High Hopes
Picture of the former synagogue of Terborg, Netherlands, destroyed during the Holocaust. Photo: Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed. CC 4.0
11/13/2024, 4:49:16 PM
The Amsterdam pogrom that took place two days after the U.S. elections was a teaching moment. It demonstrated the shaky footings of “Never again” in European countries where mass numbers of Muslim immigrants are augmenting widespread innate Jew hatred. And it validated the euphoria that Jews around the world feel about the triumphant comeback of President Trump.
While the majority of Americans were celebrating the sweeping mandate given to Trump and the Republican Party, Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam were being hunted down, stabbed, beaten and run over by cars in organized pre-planned fashion by Muslim immigrants. Simply for being Jewish.
According to victims and eye witnesses, the police were nowhere to be found during the “Jew hunt”. Bystanders stood back as Israeli citizens were injured, some severely, and hundreds of Israelis huddled in their hotels afraid to go out.
Geert Wilders, the outspoken anti-immigrant pro-Israel leader of the largest political party in the Netherlands, the Party for Freedom, blasted the policies that led to the pogrom in a series of social media posts. “We have become the Gaza of Europe. Muslims with Palestinian flags hunting down Jews,” he wrote. “We weren’t allowed to speak of Islam as the source of antisemitism, and they didn’t deport criminals. Now we have Jew hunts in Amsterdam.”
True, conservative parties that rose to power in the Netherlands this past summer represented a backlash against the very dangers those Muslim immigrants posed to their society. Seemingly, though, the win was not enough to eradicate inherent antisemitism among many Dutch citizens, who allowed the migration issue to fester until it became unbearable for them too.
Wilders also demanded the resignation of Amsterdam’s mayor, the leftist pro-immigration Mayor Femke Halsema. Halsema allowed pro-Palestinian demonstrators to chant “Death to the Jews” in the streets of Amsterdam following October 7 and to destroy in excess of 4 million euros worth of property while occupying the Amsterdam University campus. Back in March, Halsema permitted protestors to verbally abuse Jews, including Israel’s president Isaac Herzog and Holocaust survivors, at the opening of the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam.
Halsema denounced the pogrom last week, but when asked at a press conference whether all the perpetrators looked Middle Eastern, she demurred. “This is an issue that needs to be researched. The background and ethnicity of people, that’s not something I can comment on right now, nor do I want to.”
Rhetoric of this sort sounds vaguely familiar. While desperately courting the Arab vote in swing states right before the election, Vice President Kamala Harris tried to have it both ways too and failed.
Speaking to students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee shortly before the elections, Harris was heckled by a protestor in a keffiyeh who accused her of being “invested in genocide”. After trying to shut him down by saying “I’m speaking right now”, she acknowledged his claims by saying, “what he’s talking about, it’s real…and I respect his voice.”
Upon hearing the news in Amsterdam, the horror of my initial reaction was mixed with added gratitude that Harris lost.
It seems that feeling of gratitude is shared by many American Jews. Orthodox Jews overwhelmingly voted for Trump, as did many non-Orthodox who awakened after October 7. A whopping 45% of New York Jews voted for Trump, reflecting a 50% increase among Jewish voters in the Big Apple.
Of course, the economy and illegal immigration were the biggest issues that handed over a trifecta win to Republicans. But for American Jews, the angst of those issues was compounded by the very real precariousness of their security in America.
Trump’s resounding win is a win for America’s Jews and for Jews around the world. When I finally went to sleep on election night, somewhat optimistic for a Trump victory, it was elated messages from my Israeli friends and relatives that first pinged on my phone in the middle of the night.
As Jews, we are advised against putting our trust “in princes”, and some Jewish leaders are advising cautious optimism. But Trump’s win was a win by and for “we, the people”. And the enormous Republican victory has restored my faith in humanity, at least in the majority of American citizens, for rejecting the destructive policies that the Democratic Party foisted on the American people.
For each of these repudiated policies we can say dayeinu.
Voters overwhelmingly rejected the radical left agenda on the economy, the border, American culture and the world stage. However, most importantly for American Jews, they rejected the Jew hatred that has been permeating the Democratic Party. For this I am more than cautiously optimistic; I am downright hopeful.
American voters repudiated the antisemitism that attended woke ideology. Democratic leaders, like Biden, Harris, Schumer and Pelosi, are the ones who own the Jew hatred that exploded on city streets and college campuses this past year. And the American people gave Trump a mandate to shut them down.
Harris’s rejection of PA Governor Josh Shapiro as a running mate was a blessing in disguise to every Jew in America.
Within a few days of Trump’s victory, Qatar agreed to evict Hamas leaders and Hamas wants an “immediate” end to the war. After several talks with Trump since the election, Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “We see eye-to-eye on the Iranian threat in all its components.”
For anyone who truly cares about Israel, Trump’s appointments, coming fast and furious, have been getting better and better. Trump picked the staunchly pro-Israel Senator Marco Rubio for the enormously critical role as Secretary of State.
Trump chose two more “Ohavei Yisrael” (lovers of Israel) for top roles in his upcoming administration, whose bona fide loyalty towards the State of Israel were on display during fact-finding missions to Israel I participated in with them and the interviews I conducted with them. For U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Trump chose former governor Mike Huckabee, who is proud to declare his love for Israel and his affirmation of Judea and Samaria being the “Biblical heartland” of the Jewish State. For Secretary of Defense, Trump chose Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth, who has called Israel “the story of Gd’s chosen people”.
Was it coincidence that the UN removed a controversial quilt panel artwork that called for the extermination of Israel the day after the election? Perhaps not, as Trump tapped Rep. Elise Stefanik for U.S. Ambassador to the UN – the same Stefanik whose fierce criticism of campus antisemitism this past year led to the ouster of some of the most egregious violators at Ivy League universities.
It is hard not to gloat over a Harvard Crimson article printed right after the election, titled “Why Donald Trump’s Return Could Spell Trouble for Harvard”. Especially after Trump promised that “Colleges will and must end the antisemitic propaganda or they will lose their accreditation and federal support.”
In response to campus antisemitism, Republicans have vowed to cut federal funding to universities, increase taxes on their endowments, reverse Biden-era Title IX protections and deport “pro-Hamas radicals” from college campuses.
Jews must always be vigilant, especially post-October 7. What happened in Amsterdam cannot be downplayed as an isolated incident. But, in contrast to how Jews felt this past year, Trump’s victory allows us to hope for the best rather than plan for the worst.
Sara Lehmann is an award-winning New York based columnist and interviewer. For more of her writings please visit saralehmann.com.A version of this article first appeared in Hamodia