BY MOSHE HILL ISRAEL NOVEMBER 13 2024
On Thursday night, every Jewish WhatsApp group lit up with horrific videos coming out of Amsterdam. A roving mob of Arabs carried out a coordinated attack on Jews in what amounted to a pogrom. This was eerily timed around the anniversary of Kristallnacht and is a shocking reminder of Europe’s dark history and its fragile present.
Europe has been on a downward spiral for a generation, when governments led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to open their doors to Muslim Arabs. Unlike America, European countries were never designed to be anything but a homogenous society based on thousands of years of unifying history. It is not possible to assimilate hundreds of thousands of Arabs into Dutch, French, German or British society without major changes in how those societies function. We are seeing the fruits of those catastrophic decisions.
What was seen in Amsterdam is as predictable as anything, given the history of the city and the trends that have been occurring since October 7. This is the home city of Anne Frank, whose diary captured the fear of living in a city she loved but could no longer recognize. That is pretty much indicative of what Europe is becoming, a continent that is beloved by many but increasingly unrecognizable.
The attacks followed a pro-Palestinian protest that quickly escalated in the wake of a soccer match between Amsterdam’s Ajax team and the Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv. Despite a protest ban put in place by Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema, violence broke out after supporters gathered, with some groups chanting pro-Palestinian slogans and targeting Jewish individuals and Israeli fans in what some observers have called a “pogrom-like” atmosphere.
