In Slate Christopher Hitchens does a decent job untangling the complicated intellectual landscape of the European right. But he trips up subtly in the following passage: "Breivik has apparently declared himself a passionate pro-Zionist as well as a sworn foe of all sorts of Islamization. More attention should be paid to that last aspect: The true "neo-Nazi" gangs in Europe have violent anti-Semitism in common with their ostensibly deadliest Islamist foes, whereas anti-immigrant populists of the Geert Wilders stripe in Holland seek respectability by standing up for Israel, very often against criticism from the multi-culti left." Here Hitchens assumes that being pro-Israel means being pro-local-Jews. But this turns out to be an unreliable inference (as Dutch Jewish supporters of Wilders are discovering to their horror). Geert Wilders is instrumental in making (un-anesthetized) ritual slaughter and (male) circumcision illegal in the Netherlands. The former has already passed parliament, while the latter will probably pass parliament in 2012. With friends like these, Dutch Jews don't need enemies.
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