Protest against Tzahal concert in Antwerp

That Anti-Semitism is alive and well and growing in Belgium could be seen in Antwerp , where protesters outside a concert hall on Sunday night shouted ‘Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas.’ with other slogans like: ‘met een lied vergeet je de bommen niet’ (with a song you do not forget the bombs), ‘hier cultuur, in Palestina de muur’ (here culture, in Palestine the wall) , ‘geen koor van de dood, Palestina is in nood’ (no choir of death, Palestine is in need), Israël trap het af, blijf toch van Gaza af’ (Israel go away, stay of Gaza) en ‘ Tzahal terroriste, Belgique complice’ (Tzahal terrorist, Belgium accomplice).

Anti-Israel protester (Photo: John Moussiaux)

About 200 protesters gathered round the Provincial House to let the Belgian people know that it is not right to use a Provincial house for the Israel Defense Forces Orchestra’s performance there, being it a blot on the liberty of people and human rights.

Loud explosions were reported in Gaza for several days now. Though it is said that Israel only launched scores of air strikes on Gaza targeting ammunition stores and the headquarters of the National Islamic Bank, and houses of Hamas militants.

One wing of the demonstration comprised members of center-left and extreme-left movements, including Fouad Ahidar, a Brussels alderman and member of the Socialist party SP-A.

Another wing of the demonstration comprised activists from the extreme right, including Eddy Hermy, an activist of the N-SA movement, Joods Actueel reported. He has twice been convicted of racist speech and his articles are regularly published on the neo-Nazi website solidarisme.be.

Stop the occpuation, Freedom and peace for Palestine (Photo: Kevin Van den Panhuyzen, DeWereldMorgen)

A commentary by Joods Actueel on the incident read, “We are not surprised by this. When it comes to anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiments, we find these groups together.”

Several European cities, including The Hague and Brussels, have seen protests against the IDF offensive against Hamas, which Israel launched in response to the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel.

According to AP Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi says Israel’s “aggression” against Gaza will end Tuesday. Speaking to reporters Tuesday in the Nile Delta city of Zagazig, Morsi did not provide any evidence to support his prediction that an end to Israel’s weeklong offensive against Gaza is imminent. He only said negotiations between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers will yield “positive results” during the coming hours without elaborating.

According to Mario Franssen from Intal, one of the organisers it is not right to allow an  army that violates many human rights in Belgium to conduct propaganda. For him it’s already a success that his organisation could manage to withdraw from the presence of Yves Leterme (CD & V) and Monica De Coninck (Socialist Party) .

It looks like Hamas started a war that it cannot win in order to create a situation where the other side wrecks its infrastructure and kills its people, to get support in the world. The protesters forget that Hamas started the bombing of Israel. Then you can ask if a country is not allowed to defend itself when it is being attacked?

Hamas, badly outgunned on the battlefield, appeared to be trying to exploit its increased political clout with its ideological allies in Egypt’s new Islamist-led government. But it are those Egyptians which also keep their borders firmly closed for the citizens of Gaza. In case Egypt would open its border, the people would not have any problem to get enough food and other material, and Israel would have no problem to loose its face, having to give in.

The Hamas group’s leaders, rejecting Israel’s call for an immediate end to the rocket attacks, have instead laid down sweeping demands that would put Hamas in a stronger position than when the conflict began: an end to Israel’s five-year-old embargo of the Gaza Strip, a pledge by Israel not to attack again and multinational guarantees that Israel would abide by its commitments. In other words, Hamas is demanding that in future it can import whatever it wants and will have the right to attack Israel without retaliation.

Claiming that the Israeli government was surprised at his terror group’s ‘capabilities,’ Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal announced on Monday that Israel has asked for a brief cease fire during which it will hold off a ground invasion in order to give longer-term cease fire negotiations more time.

Israel wants a ceasefire; Hamas doesn’t.

There is no such thing as a diplomatic solution that will erase the threat of rocket attacks on the south. There were even rocket attacks in the immediate aftermath of Operation Cast Lead four years ago, when Israel mounted a ground attack, but did not finish off Hamas. The only way to erase the threat of rocket attacks is to erase the terrorists.

We can imagine that all ordinary people, not interested in politics, would love to see peace. Israel can retake Gaza once. Or it can retake Gaza every few years. It can have soldiers patrol Gaza or it can have rockets falling on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The options are as unfortunate as they are clear. The only hope for peace lies in driving out the terrorist militias who have turned Gaza and the West Bank into their own Somalia and Afghanistan and reclaiming the terrorists. Because after this fight is through, the next generation of rockets will go on being built and smuggled. And they will not fall in empty fields.

Israel — which has tens of thousands of troops massed along the border — has set a deadline of Thursday for the negotiations to succeed.

Egypt is trying to broker a truce between Israel and Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement. An Egyptian intelligence source said “there is still no breakthrough and Egypt is working to find middle ground”.

As diplomats sought to end the conflict, the violence in Gaza and southern Israel continued.

Smoke billows from a spot targeted by the Israeli military inside the Gaza Strip last week.

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Read also:

In Dutch:

1. Tzahal concert in Antwerpen zorgt voor beroering
2. Extreemrechts én extreemlinks protesteren samen tegen Israël, scandereren “Hamas, alle Joden aan het gas” [beluister]
3. Actiegroepen woest over aan optreden Israëlisch leger
4. Israël steunconcerten lokken veel volk – 2de concert verstoord door bommelding
5. Protest in Antwerpen tegen concert Israëlische legerband Tzahal

In English:

1. The Hamas Suicide Strategy
2. Oren: Israel is a ‘Real Country’, Not an ‘Issue’
3. Name of Israel’s anti-Hamas operation has biblical meaning
   An IDF spokesman explained that most Israelis would recognize “Pillar of Cloud” as a biblical reference.
   “It’s based on the pillar of cloud that accompanied the the nation of Israel during the Exodus as they left Egypt and traveling toward Israel,” said Eytan Buchman, head of the North American media desk for the IDF.
4. Clinton flies in as Israel puts Gaza ground invasion ‘on hold’
   Mrs Clinton will arrive in Jerusalem tonight amid reports that Israel has put plans for a ground invasion of Gaza “on hold” to give peace talks brokered by Egypt a chance.
   
5. Poll: Majority of Americans say Israel’s Gaza offensive is justified
   Only 40 percent of Democrats believed Israel’s Gaza operation was justified, compared to 74 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of independents.
   Moreover, almost 60 percent of Americans said they side with the Israelis, as opposed to 13 percent of U.S. citizens who said they sympathize with the Palestinians.
6. Israel should flatten Gaza like US flattened Japan: Ariel Sharon’s son
   Gilad Sharon, the son of former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, has called for Israel to “flatten Gaza as the US flattened the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945 with an atomic bomb”.
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   “Either the Gazans and their infrastructure are made to pay the price, or we reoccupy the entire Gaza Strip. Otherwise there will be no decisive victory. And we’re running out of time – we must achieve victory quickly. This needs to end quickly – with a bang, not a whimper.”

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