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Is the Amsterdam Attack a New Normal for Israelis and Jews?
Pro-Palestinian protesters face Dutch police while taking part in a non-authorized protest in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Nov. 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Anthony Deutsch
Last week, Israeli fans of the Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club were violently attacked across the city of Amsterdam in a pre-planned assault. Jews were jumped, assaulted, spat on and even pushed into freezing canals. One video shows a man filming himself driving rapidly down a street on the night of the attacks, and exclaiming that he is on a “Jodenjacht,” a Dutch word meaning “Jew Hunt.”
In another video, a man is thrown to the ground and repeatedly kicked while urgently shouting “I’m not Jewish.” Some people were hit by cars. Many fans were injured and hospitalized, although none were killed. In a place where three quarters of the Jewish population was exterminated less than 100 years ago, these scenes are particularly harrowing.
Israel’s government sent emergency planes to evacuate approximately 2,000 Israeli citizens from the Netherlands, amid fears of further threats and attacks. In the aftermath, the Israeli government warned both Israelis and European Jews to stay away from soccer matches and public events indefinitely, and to avoid wearing clothing or accessories that reveal their Jewish identities at sporting events for fear of future attacks.
On the day following the attack, the King of the Netherlands issued a statement admitting that his country had “failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during World War II, and last night we failed [them] again.” The Amsterdam attack marks yet another significant turning point for world Jewry, with many Jews once again questioning their safety in Europe.
Despite near-immediate condemnation from Dutch and Israeli officials, the usual crowd of anti-Israel academics, journalists, and media personalities rushed to justify the attacks, asserting they were provoked by football chants.
One anti-Israel “pundit,” Mehdi Hasan, began justifying the brutal attacks before the dust had even settled, claiming that three Maccabi fans had “torn down Palestinian flags,” and that Israeli fans had sung anti-Arab chants at the football match.
To be sure, some Maccabi fans probably behaved poorly, and we as Jews should not condone such behavior, but there is no equivalence — words or chants don’t justify vicious physical assaults, and the attacks on Maccabi fans were highly organized and pre-planned before the Israeli team had even arrived in the Netherlands.
According to Dutch media, the attacks had been planned for days in WhatsApp group chats, with many such chats consisting of Arab taxi cab drivers in Amsterdam, who used their city-wide network to gain information on the whereabouts of Israelis. In some of the leaked messages, there were calls for a “Jew-hunt,” and references to Israelis as “cancer dogs,” as well as group-wide planning and agreement on exactly when the attacks would take place.
The most horrifying part of the Amsterdam attack is seeing first-hand how anti-Jewish pogroms have been justified — just as they were justified throughout history.
Jews as oppressors is not a new trope, but instead of condemning radical Islamic movements promoting these tropes, the left-wing has seemingly co-opted radical right wing antisemitism. The Jewish community experienced the same gaslighting and doublespeak in the aftermath of October 7, 2023, when much of the global left-wing — including journalists, academics, and celebrities — rushed to justify the worst attack against Jews since the Holocaust.
Unless the civilized world unites in moral clarity against antisemitism, xenophobia, and all forms of hatred, Jewish people and other minorities will be unsafe in Europe and around the world.
Many Jewish people who were born after the Holocaust thought we were immune from antisemitic mob violence, and that the world had changed. But we are now seeing, firsthand, how antisemitic violence can be justified or ignored.
After a year that featured an exponential rise in antisemitism and anti-Jewish hate crimes across Europe, it is time for European governments to take a hard look in the mirror, consider their failures, and address the roots of these incidents including the spread of radical Islamic extremism.
Nathaniel Miller is a student at Tulane, where he is a copy editor for the Tulane Hullabaloo, and served as Tulane AIPAC’s president and a CAMERA fellow.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
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