I have spent the better part of the afternoon talking with various Jewish members of the clergy, academia and the Jewish community in Antwerp. Respected voices.
First off, no one person speaks for the Jews of Belgium. Period. Two Jews, three opinions.
One thing is clear, Vlaams Belang is the only party that has gone out of its way to support Israel. No political party in Belgium has supported Israel. Vlaams Belang has been the only party staunchly behind Israel for the past 10 years.
“In the last few years, the Liberal Party has taken into its midst some extremist elements who support Hezbollah and Hamas, while Dewinter is very charming and has been interviewed in Jewish newspapers and he meets with rabbis,” he said. “A lot of Jews are not following the establishment and will vote for him.” said Henri Rosenberg, a chasid and law professor at Catholic University in Holland.
Rosenberg cited instances in which members of parliament from the Liberal Party flew to Syria and “shook hands with [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah and then traveled to Palestine. And when Mr. Arafat came to Belgium, he received the red carpet treatment in parliament, while a few weeks later [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon came and they did not want him in parliament. So as a face-saving gesture, the president of the parliament invited him to his office. And the only party to object [to Sharon’s treatment] was Dewinter’s.’
Rosenberg added that Dewinter is “a friend of the Jews, and he says Israel is the only democracy in the region and should be supported by the European Union.”(more here)
The latest fallacious argument against Vlaams Belang comes from a Judas. A leftist dhimmi Jewish editor (vanity press) in Antwerp. I have spoken to a number of Jewish rabbis and members of the Jewish communities in Antwerp and they all basically said the same thing. Freilich does not speak for the Jewish community in Antwerp. "Freilich in no way represents the Jewish community in Antwerp". "The Jewish community does not read his magazine ("and the Orthodox for sure not"). "He has no status in the Jewish community" "He is an extreme fanatic leftist guy". He speaks for himself. "It's a one man newspaper".
Apparently, Freilich ran for office on the Socialist party ticket and lost abysmally.
So I ask you, why should I care what this one dhimmi thinks of Vlaams Belang? I watched 78% of American Jews vote for the jihad candidate - no one can speak for the Jews as a whole.
Further, many of the Jews I spoke to Antwerp did not consider VB anti-semitic.
Filip DeWinter does not need the Jewish vote. There are 25,000 Jews in Antwerp (many of which cannot vote because they are imported) out of a population of one million in broader Antwerp and DeWinter loses many more votes among the electorate because of his "charming support of the Jews". "The Jews have no relevance in the vote." And yet he continues to staunchly defend them and Israel. This is, IMAO, a man of character.
He is always asked on Belgium television why he is against the Muslims and yet supports "Hasidim Jews".
“A lot of individuals ... cannot follow anymore those in the Jewish establishment who say they should vote for the Liberal Party,” said Henri Rosenberg, a chasid and law professor at Catholic University in Holland.
Rosenberg is right. The Liberal party is teeming with real first class Jew haters, "genuine anti-Semites". More sophisticated anti-semitism.....and that's OK?
Fjordman wrote in one exchange wrote,
The Foreign Ministry in my country publicly sponsored a meeting in Oslo recently with Islamic groups that are even banned in the Middle East, among them the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Foreign Minister compared Israeli settlements to the Nazis. Every Tom, Dick, and Jerry from the EU meets with radical Islamic groups on a regular basis, and we're supposed to believe that a peaceful party working within the democratic system constitutes the greatest threat to freedom? The VB are harassed because they constitute a threat to the power and privileges of the corrupt Eurabians in Brussels. They do, which is exactly why I like them.
Enough already.
Look, it's all very tedious. More to the direct point, what do the doppelgangers say about the counter jihad movement? What does these small men that deride the movement actually do? And what do they contribute to the transatlantic counter jihad movement? I ask you. What is their contribution to an overall counter jihad movement in general? What?
VB is their canard, a club (which diminishes in size) they use to beat the movement down.
There is a lot to be done. I resent having to spend my limited time and energies proving a narcissist's negative.
What follows is a post the Baron did over at Gates of Vienna which grew out of an email exchange with several counter jihad fighters (myself included)
Vlaams Belang is being held to a ridiculously high standard of evidence that no other mainstream European political party has to meet. No other party — not the Socialists, the Christian Democrats, the Communists — has to publicly refute and disprove every bizarre lunatic accusation made by dishonest shills with a partisan axe to grind.
Other parties can ignore wild-eyed accusations from the fringe. But let someone allege a VB Nazi salute or a VB neo-Nazi book fair, and Vlaams Belang is presumed guilty until it proves itself innocent — which it never really can.
Then the next day there is another bogus accusation, and the whole farce begins all over again.
So when one of these Yelloman or EXPO types issues yet another VB smear, we are “troubled” and “concerned” and hope that Vlaams Belang will “refute these accusations”.
WHY???
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Why waste our time with these endless refutations? They suck up thousands of man-hours, achieving nothing. So far all we have seen is the same spurious junk recycled and repackaged for next round of “revelations”.
Once again, no other European party is forced to dance the “We’re-not-Nazis” two-step every day of the week. Only Vlaams Belang.The hard Left has orchestrated this little game, and we are suckers for falling into their trap. They have us right where they want us — chasing all these Nazi spectres down dark alleys to try to make them disappear. Every day the leftists release another one from their patented Nazi Spectre Generator™, and off we go a-haring after it.
For the sake of people I care about, I will do what I can to aid the process of refutation. But I think it’s a mug’s game.
Baron Bodissey of the Gates of Vienna has posted tonight about the evil and ongoing campaign of character assassination against Filip Dewinter and his Flemish secessionist, anti-Islamization party Vlaams Belang in Belgium. Having interviewed Dewinter on several separate occasions--a couple of times in Antwerp last summer, once in Washington last year--I only wish the US had candidates of his strength, purpose and calibre. I know of no American politician who understands the historic sweep of the jihad as Dewinter does, and who is so forthright, outspoken and active in his stand against it. As far as the completely spurious and thoroughly deranged charges against him of anti-Semitism and crypto-Nazism go, they are, well, spurious and thoroughly deranged. Last summer I asked him to explain his stand against Islamization. He replied:
"It’s a global struggle for our values, for our European way of life life, for our civilization. That’s why I think it is also a European struggle; that is, It’s not only about a mosque two blocks away—no! It’s about our survival as a European nation and as a civilization. And I recognize those values, that civilization, also over there in Israel. It’s the only country in occupied territory, the vanguard of Europe in occupied territory, that is sharing those same values. And that’s why it’s so important to support Israel."
I asked him to expland on the term "occupied territory." What he meant, he told me, was not at all the conventionally Leftist and loaded meaning--territory occupied by Israel since Israel's 1967 war of survival against her Arab jihadist neighbors. No, what he meant was territory occupied by Islam since the Muslim wars of conquest and expansion began more than 1,000 years ago. Such lands include Northern Africa, Asia Minor, and the Middle East--all of which used to be mainly Christian and other faiths, including, where Israel is concerned, of course, Jewish.
Pretty darn terrific, if you ask me.
And Even lefty Haaretz must be Fascist now! ...Despite the title of the piece, it is a very sympathetic article!
Belgian far right leader: I am one of Israel's staunchest defenders
By Cnaan Liphshiz, Haaretz Correspondent
At Belgium's request, the European Parliament is expected next month to lift the immunity of one of its members, a former leader of the rightist Vlaams Belang party, exposing him to racism charges. Describing himself as a victim of blatant persecution, Frank Vanhecke told Haaretz the decision could spell his "political death."
In the interview, Vanhecke countered claims that Vlaams Belang is anti-Semitic, calling them "unjust and untrue," pointing to his record of cooperation with Antwerp's Jewish community and standing up for Israel in the European Parliament.
Read it and learn. Form your own opinion. Beware of snake oil. The stakes are too high
UPDATE Nov 13: Tundra Tabloids comes out swinging
