There has been much said and written about the violence in Amsterdam before and after the football match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax this week, and it’s been interesting, if rather odd, to watch my two worlds of football and antisemitism come together.
The spin that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (aka the Beeb's "sister corps") has been to play up the provocative behaviour of Israeli fans, somehow making it the victims' fault, is probably not unique to the CBC. I am fairly certain, however, that had the victims of this clearly coordinated and outsized attack been any group other than Israelis, that there would have been no similar "contextualizing".
Excellent article. This is just about the first and only piece I've read about the events in Amsterdam that is well informed, sensible, balanced, and lacking in hysteria.
I wouldn't refer to those who "have thrown in their lot with the Palestinian cause". People who really had the interests of Palestinians at heart would reject Hamas and make a serious attempt to avoid the stench of antisemitism. Many "pro-Palestinians" are not like this.
I don't generally agree with you, but I think you make some very good points here. Not least about the use of the term 'pogrom'. I've been very concerned about the weaponisation of language since the Simchat Torah massacre e.g. 'genocide', 'apartheid', 'blood libel'. As the saying (nearly) goes, the first casualty of war is language.
Stop complaining. It’s been shown that most people don’t care about our problems and the rest are happy we are having them. FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE.
Take a lesson from British soccer fans. Next TIME mix 200 Israeli roughnecks into the group (they may be hard to find in Europe but not in Israel) and unleash them on these Arab hooligans. Problem solved.
Excellent article. Truth
Good article, thank you. As a fellow Manchester United fan, let’s hope for a good result today.
Thank you for that excellent piece Dave. And I just wanted to send best wishes for the match today, from a Liverpool fan.
Thank you!
Brilliant (and fair)
The spin that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (aka the Beeb's "sister corps") has been to play up the provocative behaviour of Israeli fans, somehow making it the victims' fault, is probably not unique to the CBC. I am fairly certain, however, that had the victims of this clearly coordinated and outsized attack been any group other than Israelis, that there would have been no similar "contextualizing".
Excellent article. This is just about the first and only piece I've read about the events in Amsterdam that is well informed, sensible, balanced, and lacking in hysteria.
I wouldn't refer to those who "have thrown in their lot with the Palestinian cause". People who really had the interests of Palestinians at heart would reject Hamas and make a serious attempt to avoid the stench of antisemitism. Many "pro-Palestinians" are not like this.
I don't generally agree with you, but I think you make some very good points here. Not least about the use of the term 'pogrom'. I've been very concerned about the weaponisation of language since the Simchat Torah massacre e.g. 'genocide', 'apartheid', 'blood libel'. As the saying (nearly) goes, the first casualty of war is language.
Stop complaining. It’s been shown that most people don’t care about our problems and the rest are happy we are having them. FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE.
Take a lesson from British soccer fans. Next TIME mix 200 Israeli roughnecks into the group (they may be hard to find in Europe but not in Israel) and unleash them on these Arab hooligans. Problem solved.