Recently, disconcerting images and videos surfaced from the Ajax–Maccabi football match, where migrant gangs, brandishing Palestinian flags, were seen hunting down and assaulting Jewish fans. Our site has reported on this event, though I refrain from sharing the distressing footage here. But how have we come to this?
Following last week’s tragic incident in Amsterdam, thousands of police officers were deployed in Paris for the Thursday match between France and Israel. Across the French capital, approximately 4,000 officers were anticipated to patrol the city’s inner and outer areas and its public transport systems. At the Stade de France, the 80,000-seat venue hosting the match, 1,600 security guards and an elite counter-terrorism unit were expected to protect fans and players alike.
These are precautionary measures that, at the turn of the millennium, would have seemed severe even in the Middle East, and yet they now unfold before our very eyes, within the cities of free, Western European countries.
In half a year we will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. Yet we mark this occasion with the knowledge that Jews fear for their safety here, our cities still bear the scars of war, and in Eastern Europe, where actual front lines exist, hundreds of thousands have lost their lives. The economic situation is so dire with inflation that rationing of bread and fuel might be considered.
I doubt that leaders like Adenauer, de Gaulle, Attlee, or de Gasperi envisioned such a Europe at the dawn of the post-war era. Persecution based on one’s ethnicity is unacceptable in any form, whether directed at Jews or anyone else. However, when this persecution is carried out by foreign groups arriving illegally, exploiting state resources, and disregarding our laws and culture, every fellow European should be outraged.
So why have we come to this? Why has a religious conflict from the Semitic world found its way to the Netherlands? This question underscores the need to examine the exponential rise in antisemitism in the West and its connection to the spread of woke liberal societies.
Firstly, it is crucial to clarify that while today’s woke, liberal, neo-Marxist ideologies can trace their roots to Karl Marx, who was himself racist and antisemitic, I would not characterize such ideologies or the societies adhering to them as inherently antisemitic. For one thing, the first Soviet governments, whether in Russia or Hungary, were disproportionately represented by Jewish figures, and socialist ideology itself held a certain appeal within Jewish communities. (This, of course, had historical roots in part due to the antisemitism of traditional monarchies and the historical persecution that led Jewish communities to develop close-knit, communistic structures.) But where did the project veer off course?
‘Instead of the envisioned “unity in diversity”, we have witnessed the emergence of a fractured local society and a foreign society at odds with European goals and principles’
In my view, this shift unfolded in stages. First, the post-war spread of atheism among Western Christians and Jews played a significant role. In the adrenaline-fuelled dawn of the new world order and an era of newfound freedom, we abandoned religious beliefs more quickly than ever, which eroded the religious identity and protective instinct that could have shielded us as we entered the second stage.
The second phase involved the creation of multicultural societies. On one hand, the wars had decimated Europe’s young men, and birth rates never fully rebounded to pre-war levels, so large-scale immigration was deemed necessary. This was seen as harmless at the time, as the new world order championed equality and unity under the light of democracy.
The third stage brought a collision of these two phenomena with a harsh reality far from the utopian dreams. The millions of Muslim immigrants with distinct cultural backgrounds did not integrate into our democratic framework and remained separate. European Christianity and Judaism, weakened by hedonistic nihilism and inattentive to these developments, left our societies vulnerable. The result is a stark divide in Western Europe between a fragmented native community that lacks self-identity and a distinct foreign community proud of its identity. Instead of the envisioned ’unity in diversity’, we have witnessed the emergence of a fractured local society and a foreign society at odds with European goals and principles.
This is a ’Mexican standoff’, a stalemate. Unable to integrate the parallel society of the Muslim minority—even concerning their most radical ideas, such as gender ideology—the liberals seem to have faltered in addressing the issue they helped create. The stark alternatives, if taken to extremes, are either a nationalist alliance with the native society leading to a kind of civil war or the assimilation of Europeans into the Islamic world. Neither scenario is an appealing vision for a liberal, woke, left-wing utopia, let alone for the Jewish community. Thus, multiculturalism, initially intended by liberals to consolidate their power and dilute national identities, has failed and destroyed them. ’The revolution devours its children.’
The ongoing manifestation of this tectonic shift is antisemitism. Both Jews and conservatives have recognized this, leading to a logical alignment of mutual interests between the Jewish community and Christian, conservative European politics. This alliance is thriving, gaining strength, and where it succeeds, Jews, Christians, and even Muslims can live together in peace and security. This is the model demonstrated in Hungary, endorsed by Donald Trump, and being pursued by Wilders in the crisis-hit Netherlands. We wish them success, and may God be with us all.
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