Connect with us

RSS

Netanyahu Dispatches Airplanes to Rescue Israeli Soccer Fans Following Violent ‘Pogrom’ Attacks in Amsterdam

Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters are guarded by police after violence targeting Israeli football fans broke out in Amsterdam overnight, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Nov. 8, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ami Shooman/Israel Hayom

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered planes to be dispatched to Amsterdam to bring home Israeli fans of the soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv who were violently assaulted in the city by a mob in what witnesses and leaders described as pre-planned antisemitic assaults on late Thursday night and into the early hours of Friday.

“The Prime Minister has directed that two rescue planes be sent immediately to assist our citizens. The harsh pictures of the assault on our citizens in Amsterdam will not be overlooked,” read a statement from Netanyahu’s office. “Prime Minister Netanyahu views the horrifying incident with utmost gravity and demands that the Dutch government and security forces take vigorous and swift action against the rioters, and ensure the safety of our citizens.”

Both former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and current Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon called the violence a “pogrom.” Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote on X that he has been in constant contact with the Israel Police, who have been coordinating with Dutch law enforcement to “rescue the Israeli citizens, and to investigate the serious lynching incidents in the Netherlands.”

“Fans who went to see a soccer game encountered antisemitism and were attacked with unimaginable cruelty just because of their Jewishness and Israeliness. I condemn any attempt to make the victim guilty,” Ben-Gvir added. “This is not only an injury to Jews and Israelis, but a warning sign to all European countries against radical Muslim violence. Those who turn a blind eye to Islamic terrorism in the Middle East will meet it at home in Europe and the West. Today the victims were Israelis, tomorrow it will be you Europeans.”

Israel’s newly minted Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said he was in contact with authorities in the Netherlands about the violence and posted a hotline for Israelis and Jews in danger.

Hundreds of Israeli fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv reported facing a wave of violence from antisemitic, anti-Israel gangs of men late Thursday night and into the early hours of Friday. They were attacked before and after Maccabi Tel Aviv lost its match against the Dutch soccer team AFC Ajax as part of the UEFA Europa League. Ajax won the match 5-0.

Numerous graphic videos circulating on social media showed multiple street fights, and Israelis being chased down the street with knives and sticks, beaten and run over by cars. In multiple incidents shared on social media, Israeli soccer fans were forced by their attackers to say “Free Palestine.” Some Israeli soccer fans reportedly barricaded themselves in buildings, shops, and other places in the city to avoid the attacks.

“So far, it is known that five people have been taken to the hospital and 62 individuals have been arrested,” Amsterdam Police said in a statement.

According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, up to 20 of its nationals were injured.

Police initially said they were also investigating reports of abductions during the attacks and a potential hostage situation. However, Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that all Israelis had been contacted and accounted for, according to Ynet.

An Israeli who survived the attacks, Yarin Hay Itzhak, wrote about his experience on X and said in a Hebrew-language post that he was punched in the face and kicked in the stomach. He was in Amsterdam with two friends, one of whom “was kidnapped and bled for hours” but ultimately survived the onslaught.

“It’s unbelievable that we had to run away from thousands of Muslims on the streets of Amsterdam and get some Israelis into KFC when the police are out there in small numbers and don’t know how to handle the event,” he added. “They didn’t bring a doctor to everyone who was injured there because ‘there is no way to help you.’ The Muslims tried to run over, kidnap, beat, and murder. Everyone who is there, catch a flight and return to Israel.”

Dutch nationals of Turkish descent reportedly chased a Maccabi Tel Aviv fan after stealing his passport and then pushed him into a river, according to Ynet. Maariv reported that there was at least one attempt to kidnap an Israeli.

“They waited in groups at every corner, and as soon as they recognized Jews, they started chasing them,” one Israeli who witnessed the violence told Israel’s Kan 11 news. “Others waited near hotels and near the casino in larger groups, and there they also attacked fans. Then others drove by with cars and did not stop honking near hotels in which Israelis are staying.”

“The police were not present at the conclusion of the games, and Muslims were waiting near train stations for Israeli fans and followed them,” another Israeli told Kan 11. “The police only started to intervene after about half an hour to 45 minutes into the attacks, after the attackers threw firecrackers at people and into buildings.”

Local police escorted some of the Israeli soccer fans back to their hotels, the Netherlands’ RTL reported. The attacks took place hours after the Netherlands commemorated the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the infamous Nazi assault on the German Jewish community in 1938.

Danon posted a graphic video of the violence Thursday night on X.

“These are the true faces of the supporters of the radical terrorism we are fighting. The western world needs to wake up now!!” he wrote. “This is the time when the UN should immediately and clearly condemn the violence of the Palestinians and their supporters. The Dutch authorities must take decisive action against terrorism now.”

The Israel’s Embassy to the US also posted a video of the violence on X. “Hundreds of fans of the @MaccabiTLVFC soccer team were ambushed and attacked in Amsterdam tonight as they left the stadium following a game against @AFCAjax,” the post read.” The mob who targeted these innocent Israelis has proudly shared their violent acts on social media.”

The embassy included the number for a hotline that Israelis in Amsterdam can call if they need assistance.

The post Netanyahu Dispatches Airplanes to Rescue Israeli Soccer Fans Following Violent ‘Pogrom’ Attacks in Amsterdam first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading

RSS

Iran Rejects US Nuclear Proposal, Says ‘Counteroffer’ Coming as Talks Stall Over Uranium Enrichment, Sanctions

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS

Iran has denounced the latest nuclear proposal from the United States as “unprofessional and untechnical,” reaffirming the country’s right to enrich uranium and announcing plans to present a counteroffer in the coming days.

“After receiving the American proposal regarding the Iranian nuclear program, we are now preparing a counteroffer,” Ali Shamkhnai, political adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in an interview on Wednesday.

Shamkhani criticized the White House draft proposal as “not well thought out,” emphasizing its alleged failure to address sanction relief — a key demand for Tehran under any deal with Washington.

“There is no mention whatsoever of lifting sanctions in the latest American proposal, even though the issue of sanctions is a fundamental matter for Iran,” Shamkhnai said.

The Iranian official also warned that Tehran will not allow the US to dismantle its “peaceful nuclear program” or force uranium enrichment down to zero.

“Iran will never relinquish its natural rights,” Shamkhani said.

Washington’s draft proposal for a new nuclear deal was delivered by Omani officials — who have been mediating negotiations between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff — during last month’s talks in Rome.

On Wednesday, Khamenei dismissed such an offer, saying it “contradicts our nation’s belief in self-reliance” and runs counter to Iran’s key objectives.

“The proposal that the Americans have presented is 100 percent against our interests,” the Iranian leader said during a televised speech.

“The rude and arrogant leaders of America repeatedly demand that we should not have a nuclear program. Who are you to decide whether Iran should have enrichment?” Khamenei continued.

After five rounds of talks, diplomatic efforts have yet to yield results as both adversaries clash over Iran’s demand to maintain its domestic uranium enrichment program — a condition the White House has firmly rejected.

In April, Tehran and Washington held their first official nuclear negotiation since the US withdrew from a now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal that had imposed temporary limits on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanction relief.

Since taking office, US President Donald Trump has sought to curtail Tehran’s potential to develop a nuclear weapon that could spark a regional arms race and pose a threat to Israel.

Meanwhile, Iran seeks to have Western sanctions on its oil-dependent economy lifted, while maintaining its nuclear enrichment program — which the country insists is solely for civilian purposes.

As part of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran — which aims to cut the country’s crude exports to zero and prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon — Washington has been targeting Tehran’s oil industry with mounting sanctions.

Amid the ongoing diplomatic deadlock, Israel has declared it will never allow the Islamist regime to acquire nuclear weapons, as the country views Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to uphold any agreement that prevents Tehran from enriching uranium.

“But in any case, Israel maintains the right to defend itself from a regime that is threatening to annihilate it,” Netanyahu said in a press conference last month, following reports that Jerusalem could strike Iranian nuclear sites if ongoing negotiations between Washington and Tehran fail.

The post Iran Rejects US Nuclear Proposal, Says ‘Counteroffer’ Coming as Talks Stall Over Uranium Enrichment, Sanctions first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading

RSS

Day After Colorado Attack, Founder of Anti-Israel Group Chides Activists Who Are Insufficiently ‘Pro-Resistance’

Nerdeen Kiswani, founder of WithinOurLifetime (WOL), leading a pro-Hamas demonstration in New York City on Aug. 14, 2024. Photo: Michael Nigro via Reuters Connect

Nerdeen Kiswani, the founder of the radical anti-Israel organization Within Our Lifetime, chastised those within the pro-Palestinian movement who only support “resistance” in the abstract but not in practice following Sunday’s antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colorado.

“A lot of people who call themselves anti-Zionist or pro-resistance don’t actually understand what resistance is,” Kiswani posted on X/Twitter on Monday. “They support it in theory, but when it shows up in practice, they hesitate, distance themselves, or shift the conversation entirely.”

She continued, “And it makes it even harder for those of us who are principled to take public stances. We’re already marginalized, already painted as extreme or dangerous and that isolation only deepens when others in the movement won’t stand firm when it counts.”

Kiswani’s comments came the day after a man threw Molotov cocktails at a Boulder gathering where participants were rallying in support of the Israeli hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza — which resulted in 15 injuries, including some critically, in what US authorities called a targeted terrorist attack. Her tweets also came less than two weeks after a gunman murdered two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, while they were leaving an at the Capital Jewish Museum hosted by the American Jewish Committee. In both attacks, the perpetrator yelled “Free Palestine” as they targeted innocent civilians, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

After Kiswani’s social media posts sparked some backlash among pro-Israel users on X, she provided limited pushback on the idea that it was an expression of support for the prior day’s attack in Colorado.

“Zionists are freaking out in the QTs about this, insisting it’s about Colorado,” she wrote. “Newsflash: the world doesn’t revolve around you. Resistance hasn’t stopped in Gaza, look at what just happened in Jabalia [where three IDF soldiers were killed] for instance. The perpetual victimhood is getting old.”

However, Kiswani did not say her comment had no connection to the attack in Colorado, and she did not say that she opposed the firebombing.

Kiswani and her group, Within Our Lifetime (WOL), have been at the forefront of anti-Israel and pro-Hamas activism since Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists killed 1,200 people and abducted 251 hostages during their invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, a massacre that started the war in Gaza.

On Oct. 8, 2023, one day after the biggest single-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, WOL organized a protest to celebrate the prior day’s attack, which it described as an effort to “defend the heroic Palestinian resistance.” Kiswani notably refused to condemn Hamas and the Oct. 7 massacre following the atrocities.

Then, in Apil 2024, Kiswani refused to condemn the chant “Death to America” and organized a mass demonstration to block the “arteries of capitalism” by staging a blockade of commercial shipping ports across the world in protest of Western support for the Jewish state. That same month, she was banned from Columbia University’s campus in New York City after leading chants calling for an “intifada,” or violent uprising.

The following month, Kiswani led a demonstration in Brooklyn, New York in which she lambasted the local police department, claimed then-US President Joe Biden will soon die, and called for the destruction of Israel.

That proceeded the activist saying she does not want Zionists “anywhere” in the world while speaking in defense of a person who called for “Zionists” to leave a crowded subway car in New York City.

WOL, which planned a protest last year to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre, was also behind demonstrations at the Nova Music Festival exhibit, which commemorated the more than 300 civilians slaughtered by Hamas while at a music festival.

The latter protest prompted widespread condemnation, including from Biden and even progressive members of the US Congress who are outspoken against Israel.

US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), for example, posted on social media that the “callousness, dehumanization, and targeting of Jews on display at last night’s protest outside the Nova Festival exhibit was atrocious antisemitism – plain and simple.”

The post Day After Colorado Attack, Founder of Anti-Israel Group Chides Activists Who Are Insufficiently ‘Pro-Resistance’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading

RSS

Israel’s Defense Exports Hit Record $15 Billion in 2024 Despite European Pressure, Calls for Arms Embargo

Israeli troops on the ground in Gaza. Photo: IDF via Reuters

Israel reached a new all-time high in defense exports in 2024, nearing $15 billion — the fourth consecutive year of record-breaking sales — despite mounting international criticism over the war in Gaza and growing pressure from European countries to suspend arms deals.

In a press release on Wednesday, Israel’s Defense Ministry announced that defense exports reached over $14.7 billion last year — a 13 percent increase from 2023 — with more than half of the deals valued at over $100 million.

According to the ministry, Israel’s military exports have more than doubled over the past five years, highlighting the industry’s rapid expansion and growing global demand.

“This tremendous achievement is a direct result of the successes of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] and defense industries against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, the Ayatollah regime in Iran, and in additional arenas where we operate against Israel’s enemies,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.

“The world sees Israeli strength and seeks to be a partner in it. We will continue strengthening the IDF and the Israeli economy through security innovation to ensure clear superiority against any threat – anywhere and anytime,” Katz continued.

In 2024, over half of the Jewish state’s defense contracts were with European countries — up from 35 percent the previous year — as many in the region have increased their defense spending following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Despite increasing pressure and widespread anti-Israel sentiment among European governments amid the current conflict in Gaza, this latest data seems to contradict recent calls by European leaders to impose an arms embargo on the Jewish state over its defensive campaign in Gaza against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

On Wednesday, Germany reversed its earlier threat to halt arms deliveries to Israel, reaffirming its commitment to continue cooperation and maintain defense contracts with Jerusalem.

“Germany will continue to support the State of Israel, including with arms deliveries,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told lawmakers in parliament.

Last week, Berlin warned it would take unspecified measures against Israel if it continued its military campaign in Gaza, citing concerns that exported weapons were being used in violation of humanitarian law.

“Our full support for the right to exist and the security of the State of Israel must not be instrumentalized for the conflict and the warfare currently being waged in the Gaza Strip,” Wadephul said in a statement.

Germany would be “examining whether what is happening in the Gaza Strip is compatible with international humanitarian law,” he continued. “Further arms deliveries will be authorized based on the outcome of that review.”

Spain and Ireland are among the countries in Europe that have threatened or taken steps to limit arms deals with Israel, while others such as France have threatened unspecified harsh measures against the Jewish state.

According to the Israeli defense ministry’s report, since the outbreak of war on Oct. 7, 2023, after the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, the operational successes and proven battlefield performance of Israeli systems have fueled strong international demand for Israel’s defense technology.

Last year, the export of missiles, rockets, and air defense systems reached a new high, making up 48 percent of the total deal volume — up from 36 percent in 2023.

Similarly, satellite and space systems exports surged, accounting for 8 percent of total deals in 2024 — quadrupling their share from 2 percent in 2023.

While Europe dominated Israel’s defense export market in 2024, significant portions also went to other regions. Asia and the Pacific made up 23 percent of total sales — slightly lower than in previous years, when the region approached 30 percent.

Exports to Abraham Accords countries fell to 12 percent, down from 23 percent in 2022, while North America remained stable at around 9 percent.

The post Israel’s Defense Exports Hit Record $15 Billion in 2024 Despite European Pressure, Calls for Arms Embargo first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading

Copyright © 2017 - 2023 Jewish Post & News