterdam soccer game
An Israeli official led an avalanche of criticism Friday over media coverage of the attack on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam — calling the violence an “antisemitic pogrom” and accusing journalists of sanitizing it.

“Hi @nytimes,…We fixed it for you,” wrote David Saranga, a former Israeli ambassador to Romania, on X alongside his edited version of a New York Times headline about Thursday night’s bloody incident.

The Times headline read, “Violence tied to soccer game prompts dozens of arrests in Amsterdam.”

Saranga’s edited version changed the headline to “Violent antisemitic pogrom prompts Israeli rescue mission to Amsterdam.”

After the heinous assault, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent planes to evacuate Israeli citizens from the Netherlands.

Saranga also edited the Times’ subhead for the piece to read, “The police said 57 people were arrested after terrorists lynch Jews who were in Amsterdam to watch Israeli Team. The Attacks were driven by antisemitism.”

The original subhed published by the Times implied that there was violence from both Dutch and Israeli fans. It also attributed the antisemitism issue to claims by the Israeli government.


German politician quits after sex doll post with Nazi logo targeting local soccer team
A local politician in northern Germany who posted a picture of a sex doll with a St Pauli soccer club T-shirt and a noose around its neck has stepped down following a wave of criticism.

The posting by Bulent Buyukbayram, a member of the Christian Democrats in the city of Delmenhorst, also showed the words “shit St Pauli” written on the doll’s head, with the letters ‘S’ shaped like the logo of the SS, the Nazis’ main paramilitary force.

Bundesliga club St Pauli, based in Hamburg, said they would consider legal action and Buyukbayram has apologized and stepped down from his local posts.

“It was a stupidity, a mistake,” he told Bild newspaper. “I am getting serious threats. I have apologized to St Pauli.”

Bundesliga club St Pauli are known for having an alternative fan scene and left-wing supporter base.

They are also active with social projects in the community and are known for their support for refugees and minorities and projects such as installing beehives in their stadium roof to raise environmental awareness.


IDF troops find a ready-for-launch missile system in Lebanon
The IDF discovered a mobile missile system aimed at the Galilee Panhandle during raids in southern Lebanon this past week.

The ready-for-launch missile system containing 24 rockets was discovered connected to a civilian structure in southern Lebanon by IDF Brigade 769 under the 91st Division. It was brought back to Israel, along with other pieces from a weapons stockpile concealed in the nearby forest.

Operation Northern Arrows
In the course of Operation Northern Arrows, the IDF has said it has destroyed around 300 terrorist infrastructures, eliminated a number of terrorists, and uncovered underground Hezbollah facilities in southern Lebanon.

The IDF also said it had found stockpiles of weapons and ammunition that included equipment such as Kornet missiles and RPGs.


Israel rejects ‘biased’ warning of famine in Gaza, says aid trucks enter war-torn towns
Israel rejected on Saturday a group of global food security experts’ warning of famine in parts of northern Gaza, where it is waging war against Palestinian terror group Hamas, as the military said it had let aid trucks in areas cut off by fighting.

“Unfortunately, the researchers continue to rely on partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests,” the military said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Hamas-run civil defense agency reported 14 killed in Israeli strikes on a Khan Younis tent camp and a Gaza City school that the army said was used by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.

The independent Famine Review Committee said on Friday in a rare alert that there was a “strong likelihood” of imminent famine in parts of north Gaza with immediate action required from the warring parties to ease a catastrophic situation.

Israel’s military said it had increased aid efforts including opening an additional crossing on Friday.

Since the start of the war, 39,000 trucks carrying more than 840,000 tons of food have entered Gaza, it said, and meetings were taking place daily with the UN which had 700 trucks of aid awaiting pickup and distribution. Officials said that since the beginning of October, 713 aid trucks had entered northern Gaza via the Erez West Crossing.

With some critics alleging starvation tactics in north Gaza, Israel’s main ally the US has set a deadline within days for it to improve the humanitarian situation or face potential restrictions on military cooperation.

On Saturday, the IDF said it had delivered 11 humanitarian aid trucks to Jabalia and Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip two days earlier. The aid delivery was the first to reach the Strip’s far north since Israel launched renewed operations in the area a month ago, after Hamas forces regrouped there.


To recover, Democrats must expel anti-Zionist extremists who put off Middle America
It’s a fiasco.

Yes, Kamala Harris’s defeat could have been worse. George McClellan, who challenged Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, won hardly 5% of the Electoral College. Barry Goldwater, who ran against Lyndon Johnson after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, carried only six states, and Alf Landon, who faced Franklin D. Roosevelt while he fought the Depression, won just two.

Even so, this week’s defeat is worse, because those runs were unwinnable, regardless of the losers’ identity and platform. The duel with Donald Trump was winnable. The winner – a serial liar, notorious bigot, proud ignoramus, political charlatan, abuser of women, and convicted felon – was vulnerable from head to toe.

Who, then, was this election’s loser, what caused the defeat, and what will prevent its repeat?

The defeat, many say, was Kamala Harris’s. She was the candidate, she shaped the campaign, and she failed to impress the swing vote, both as a candidate and as vice president.

Well, that’s true, but even so she was not the cause of the defeat. The cause was the Democratic Party, which failed this test’s every task: The diagnosis, the tactics, the strategy, and, above all, the mentality with which it approached the challenge of Donald Trump.

THE DEMOCRATS’ first mistake was their failure to address President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. He was their leader. It was their duty to draw conclusions before the rest of us did. If the party could not notice, or admit, its own leader’s situation, how could it credibly decry its opponent’s flaws?

Then came the tactical mistake of crowning Harris without a contest. When the same party had to field a candidate instead of the slain Kennedy, it held a primary election in which Alabama governor George Wallace challenged Johnson.

Yes, there was more time back then, a whole year, but the time deficit was the party’s fault. It should have persuaded Biden to declare his incapacitation early, and then held normal primaries.

Alas, just like there was no party to remind Biden of his promise to be a one-term president, there was no party to prevent his handpicking its next leader. Had the Democrats held a primary election, voters might have learned in time what they learned too late: that Harris couldn’t beat Trump.

Hovering above this tactical misjudgment was the strategic misunderstanding of the arena into which Harris was pushed. The party never contemplated its campaign’s message. There was a long list of promises – no new taxes for the middle class, more taxes on the rich, expansion of the Affordable Healthcare Act, for instance – but there was no flagship plan.

Trump, by contrast, repeatedly blared a major vow – to expel illegal immigrants in droves – and made it the center of his campaign. Faced with this negativity, the Democrats were supposed to produce an equally clear, but positive overarching vow: say, a plan to renew all urban ghettos, or to offer free college tuition in return for social service, or to build fast trains between America’s major cities.
Q&A BHL on Israel, Ukraine, and the World Crisis
Bernard-Henri Lévy, the French philosopher, writer, and activist, has been going to Israel his whole life, virtually. He went on October 8, 2023, the day after the attack. His new book is “Israel Alone.” With Jay, he discusses various aspects of this war. Also Russia’s war on Ukraine. And the connectedness of things. A meaty and clarifying discussion.


Big Brother contestant waves pro-Palestine scarf as he is evicted from ITV show - after broadcaster edited episodes to remove references to Gaza
A contestant waved a Palestinian scarf as he left the Big Brother House, amid controversy of ITV editing the show to remove references to Gaza.

Khaled Khaled was evicted alongside Lily Benson on Friday night as a part of a shock double eviction.

The 23-year-old was seen holding up a pro-Palestinian scarf handed to him by an audience member as he left the reality show house - but the scarf was gone later in the programme.

The tassels at each end of the scarf were in the colours of the Palestinian flag and it had a pattern similar to a Palestinian keffiyeh - the headscarves worn bypro-Palestine marchers during protests in London and across the country.

MailOnline has contacted ITV for comment.

It comes after the broadcaster edited previous episodes of both the main show and spin-off show to remove references to Gaza.
UKLFI: Dental chain drops notorious grime star Wiley from its “Birthday Bash” after outcry by Jewish dentists
The Smile Clinic Group, which runs a chain of 14 dental practices and a Dental Academy, has cancelled Wiley from the line-up in its upcoming “Birthday Bash” for dentists.

The joint CEOs of the Smile Clinic Group and directors of the Dental Academy, Kishan Patel and Jinesh Vaghela styled themselves as “Dr Krish” and “Dr Jin” on their invite to the “Birthday Bash”. The event features acts including Heartless Crew, Panjabi Hit Squad and So Solid Crew. However, the headline act was “Wiley”, a notorious grime artist who has been kicked off Twitter (now X) and Instagram, dropped by his manager, and stripped of his MBE over his antisemitic posts.

The advertisement for the event was sent out from Dr Jinesh Vaghela’s professional work email address from the Smile Clinic Group, and is being promoted as the ‘biggest party in dentistry’. The promotional flier also features the Smile Clinic Group logo. The Eventbrite advert stated that the event is organised by Smile Dental Academy. It is clearly a professional corporate dental event, and not a private party.

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) was asked to intervene by Jewish dentists who felt that the event was divisive and non-inclusive. They explained that Jewish dentists would not be comfortable attending such an event knowing of Wiley’s history as an antisemite, and especially considering the rise in antisemitism over the last year.

UKLFI pointed out to Dr Jin and Dr Krish that, given Wiley’s outright antisemitic comments and their own high profile as dentists and owners of a large group of dental practices, featuring Wiley at this event would bring the dental profession into disrepute.

It would also breach General Dental Council (GDC) standards including general principle number 9 which says: Make sure your personal behaviour maintains patients’ confidence in you and the dental profession”


Madman with antisemitic manifesto arrested in ‘potential plot’ to assassinate Florida congressman
Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz revealed Friday that a maniac carrying a manifesto with “antisemitic rhetoric” was arrested in his district in connection to a potential plot on the lawmaker’s life.

The Democratic congressman from the Sunshine State’s 23rd District shared details about the disturbing threat in a post on X, saying the suspect was busted last Saturday “not far” from Moskowitz’s home.

Margate police arrested Johnathan Lapinski, 41, in connection to the incident, according to NBC News. He was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and other gun-related charges, according to that report.

Lapinski, a convicted felon, was in possession of a rifle, a suppressor, and body armor, according to Moskowitz.

The maniac was also in possession of a manifesto that had “antisemitic rhetoric” and the congressman’s name on a “target list,” the lawmaker said.

In the statement, Moskowitz highlighted the seemingly ongoing threats against politicians.

“As someone who was appointed to the Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump, I understand the failures and importance of fixing the protection of our current and future Commander-In-Chief and Vice President,” Moskowitz wrote on X.

“At the same time, I am deeply worried about Congressional member security and the significant lack thereof when we are in district,” he added.
Anti-Israel protester charged with hate crime for threatening Jewish man on NY subway
New York prosecutors indicted a man for an antisemitic hate crime that allegedly occurred around the time of controversial protests against an exhibit on the October 7, 2023, Nova music festival massacre.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Friday that Christopher Husary, 36, had been indicted for attempted coercion as a hate crime and aggravated harassment.

Bragg’s office said Husary’s alleged victim, a 35-year-old Jewish man, boarded a subway at Fulton St. station in lower Manhattan on the evening of June 10 and saw Husary drawing an inverted red triangle, a Hamas symbol, on a subway door.

The Jewish man then allegedly used his cell phone to photograph Husary, who then approached the man, who was wearing a kippah, and demanded he delete the photo.

According to Bragg’s office, Husary berated and threatened the Jewish man, calling him a “Zionist” and saying, “You’re not a real Jew.” He then added, “We’ll find you and there will be consequences.”

The victim reported the incident to police two weeks later, on June 22, Bragg’s office said. The same day, the New York Post published an article identifying Husary as a resident of a wealthy San Francisco suburb with a history of legal trouble. Soon afterward, the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force launched an investigation into the incident. Anti-Israel protesters demonstrate outside the Supernova music festival exhibit in New York City, June 10, 2024. (Twitter, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

The incident occurred around the time that protesters gathered outside a Lower Manhattan exhibit commemorating the victims of Hamas’s massacre at the Nova music festival on October 7, where more than 360 people were killed.

The protest, led by the hardline activist group Within Our Lifetime, was widely decried as antisemitic by government officials and Jewish leaders.
Lyft taps Mobileye and Tel Aviv dashcam startup to connect riders to robotaxis
US rideshare firm Lyft is teaming up with Mobileye, the Jerusalem-based maker of self-driving technologies, and Israeli smart dashcam startup Nexar for the rollout of robotaxis on its platform.

The two partnerships are part of three deals that Lyft has inked with autonomous driving companies to bring self-driving cars into its ride-hailing app. The third partner is US startup May Mobility, which plans to deploy a fleet of self-driving Toyota Sienna minivans equipped with its autonomous technology, through Lyft’s network starting in Atlanta in 2025.

“Lyft’s aim is to connect autonomous vehicles (AVs), drivers, riders, and partners to create new opportunities for all,” said Lyft CEO David Risher. “Our rideshare network will continue to evolve as millions of people will have the opportunity to earn billions of dollars whether they choose to drive, put their AVs into service, or both.”

As part of the partnership with Intel-owned Mobileye, Lyft will make its rideshare platform available to vehicles owned by third-party fleet operators that are integrated with Mobileye’s Drive self-driving system.

“Cooperating with leading mobility providers and operators are essential steps to bring autonomous mobility services to reality,” said Mobileye President and CEO Prof. Amnon Shashua. “Enabling Mobileye Drive with Lyft’s network of 40 million annual riders in North America would allow our AV customers to reach new markets and geographies with autonomous services and provide the benefits of the technology through a sustainable business.”

Mobileye has in recent years bet on commercial robotaxi services, as well as self-driving shuttles for public transportation across Europe and delivery vehicles in the US as a first introduction of autonomous cars on the roads. Mobileye Drive-equipped vehicles are currently piloted with several mobility operators in Germany, Norway, Croatia and the US.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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