Manfred Gerstenfeld: While the overall situation regarding antisemitism in the world continues to deteriorate, the past year has shown some bright spots in the war on this widespread hatred.
Manfred Gerstenfeld: One example among others is Martin Indyk, twice US ambassador to Israel. Under Foreign Secretary John Kerry, Indyk was the US special envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations in 2013 and 2014. Yet it is too easy to claim that the professional Indyk failed whereas the amateur Jared Kushner broke a decades-long deadlock in the Middle East. Indyk had his own opinions.
Right-wing Dutch senator Toine Beukering said earlier this month that the Jews were “chased like docile lambs into the gas chambers.” This remark, for which he later apologized, once again raised the issue of the huge historical distortion of the Dutch role during World War II.
Ten years ago in the last months of 2003, the since-forgotten yet highly instructive Mahathir Affair took place. At the Organization of the Islamic Conference summit in 2003 in Kuala Lumpur, then-Malaysian Prime Minister Mohamad Mahathir, the conference host, presented relations between Muslims and Jews as a worldwide frontal confrontation.[1]
Before the Dutch parliamentary elections in September 2012, Israeli Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger wrote a letter to Geert Wilders, the pro-Israel leader of the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV). The party’s platform for the elections included the prohibition of ritual slaughter.
Last week, Israeli Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger wrote a letter to Geert Wilders, the pro-Israel leader of the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV). The party’s platform for the upcoming parliamentary elections on 12 September includes the prohibition of ritual slaughter.
