Last night, we witnessed horrific violence on the streets of Amsterdam. Jewish fans who came to watch Israel's soccer team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, were attacked just for being Jewish. These were premeditated and coordinated attacks, and it's time to call it what it is. A pogrom. A pogrom is a targeted attack against a specific group of people, historically, most commonly the Jewish community. It comes from a Russian word, which means to wreak havoc. Think of it as an organized Jew hunt. Now, people online and in some media outlets are saying that Jewish fans deserved it, that the Jews deserved to be beaten up and thrown in the river. They're also saying that the attacks happened because of the war between Israel and Hamas and the other Iranian proxies in the region. But ask yourself this. What other civilians are being hunted down in the streets of a foreign country because of a war their country is fighting? A war they didn't even start. So let's be clear on this. The brutal attacks in Amsterdam were not a sports brawl, payback for offensive chants at a soccer game, or solidarity with Gaza. It was a deliberate, orchestrated assault on defenseless Jewish people, a reminder of the violent pogroms our communities have faced for centuries. This is the result of years of ignored warnings about antisemitism, unchecked and preposterous lies and slander about Israel, and the worldwide spread of radical jihadi ideology. It's time for leaders around the world to take antisemitism in its modern form, anti-Zionism, very seriously. The difference between last night's pogroms in Amsterdam and the ones that the Jewish community have faced for 2,000 years is that now the Jews have a place to go. They have a country that can defend them and come to their rescue. Violence against Jews never brought on peace, and it sure is not going to free Palestine. But here's what we do know, that historically, violence that starts with the Jews doesn't end there. And this is something that should be of grave concern, not just for the Jewish community, but for humanity at large.
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