Holland to become anti-Israel after upcoming elections?
An upcoming election in Holland may result in a
dramatic shift in the country's relations with Israel.
The Dutch government’s attitude toward Israel may change radically after the upcoming elections. Polls indicate that the two largest parties will be the Liberals of Prime Minister Mark Rutte and the rapidly increasing extreme left Socialist Party (SP.) Each of them is likely to win about 30 seats. The largest parties of the past decades, Labor and the Christian Democrats, will decline further and are expected to lose respectively about 10 and five seats from their present 30 and 21.
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The possibility of a new government led by SP leader Emile Roemer including Labor, the small Green Party and the left-wing liberals of D66 cannot be excluded. It is likely to be strongly anti-Israel. SP says in its election program that The Netherlands will support a two-state solution. This is eyewash to look halfway respectable. SP also states that it will recognize an independent Palestinian state and make efforts for it to become a member of the United Nations.
If SP succeeds, The Netherlands will support an international dialogue with all representatives of the Palestinians. This means that for SP, Hamas, with its platform promoting genocide of Jews, is an acceptable discussion partner. There is no word of rebuke in the SP platform for these potential mass murderers.
Furthermore, SP says that “As long as Israel continues to build illegally houses in occupied territory The Netherlands will condemn this and pressure the EU to suspend the association agreement with Israel which gives it fiscal advantages in exports to the countries of the EU.”
The party-program of the Green Party goes in the same direction of anti-Israel bias. It falsely claims to base itself on international law. If that were so it should have tried to bring Iran’s leaders before an international court because of their transgression of the UN genocide convention. The same steps should be promoted with respect to the Hamas leaders, advocating mass murder.
Yet the Greens have no intention of doing so. They, however, want to “search for support to suspend the association agreement with the EU if Israel continues to break international law and human rights.”
In case you're wondering, Geert Wilders' party is predicted to come in third and to be in opposition. They still oppose shchita, and advocate for an even more radical law than the one that narrowly failed last year.
Labels: Geert Wilders, Holland, shchita
Dutch shechita ban canceled
Holland has
canceled its ban on shchita (Kosher ritual slaughter).
The Dutch government said Wednesday it will study new standards for ritual slaughter to satisfy animal rights activists without infringing on ancient Jewish and Muslim traditions, and will not ban the practice outright.
The announcement that a commission will be appointed to draw up a tightened regime for supervising the slaughter followed a political deadlock in the Dutch parliament.
By a wide margin, the lower house approved a ban earlier this year on the traditional method of cutting the animal's throat without stunning it first. After an outcry that the ban would violate religious freedoms, support evaporated when the bill was sent to the upper house this month for approval.
Undersecretary for Agriculture Henk Bleker's office said the commission will draw up standards on how long animals can remain conscious and on educating slaughterers. It will include registration and quality requirements for slaughterhouses.
A small animal rights party proposed the ban and it won backing from a large anti-Islam political party and a solid majority of Dutch voters, leading to easy passage in Parliament's Second Chamber.
But Christian political parties opposed it from the start out of concern for religious minorities. After protests from Jewish and Muslim groups, both local and international, centrist parties on the left and right reversed their position in the Senate. They said reforms to slaughtering practices are a higher priority than the relatively small number of religious slaughters.
Hmmm.
Labels: Holland, shchita
Holland won't support 'Palestinian' unilateral statehood bid
After a meeting with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal has announced that
Holland will not support the 'Palestinian Authority's unilateral statehood bid at the United Nations in September.
Holland’s rejection follows the refusal of France, a constant supporter of the Palestinian Authority, to categorically support Abbas’ effort. French officials have held out nothing more than the possibility of backing a vote for the PA in the United Nations in September.
The European Union countries that might be prepared to back Abbas are Sweden, Spain and a handful of other nations, but it is far from certain that they will buck the official EU policy of seeking the resumption of “negotiations” between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
Abbas has used the term to mean sitting down with officials in the Netanyahu government on condition that they accept his demands for borders based on the temporary 1949 Armistice Lines, a freeze on all building for Jews in Judea and Samaria as well as areas in Jerusalem claimed by the PA, and the immigration of several million foreign Arabs into Israel.
He also has rejected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s demand that the PA recognize Israel as Jewish state, a definition that would contradict the proposed Arab immigration, which would eliminate a Jewish majority in Israel.
Despite the Dutch rejection of Abbas’ plan for U.N. recognition, Holland’s legislators welcomed him warmly – except for the small Reformed Political party and Geert Wilder’s Freedom party, both of which boycotted him.
Several legislators who participated in a discussion with Abbas criticized him. “Abbas avoided answering my questions about Palestinian terrorism. I think he’s a typical Arab leader who can have two faces, who can be very friendly to the west, and to the Arab world can be very militant,” said. Joel Voordewind, a parliamentarian from the Christian Union party.
On the other hand, Labor legislator Frans Timmermans, stated, "I think he’s been very clear on all these issues, and I’m really getting sick and tired of this increasing level of propaganda with these nonsense stories about what Abbas said, or did, or didn’t do or didn’t say."
Recall that Holland
banned shechita (Kosher slaughter of animals) last week.
It seems to me that when it comes to Jews, there are some who hate us and some who love us, and that we have to hope that the balance of power is such that those who love us at least have a veto if they are not in control.
Hmmm.
Labels: Holland, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, shchita, unilateral declaration of statehood
Anti-Semitism starts with banning shchita (Kosher ritual slaughter)
One of the first steps Nazi Germany took against its Jews was to ban Kosher slaughter of animals (
shchita). Is the European Union heading down the same path?
Maybe.
The European Parliament in Brussels last week voted through an amendment to a new European Union food-labeling bill that would require animals not stunned before being slaughtered to be labeled on food packaging.
The Environmental and Consumer Affairs Committee of the European Parliament voted through the amendment necessitating kosher meat to be labeled “unstunned before slaughter.”
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The regulation on the provision of food information to consumers will now be voted on by the entire parliament at the second reading in July.
Last year the same amendment was carried at first reading by a majority of 56.
“The fight to stop this amendment is far from over,” said Shechita UK’s chairman, Henry Grunwald. “In recent months we have highlighted to a number of MEPs that this amendment does nothing to improve animal welfare, fails to fully inform consumers and is clearly discriminatory by design – and most have now chosen to reject it.
What could go wrong?
Labels: European anti-Semitism, European Union, shchita
