World
Netanyahu condemns antisemitic pogrom in Amsterdam, warns world leaders attacks will spread if don't act
JERUSALEM – On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the worst antisemitic pogrom against Jews of this century in Europe.
Netanyahu directed his blistering remarks at the violent antisemitic mob attack against Israelis that unfolded in the Dutch city of Amsterdam on Thursday. “We will never allow the atrocities of history to recur. We will never capitulate to antisemitism or terrorism,” he said.
He added, “A clear line connects the two antisemitic attacks against Israel that we have seen recently on Dutch soil: The reprehensible legal assault against the State of Israel at the International Court in The Hague, and the violent assault against Israeli citizens on the streets of Amsterdam. In both cases, there was dangerous antisemitism, the goal of which was to render helpless the Jews and their state, to deny our state the right of self-defense and to deny our citizens their very right to life.
“Yesterday we marked Kristallnacht … It was a brutal and violent assault against Jews just because they were Jews. Unfortunately, in recent days we saw pictures that recalled that night. On the streets of Amsterdam, antisemitic rioters attacked Jews, Israeli citizens, just because they were Jews.”
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Netanyahu warned that, “Attacks of this kind threaten not only Israel but endanger the entire world. We have learned something from history: Wild attacks that start against Jews, never end with the Jews. In the end, they spread to all of society, and pass from country to country until they burn all of humanity. Therefore, I expect and demand that every responsible government take strong, vigorous, clear and urgent action.”
Adding to the anger against Dutch authorities, the leader of the Party for Freedom, Geert Wilders, blasted leaders in Amsterdam for failing to arrest the perpetrators.
Writing on X yesterday he said, “I am speechless. Amsterdam Police just confirmed that NO ONE has been arrested during the Islamic Jewhunt in Amsterdam on Thursday night. All arrests have been made before and during the soccer match and NOT during the pogrom.”
The Dutch politician urged that Amsterdam’s left-wing mayor Femke Halsema resign straight away.
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Halsema, who comes from the Dutch Green party, called the violence “an eruption of antisemitism that we had hoped never again to see in Amsterdam,” according to The Associated Press.
Meanwhile new information has emerged about the highly organized antisemitic attacks on Jews in a city where Nazi collaborators infamously abandoned the German Jewish adolescent Anne Frank, who was in hiding, to the Nazis during World War Two.
The Holland Casino in Amsterdam reported that after Israelis fled into the casino for refuge, a security guard who worked for the casino “had indeed sent messages in the app group” that was looking to harm the Israelis.
According to Holland Casino’s statement, “Measures were promptly taken, and the employer was informed that this person is no longer welcome at Holland Casino. Employees of Holland Casino or those of companies hired by Holland Casino must prioritize the interests of Holland Casino, our guests and our staff. This did not happen in this case. Moreover, there is no place within Holland Casino for any form of violence, discrimination or antisemitism.”
The Israeli news agency TPS-IL reported that the Rabbi and volunteers from the Chabad House in Amsterdam and an Israeli Druze man had played a role in aiding the victims.
“The night before the game, there were skirmishes between Israeli fans and local Arabs. So when we started to hear news about the confrontation after the game, we first did not realize the scope of what was happening,” Rabbi Dovi Pinkovitch, head of the Chabad House in the center of Amsterdam, told TPS-IL.
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The rabbi mobilized local Jews and Israelis living in Amsterdam to assist Israelis trapped in the streets, getting them safely to hotels. “There were cases when local taxis took the Israelis towards the center of the clashes instead of bringing them to safety, so we understood we need to help. The volunteers, in their private cars, worked all night long to get hundreds of Israelis to the hotels,”
An Israeli Druze named Melchem Assad gave vital early warnings to Israelis about the violent assaults taking place. As he was exiting the train on his way from the game to the hotel, he noticed a group of men speaking Arabic about beating those wearing a blue scarf and speaking Hebrew. So he returned to the train station and ordered the arriving groups of Israelis to take off the Maccabi Tel Aviv symbols, disperse and not speak Hebrew.
Assad told TPS-IL that by his estimation, he managed to help at least a hundred and fifty Israelis. “I have a baby boy at home and my heart was beating hard as I was approaching that group. But I am an Israeli, and I knew I had nothing to do but to help if I could.”
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According to the Times of Israel, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands told the Israeli president in a readout that “We failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during World War II, and last night we failed again.”
Amsterdam’s population is roughly 920,000 people, with about 20,000 Jews. Prior to the Holocaust, 80,000 Jews lived in Amsterdam. A total of 40,000 Jews live in the Netherlands. There are roughly one million Muslims in the northern European country, and 90,000 Muslims reside in Amsterdam.
Wim Kortenoeven, a former Dutch MP in Wilders’ party and a Middle East expert told Fox News Digital that “The Dutch police forces have been Islamized to the extent that the Muslims cops now feel confident to refuse protecting Jewish institutions for reasons of ‘conscience,” he claimed.
Echoing a report in the Jerusalem Post in October quoting two Jewish police officers, Kortenoeven noted, “Only last month this came into the open with Jewish cops in Amsterdam blowing the whistle about that, warning in the media that Jewish targets under threat of terrorist attack may therefore not be protected. They were proven right this weekend when over a thousand extra police were not willing to effectively protect Jewish Israeli football under attack from Muslim mobs.”
Kortenoeven, who now lives in Israel, added that “Such a massive force can only deliberately be so ineffective. Witnesses and victims also testified that the police remained passive in the face of the Muslim aggressors. There were no arrests either. The arrest that were made this weekend did not involve the Arabs attacking the Jews. Meanwhile, the authorities refused to properly identify the Muslim mobs and hit teams, calling them ‘guys on scooters.’”
Halsema declined to note at Friday’s news conference that the alleged perpetrators were Muslim and of Moroccan origin, noted Dutch critics of Islamism. The mayor’s office said in a press release that the suspects were merely “scooter youths,” in a reference to the popular mode of city transportation used by young Dutch Arabs.
On Sunday, Fox News Digital approached the Amsterdam police department for a comment.
World
Video: Israel and Hezbollah Trade Deadly Attacks
Israeli strikes pounded areas in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a day after eight people were killed, according to the authorities, in the northernmost attack on Lebanese soil since the start of the war. Israeli officials said two men were killed in a rocket attack from Lebanon on Tuesday.
World
Germany braces under collapsing government and looming Trump trade war
With the re-election of former President Donald Trump to the White House and the collapse of the coalition government under German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Germany is bracing for an economically and politically dubious time.
From the campaign trail, Trump pledged to increase import tariffs on friends and foes alike under the “Trump Reciprocal Trade Act” which would increase all U.S. tariffs to match the taxes enforced by each corresponding country.
“If India, China, or any other country hits us with a 100 or 200 percent tariff on American-made goods, we will hit them with the same exact tariff,” he outlined in his campaign agenda. “If they charge US, we charge THEM—an eye for an eye, a tariff for a tariff, same exact amount.”
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However, it is unclear if the president-elect still plans to push these specific tariff increases, as he has also suggested there should be a 10% tariff on imports from all countries, as well as 60% duties on imports from China, according to a Reuters report.
China was not the only country in Trump’s crosshairs, as the now president-elect also referred to the European Union (EU) as a “mini China” and warned the bloc would have to pay up.
“They don’t take our cars. They don’t take our farm products. They sell millions and millions of cars in the United States,” he told supporters at an October rally in Pennsylvania. “No, no, no. They are going to have to pay a big price.”
Some economic experts have warned that increasing tariffs – which are paid by companies importing the goods, not by government entities – could lead to rising costs worldwide, including in the U.S., as well as further inflation.
A report earlier this month by the German Marshall Fund (GMF) pointed to findings by Germany’s Institute for Economic Research in Cologne that said the promised Trump tariffs are estimated to cost the country roughly $127 billion over the next four years.
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“Trump’s victory does not bode well for a Germany that is dependent on U.S. security and thrives on open markets,” the GMF said in its report on how the U.S. election will impact Germany. “And uncertainty in Europe’s largest economy is not ideal when the EU needs to find its place in a world in which the U.S. president is not expected to support the traditional, rules-based international order.”
However, it is not only Germany’s flagging economy that could spell uncertainty for Berlin’s international standing, as Scholz faces a vote of no confidence in January after he fired his Finance Minister Christian Lindner and his coalition government collapsed.
A confidence vote is now set to be held in Germany on December 16 – which Scholz, given his minority status, is expected to lose.
The most likely next step will be for German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to dissolve the parliament and call for elections which are not expected to be held on Feb. 23, 2025.
The EU now stares down a potential trade war with the Trump administration while one of its leading nations, both geopolitically and economically, will essentially sit as a lame duck while Berlin waits to see who will be next to lead the country.
German opposition leader Friedrich Merz – who could find himself the next German chancellor – said he intends to cut a deal with Trump.
In an interview with Stern magazine, Merz reportedly said, “In Germany, we have never really articulated and enforced our interests well enough, and we have to change that.
“The Americans are much more on the offensive. It shouldn’t end with only one side profiting, but rather with us making good arrangements for both sides,” Merz said according to a Bloomberg report on the interview. “Trump would call it a deal.”
World
There is no safe zone in Gaza, warns UNRWA
UNRWA’s Scott Anderson described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as critical and called on all sides to respect civilian safe zones.
The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip remains critical and could deteriorate further, warns the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA).
Speaking to Euronews in Brussels, UNRWA Director in Gaza, Scott Anderson, called on all parties to the conflict to respect the sanctity of safe places for civilians.
“There’s nowhere safe in Gaza. Including the safe zones. And unfortunately, all parties to the conflict are not respecting the sanctity of sites that should be safe for civilians, including hospitals and schools.” said Anderson.
He stressed that both UNRWA facilities and Palestinian schools have been targeted, appealing to all sides to uphold the protection of these locations so civilians can find safety for themselves and their families.
Too cosy with Hamas?
Anderson also responded to past allegations that his agency was too lenient with Hamas, which the EU designates as a terrorist organisation.
He underlined that UNRWA took swift action after discovering that some of its employees were linked to the group.
When asked if he could confidently say that UNRWA had removed all Hamas operatives, Anderson was frank in his reply:
“No, I don’t think anybody can say anything with certainty about their workforce anywhere. We have over 13,000 people. We do take ‘neutrality’ very seriously, as shown by the commissioner general’s very swift action. But no, I can’t with certainty say that’s done,” he said.
Anderson also reiterated that they don’t have any evidence of employing Hamas members, and if they did, the necessary actions would have already been taken.
You can watch the full interview on the situation in Gaza on Thursday and online at euronews.com.
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