Arsen Ostrovsky 
Arsen Ostrovsky 
The horrific scenes witnessed on the streets of Amsterdam Thursday night, in which Jews and Israelis were hunted down and assaulted with such vicious, unbridled violence, is reminiscent of the darkest times in Europe’s history.
It is also a crying call to Canada, that unless the government wakes up and gets its act together, it is only a matter of time before we see a modern-day pogrom here as well.
Last night’s rampage in Amsterdam, in which mobs of pro-Palestinian youth, new migrants, and radical Islamists attempted to lynch Israeli soccer fans on the street, threw others in the river while forcing them to shout “Free Palestine,” and went door-to-door, hotel-to-hotel searching for Jews, did not occur in a vacuum. It was the direct result of several factors.
In the last year, after the October 7 attacks, there was an unprecedented 245 per cent surge in antisemitism in the Netherlands. Yet, despite the periodic denunciations, Dutch authorities failed to take any meaningful action.
In fact, barely a month ago, it was revealed that some Dutch police had refused to guard Jewish sites, including the Dutch National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam, over purported “moral dilemmas” related to the war in Gaza.
Europe has also seen a pervasive discourse following the October 7 massacre, where the role of victim and oppressor has been inverted. Today, Israel is being viscerally demonized and vilified, while Hamas’s savagery is being whitewashed or excused, indoctrinating hate and instilling a worldview justifying such gruesome violence.
Where we hear calls to “Globalize the Intifada” or “Free Palestine,” it is not a call for peace, but clear and unmistakable incitement to violence, like we saw in Amsterdam, where Jews are no longer safe.
In the meantime, whilst it maybe unpalatable for some to still admit, the plain truth is that an unchecked, open migration policy from some Muslim countries where it is widespread and systematic for individuals to have extremist views, has had a direct correlation on the increase in violence, thuggery and incitement.
This intransigent refusal to recognize that radical Islam is a cancer that eats away at our way of life and sacrosanct values of freedom, tolerance, liberty, and respect, has only delayed the inevitable, while tearing away at the fabric of our democratic societies.
Anne Frank famously wrote: “What is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it from happening again.” Anne Frank was from Amsterdam, the sight of last night’s bloody pogrom and the Netherlands failed to prevent it from happening again. If Canada, which is a mirror reflection of the Netherlands, continues on the path it is today, it too will see this unfathomable eruption of violence.
Antisemitism today is surging unabated.
The streets of Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and beyond, are witnessing almost daily protests by pro-Hamas mobs, with chants to “Globalize the Intifada” and “Free Palestine,” just as in Amsterdam, while the police watch from the sidelines, and many elected leaders remain silent.
Synagogues are being attacked.
Jewish kindergartens and schools are being shot at, and Holocaust museums are being protested.
Elite Canadian universities are welcoming convicted terrorists, Hamas sympathizers and UN officials, with deep-seated histories of employing antisemitic tropes, Holocaust distortion and justification of the October 7 attacks.
All this while the Canadian government proudly announces an unchecked mass intake of purported refugees and migrants from Gaza, the same Gaza that produced such widespread support for the Hamas monsters responsible for October 7.
At what point will the Canadian government wake up? How many more pro-Hamas rallies calling for Jewish blood will it take on the streets of Toronto or Montreal, before the Trudeau government acts?
Whilst the denunciations of antisemitism are nice, without real, tangible, and urgent action, they are entirely meaningless, and it is only a matter of time before we see a pogrom on the streets of Canada.
It should not be lost on us that the attacks in Amsterdam occurred on the eve of Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass”), when in 1938, Nazis and their enablers across Germany and Austria razed over 1,400 synagogues, smashed the windows of and plundered over 7,500 Jewish-owned businesses, murdering almost 100 Jews in a violent pogrom, that was a jarring prelude to the further evil that would ensue.
Kristallnacht was a murderous example of the capacity of humans to escalate from indifference, demonization and singling out of a group of people — Jews, in this case — to violence. First, by words and through dehumanization, and then through the Nazi infrastructure of death.
Today, this singling out and vilification of Jews again — and by extension, the Jewish state of Israel — represents a collective form of amnesia, indifference, and willful disregard of history.
Enough words, enough empty promises. The Canadian government must act now to stamp out this unrelenting surge in Jew-hatred before it’s too late and the pogrom we saw in Amsterdam is repeated on the streets Toronto or Montreal.
Published in National Post, November 8, 2024.
**The opinions expressed in Misgav publications are the authors’ alone.**