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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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Israel Says Missile Launched by Yemen’s Houthis ‘Most Likely’ Intercepted
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
The Israeli army said on Saturday that a missile fired from Yemen towards Israeli territory had been “most likely successfully intercepted,” while Yemen’s Houthi forces claimed responsibility for the launch.
Israel has threatened Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement – which has been attacking Israel in what it says is solidarity with Gaza – with a naval and air blockade if its attacks on Israel persist.
The Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group was responsible for Saturday’s attack, adding that it fired a missile towards the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade.
Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.
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Iran Holds Funeral for Commanders and Scientists Killed in War with Israel
People attend the funeral procession of Iranian military commanders, nuclear scientists and others killed in Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 28, 2025. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Large crowds of mourners dressed in black lined streets in Iran’s capital Tehran as the country held a funeral on Saturday for top military commanders, nuclear scientists and some of the civilians killed during this month’s aerial war with Israel.
At least 16 scientists and 10 senior commanders were among those mourned at the funeral, according to state media, including armed forces chief Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Revolutionary Guards commander General Hossein Salami, and Guards Aerospace Force chief General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
Their coffins were driven into Tehran’s Azadi Square adorned with their photos and national flags, as crowds waved flags and some reached out to touch the caskets and throw rose petals onto them. State-run Press TV showed an image of ballistic missiles on display.
Mass prayers were later held in the square.
State TV said the funeral, dubbed the “procession of the Martyrs of Power,” was held for a total of 60 people killed in the war, including four women and four children.
In attendance were President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior figures including Ali Shamkhani, who was seriously wounded during the conflict and is an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as Khamenei’s son Mojtaba.
“Today, Iranians, through heroic resistance against two regimes armed with nuclear weapons, protected their honor and dignity, and look to the future prouder, more dignified, and more resolute than ever,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who also attended the funeral, said in a Telegram post.
There was no immediate statement from Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since the conflict began. In past funerals, he led prayers over the coffins of senior commanders ahead of public ceremonies broadcast on state television.
Israel launched the air war on June 13, attacking Iranian nuclear facilities and killing top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
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Israel, the only Middle Eastern country widely believed to have nuclear weapons, said it aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.
Iran denies having a nuclear weapons program. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has said it has “no credible indication” of an active, coordinated weapons program in Iran.
Bagheri, Salami and Hajizadeh were killed on June 13, the first day of the war. Bagheri was being buried at the Behesht Zahra cemetery outside Tehran mid-afternoon on Saturday. Salami and Hajizadeh were due to be buried on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would consider bombing Iran again, while Khamenei, who has appeared in two pre-recorded video messages since the start of the war, has said Iran would respond to any future US attack by striking US military bases in the Middle East.
A senior Israeli military official said on Friday that Israel had delivered a “major blow” to Iran’s nuclear project. On Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Israel and the US “failed to achieve their stated objectives” in the war.
According to Iranian health ministry figures, 610 people were killed on the Iranian side in the war before a ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday. More than 4,700 were injured.
Activist news agency HRANA put the number of killed at 974, including 387 civilians.
Israel’s health ministry said 28 were killed in Israel and 3,238 injured.
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Pro-Palestinian Rapper Leads ‘Death to the IDF’ Chant at English Music festival
Revellers dance as Avril Lavigne performs on the Other Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, in Pilton, Somerset, Britain, June 30, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
i24 News – Chants of “death to the IDF” were heard during the English Glastonbury music festival on Saturday ahead of the appearance of the pro-Palestinian Irish rappers Kneecap.
One half of punk duo based Bob Vylan (who both use aliases to protect their privacy) shouted out during a section of their show “Death to the IDF” – the Israeli military. Videos posted on X (formerly Twitter) show the crowd responding to and repeating the cheer.
This comes after officials had petitioned the music festival to drop the band. The rap duo also expressed support for the following act, Kneecap, who the BCC refused to show live after one of its members, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – better known by stage name Mo Chara – was charged with a terror offense.
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