Enemy of my enemy?

Belgian far-rightist calls on Jews to join battle against Muslims

This is one of the Haaretz headlines today. Just a reminder:

Vlaams Belang is the right-wing Flemish party whose platform calls for getting tough with the Muslim population. It was outlawed in 2004 because of incitement to racism, and subsequently changed its name.

And here comes the party boss:

Dewinter himself, in a last-ditch effort to gain legitimacy, declared last week in the media that he is certain that "one-third of the Jews will vote for me." The Jews, Dewinter told Haaretz, "are our brothers-in-arms in the battle against extremist Islam in Antwerp."

Of course, the current anti-Israeli atmosphere in Belgium may provide enough reasons for the knee-jerk reaction of some Jews and cause them to vote for an obviously fascist party. But I would recommend these hasty Jews to take a second look:

According to Dewinter, "the Jews are part of European culture. Islam is not. It is foreign to the residents of the Continent and it threatens them." An extremist Muslim, according to Dewinter, is anyone who refuses to send his daughter to a swimming pool attended by both men and women, who demands his wife wear a head scarf outside the home and opposes the inclusion of pork on the menu of public-school lunches.

Hmm... Must be a bit tough on a nice Orthodox Belgian Jew, eh? Take care, people...

Cross-posted on Yourish.com

***