Pro-Hamas sentiment shocks European Jews, rekindling fears about their future
“I’ve never felt as unsafe as I do now,” said Bar-Ami, adding that some his friends told him they feel unsafe around him when he wear his kippah.
Similar fears are shared by Jews across the continent, where antisemitic incidents are skyrocketing. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of protesters rally at demonstrations that are billed as expressions of support of Palestinian civilians, but that many, both Jewish and non-Jewish, perceive as shows of Jew-hatred and solidarity with Hamas despite its recent displays of extreme barbarism against Israelis.
The speed, scale, and violence with which anti-Israel actions have unfolded in Berlin startled and surprised Bar-Ami, he told The Times of Israel on Tuesday. Last week, unidentified individuals hurled firebombs at a synagogue in Berlin. Clashes erupted between rioters and police that night in Neukoelln and Kreuzberg, two neighborhoods with many Muslim immigrants.
In Berlin, hundreds of people chanted in Arabic, “Our lives, our blood we’ll sacrifice for you, Al Aqsa” in a series of rallies, most of them occurring despite police and municipal bans on such events due to authorities’ concern over incitement and disorder. RIAS, a German antisemitism watchdog, has documented 202 incidents this month alone, a 240% increase over that tally from October 2022.
In London, police documented a tenfold increase in antisemitic hate crimes in October over last year. In Melilla, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, protesters burned an Israeli flag outside a synagogue.
Protesters attend a pro Palestinian demonstration in London, October 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
In Amsterdam, three Jewish schools were shuttered temporarily, one of them twice, over safety worries. On the city’s Dam Square, a monument for victims of the Holocaust and World War II, thousands chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” during a demonstration that drew some 50,000.
In Vienna, people who wanted to show their support of Israel were warned by authorities for the first time not to display Israeli signs on the street for fear of violence.
“They didn’t speak of kippot but common sense tells you that if displaying an Israeli flag is dangerous, then so is wearing a kippah,” Bar-Ami said. “To the people doing the intimidation, a Jew is an Israeli and vice versa.”
At the same time European leaders have expressed solidarity with Israel and in London, Paris and Berlin, thousands attended large pro-Israel rallies that Jewish community organizations had organized, as they often do when Israel is at war. Other European capitals and cities have had smaller events, all featuring a heavily Jewish turnout.
‘The mezuzah had to be moved’
Fears of identifying as Jewish in many European cities predate the October 7 attacks, though the outbreak of war has made the situation even more fraught.
“In France, in Belgium and in many other places it’s not safe to wear a kippah. Not before the Hamas attack and not now,” said Raya Kalenova, the executive vice president and CEO of the European Jewish Congress.
The IDF’s ‘three-phase’ operation would increase Hamas’s influence in the region rather than extinguishing it, says Paul Rogers
in 'The Guardian'
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) are poised to start ground operations in northern Gaza and the intended outcome is clear – the termination of Hamas. But previous experience suggests that despite being the far superior military force, they will fail.
Israel is planning a “three-phase” operation. The first phase has started with an intense air bombardment and will continue with ground operations aimed at “neutralising terrorists and destroying Hamas infrastructure”, in the words of Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
The second phase will involve destroying any remaining resistance and this will be followed by the final phase, creating a substantial buffer zone around Gaza. With Hamas defeated, the strip will be cut loose from Israel and will presumably become the responsibility of the international community, perhaps including provision of power, water, food and other needs.
This war is the fifth between Hamas and Israel since 2008. The four previous wars and related violence cost 5,365 Palestinian lives and 308 Israeli lives. In the current war, at least 1,400 Israelis, including 279 soldiers, were killed and a further 3,400 wounded on 7 October. So far in the wide-ranging IDF response, nearly 6,000 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 2,000 children, and more than 16,000 people have been wounded.
A further 29 UN relief workers have been killed.
In only one of the previous wars, July 2014, did the IDF mount a major ground incursion – and its elite Golani Brigade then took serious losses. This, and Hamas’s presumed preparedness makes it well-nigh certain that, this time, the IDF will use very heavy airpower in advance of any ground assaults. Counter-city destruction (devastating an urban area before involving ground troops) is a frequent feature of modern warfare, whether it is Russia in Chechnya and Ukraine or the US-led coalition in Iraq, especially the destruction of the old city of Mosul just six years ago.
In Gaza, many more districts will be destroyed, and infiltration tunnels will be hit repeatedly, many with the US-made GBU-28 “bunker busting” bomb. Israel already has about 100 of these and it may now have the more advanced GBU-72.
Given the utter determination of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to destroy Hamas, many thousands more Palestinians will be killed and tens of thousands wounded. If the war eventually ends, the Palestinians of Gaza are likely to be contained in a far smaller area and subject to intense surveillance.
This takes us to the strategic dangers from Israel’s point of view. Instead of extinguishing Hamas, the war will result in tens of thousands more very angry young Palestinians set to join the organisation or a similar successor.
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