Who planned and coordinated the attacks on Israeli soccer fans?

Photos: AP Images; SHUTTERSTOCK/CHRISDORNEY; SHUTTERSTOCK/CRISTI DANGEORGE

Dangerous Games

The scenes in Amsterdam last Thursday night fit right into the worrying trend of burgeoning anti-Israel violence on Europe’s streets. Following an Ajax–Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer game, pro-Palestinian thugs ambushed Israeli fans in a series of hit-and-run assaults. Just a few hours after a Kristallnacht memorial to commemorate the 86th anniversary of this historic night of bloodshed, dozens of anti-Semites were out for Jewish blood. And there are indications that the violence was planned beforehand and carefully coordinated.

Rabbi Yanki Jacobs, a Chabad shaliach in Amsterdam who also serves as the student chaplain for universities nationwide, and a son of the current chief rabbi of the Netherlands, told Mishpacha that demonstrators had been trying to prevent the game from taking place at all, and wanted to protest outside the stadium, but were blocked from doing so by the Dutch authorities.

It was en route from the stadium back to the athletes’ accommodations that the attackers struck. Rabbi Jacobs adds that, as is common with soccer games, it’s obviously possible that the Maccabi fans had been somewhat provocative in their conduct.

“Hooligans getting into fights is not unusual,” he notes wryly.

Though the Israelis were protected by police, it was obviously insufficient to prevent what happened next. En route from the stadium back to the athletes’ accommodations, pro-Palestinian attackers raced round on e-scooters looking for Israelis. They stopped passersby, asked them if they were Israeli or if they spoke Hebrew, demanded to see their passports, and charged at them accordingly. Police had a hard time responding, as there were essentially multiple isolated hit-and-run incidents: The thugs would beat their victims and then flee on their scooters.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the attacks were discussed beforehand on social messaging apps, with users calling for a “Jodenjacht” — a “Jew hunt.” But even before that, the attackers had clearly scoped out where Israelis would be staying, and where they would be going. They were lying in wait at exit points from hotels and the stadium. When the assaults got underway, the attackers used hit-and-run tactics on scooters and sped from venue to venue before law enforcement could intervene.

Though baruch Hashem there were no serious injuries, social media had blown up with the horrific scenes, and Rabbi Jacobs spent the rest of the night assessing the extent of the damage, driving people to safety, and quelling false rumors of a far more tragic outcome. Local organizations such as Maccabi Netherlands set up a temporary safe house for the Israelis to get to, from where they would be securely conveyed to the airport and evacuated on Israeli planes.

Rabbi Jacobs isn’t remotely surprised by the alarming violence that erupted in a city that considers itself liberal and cosmopolitan. “This is a direct result of dehumanization and demonization of Israel and everything it stands for,” he says. “If you portray people as the epitome of wickedness, with no nuance, this is the obvious result.”

Indeed, this trend is being replicated across major European capitals. At a Paris soccer game a few days prior, a bloodstained “Free Palestine” banner was unfurled. London and Berlin are hotbeds of anti-Israel protest, and now Amsterdam joins this hall of infamy as another cultured metropolis playing host to pro-Palestinian violence.

Rabbi Jacobs relates a heartwarming story that offers an optimistic counter-narrative to this otherwise disturbing event. As dawn broke in the safe house, one of the stranded Israelis requested to don tefillin, but Rabbi Jacobs, who’d come straight from the city center after an all-nighter, had none with him.

Some volunteers (a couple hundred had turned out to help) went to fetch tefillin, and the father of one of the Israeli athletes, after davening with great emotion, thanking Hashem for his safety, was so moved by this display of unity and kindness that he pledged on the spot to donate ten pairs of tefillin to be distributed to young Jews in the Netherlands. While poisonous hatred crosses borders, so does Jewish hope and unity.

Kemi in Charge

Britain’s battered Conservative Party has a new leader, and she looks nothing like the stereotypical Tory. The first black female to lead any major UK party, Kemi Badenoch believes her skin color is no more significant than her hair color, and she loathes culture warriors. Her style is punchy and abrasive, and critics say she would cross the road to start a fight, a characterization she vigorously denies. Her forthrightness has also gotten her into trouble, but she argues voters want authenticity and honesty, not another 2-D vanilla politician like current PM Keir Starmer.

Badenoch is unashamedly conservative in principle but has yet to commit to specific policies; she says the priority now is for the party to rediscover its identity. The former software engineer sells herself as a system-fixer and problem-solver, skills that would be most welcome in tackling the state’s current dysfunction. Some in Labour, which has always been led by white men, are uneasy about the Conservatives being on their fourth female and second ethnic minority leader. And following seismic events across the Atlantic, Badenoch’s election as leader of a conservative party is yet another indication that the days of progressive dominance of the minority vote are very much over.

Bibi’s Man in Washington

Netanyahu’s pick for ambassador to Washington under Trump 2.0 is not exactly a career diplomat. American-born Yechiel Leiter immigrated to Israel as a bochur and studied in a Chevron kollel as a young avreich.

His 1994 book A Peace Plan to Resist warned of catastrophe if the Oslo Accords were signed, and he’s an outspoken advocate of expanding the Jewish presence in Yehudah and Shomron.

After his son Moshe Yedidya was killed in Gaza last year, he joined the Gevurah Forum, the total-victory-campaigning counter to the left-leaning Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

But Leiter is not just an eloquent activist; he’s a distinguished philosopher and academic. He is currently the director general of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs think tank, and served in various government departments, as well as chief of staff to Netanyahu. With this pick, Bibi has signaled his confidence that the incoming Trump administration will give him far more latitude on Israel's security needs than Biden ever did.

Scholz on the Ropes

German chancellor Olaf Scholz has become the next center-left leader staring certain defeat in the face. His coalition of fiscal conservatives, Greens, and progressives collapsed over disagreements with his finance minister, who insisted on spending restraint while others wanted increased welfare spending and economic stimulation. Inflation, anti-immigration sentiment, and stuttering economic growth plague Europe’s largest economy, which narrowly avoided recession and is projected for zero growth this year.

A snap election looks imminent, though Scholz has yet to officially commit to one. Current polls forecast a decisive victory for the center-right Christian Democratic Union, which has tacked rightwards on immigration while advocating strong support for Ukraine. Whoever takes over faces the prospect of punishing US tariffs on the auto industry, one of Germany’s most critical, and a severely weakened continent overall. Elected in late 2021, Scholz, like many of his global counterparts, is paying the price for post-Covid inflation and uncontrolled immigration.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1036)