Jonathan Sacerdoti
The Spectator World, Nov. 8, 2024
“The question isn’t whether what happened in Amsterdam could happen in London. It is when.”
Last night in Amsterdam, a scene unfolded that should send shockwaves across Europe: hundreds of Jews were hunted and beaten by mobs following a soccer match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax. Whether a spontaneous flare-up or organized assault, terrified fans were forced to jump into the city’s canals to escape violence. At least ten were injured, and three remain missing. As Israel dispatched emergency flights to evacuate its citizens, we must ask: how long until this happens in elsewhere in Europe?
The Netherlands must confront this issue immediately, not only for the safety of its Jewish residents and visitors but for the stability of its own society. The embassy of Israel in the US wrote that the attackers “proudly shared their violent acts on social media.” Who does that remind you of? The world has already witnessed this grotesque display from Hamas and Palestinian terrorists on October 7. Now, in Amsterdam, we see echoes of the same perverse pride in brutality.
Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett called the attacks “a planned and organized pogrom.” The violence erupted as Jews in Europe were about to mark the eighty-sixth anniversary of Kristallnacht — a chilling historical irony highlighted by Deborah Lipstadt, the US special envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism. She rightly noted that this incident occurred “two days before the grim anniversary of Reichspogromnacht in 1938,” when Nazi-sanctioned pogroms swept the German Reich. Now, in 2024, are we seeing the specter of such hate rear its head in Europe once more? … [To read the full article, click Here )
