Euro-think

AKA: Keeping your head planted as deep in your ass as possible.

Dutch Jews now complain of growing anti-Semitism in the country. But historian Jan Dirk Snel gives a different interpretation to such cries in the daily Trouw: "In fact the anti-Semitism people complain about is really criticism of Israel. Those are two entirely different things. ... There are in fact signs that some Dutch Muslims do not distinguish between the state of Israel and Jews in general.

Which is precisely the inverse of reality. Unceasing anti-Israeli sentiment has little to do with the doings of the only woman-respecting, gay-friendly, social democracy in the Near East, but with European anti-Semitism.

Sadder still is to use the obviously light-hearted “Gas the Jews” chant used at Ajax Amsterdam football club games, as the team is casually called “The Jews”:

A player for the Dutch football club Ado Den Haag celebrated his team's win over Ajax Amsterdam with the battle cry: "We're going on a Jew hunt!" Dutch Jews now complain of growing anti-Semitism in the country.

I guess these people “just didn’t mean it” in 2004:

Verbal and violent anti-Semitism in the Netherlands is probably greater today than it has been during any other time in the last two centuries except the Nazi occupation.

Or mean to mention that anti-semitic violence was up 64% in 2007, of up another 48% in 2009. A report on the problem was even sandbagged by an EU committee.

They just didn’t mean it. They only meant to criticizing Israelis by cracking Dutch heads open.

It looks like the kind of cover and (if you’ll excuse the term,) pulling a fast one with casting the violence on politically shunned people by the likes of Dirk Snel is now acceptable.