Belgian Right-Wing Politician Calls Zionism as Bad as Islamism
Paul Belien, BRUSSELS JOURNAL
Yesterday, the Belgian establishment newspaper De Standaard published a double interview with the Dutch politician Geert Wilders and the Flemish politician Jean-Marie Dedecker. [..]
[..] Wilders’ spectacular growth has, however, been stopped by Rita Verdonk, another former member of the Dutch Liberal Party (and a former Dutch Immigration minister), who was ousted in 2007 and also founded her own party, Trots op Nederland (TON, Proud to be Dutch). Verdonk is opposed to immigration but does not criticize Islam. In the polls she is doing better than Wilders.
Excerpts from the interview:
De Standaard: There are also large differences between the two of you. Mr Dedecker is opposed to prohibiting things, whereas you [Geert Wilders] want to prohibit all kinds of things, starting with the Koran. […]
Wilders: That I want to prohibit all sort of things is complete nonsense. I only want to prohibit things to defend our rule of law. I am still enough of a liberal to prohibit things only in the most extreme cases. I do not like to prohibit books at all. You will never hear me advocate prohibiting other books.
De Standaard: Do you also feel that our rule of law is threatened in this way, Mr Dedecker?
Dedecker: I feel threatened by the fact that the separation between church and state is diminishing. But I have no existential angst. There are two major phobias at present in our society: Islamophobia and climatophobia. Both are being promoted.
(To Wilders) You think that Eurabia is a danger. I disagree. Our enlightenment values are strong enough to withstand this. However, we have to wake up. What the politically correct Left has done to our society explains our [electoral] success.
Wilders: If you say that we must wake up, this means that the leftist political elite is sleeping at this moment. That is exactly the reason why our enlightenment ideas do not prevail. Because those leftist politicians, who have become ever more dependent on [the votes of] immigrant groups, will sleep on.
Dedecker: I think prohibiting the Koran is a form of overacting. We shouldn’t prohibit any books: neither Mein Kampf nor the Koran. The Bible, the Thora and the Koran are but fairy tale books. That is what you have to dare tell the people. If religion manifests itself as collective madness, then we must dare to oppose it and start the debate.
Wilders: The Koran is a diabolic book rather than a fairy tale book. It is also, unlike the other books which you refer to – and which I would not call fairy tale books, but it is your right to do so – a book from which people draw inspiration today to commit terrorist acts and exclude women and homosexuals from my community and execrate the separation of church and state. Fairy tale books do not do such things. Fairy tale books concern the Efteling or Walibi [Dutch and Belgian theme parks; equivalents of Disneyland]
Dedecker: I am opposed to the wearing of headscarfs by civil servants, I am opposed to separate swimming hours [for men and women] in swimming pools, but is this a reason to prohibit the Koran? On the contrary, I am one hundred percent behind our own values. And I am as much criticised for this as you. […]
[To Wilders] Up to a certain extent you are also a Zionist. I find that very strange of you.
Wilders: A Zionist? What next?
Dedecker: The way you always defend Israel – as a matter of fact this happens much more in the Netherlands than in Belgium. We both have visited Israel and the Palestinian territories. I consider Zionism and Islamism as similar phenomena. You constantly defend Israel although you know what is being inflicted there on the Palestinians. Do you do that perhaps because Zionism is the counterpart of Islamism?
Wilders: It is interesting that you say this. Zionist goes perhaps a bit far, but I am, indeed, a convinced defender of Israel. Because Israel is an oasis of democracy and Western values in the Middle East. I have also been in other countries in the region, from Syria via Iran to Afghanistan: all these countries are dictatorships. Israel is the only country where a majority in parliament can dismiss a minister – as members of parliament you and I should be able to appreciate that.
I am biased in favour of Israel. Is that so bad? No, I am even proud of it. You have to make up your own mind, but you, too, should be proud of every democracy in the world.
Dedecker: You are partly right. But that does not justify Israel’s apartheid policies – and that is exactly what I reject. I call Israel a kippah democracy.
Wilders: I have a different opinion. Palestinians who are living in Gaza and on the West Bank at this moment, could very well move to the other side of the Jordan – to Jordan or other areas. There is space and place enough there and many Palestinians already live there.
De Standaard: So you also favour ethnic cleansing?
Wilders: That is not ethnic cleansing. Israel can justly claim those regions. Moreover we do not have to harm anyone, but I see what happens today: Hamastan, governs Gaza.
Dedecker: Why should the Palestinians have to go to Jordan? The Palestinians are the outcasts of the Middle East: they are not welcome anywhere. These are people who were driven from their territory on the basis of an international treaty and pseudo property rights granted by the Thora or the Bible. Property rights on the basis of fairy tale books.
Wilders: For me the security of Israel as a democracy prevails on the rights of a group who is to a large extent guilty of terror and corruption. There is no democratic Palestinian authority – that is the sad truth. I am convinced that the attacks which Israel suffers from radical Islam are attacks aimed at us.
Dedecker: Isn’t it the opposite? Research shows that three fourth of the suicide terrorists are motivated by the fate of the Palestinians. If we solve that situation, would it not lead to a safer world for all of us? Meanwhile we spend billions and billions on our security.
Another reason why stupid people should not breathe! And again THERE IS NO SUCH CREATURE AS A PALESTINIAN! Click again, Am Yisrael Hi!
Comment by tov klein — June 30, 2008 @ 2:56 am
So, there we have it…”they are not welcome anywhere……” nu? so what has that to do with Israel?
For a politician (Flemish, or otherwise) to show your ignorance and have the gall to be interviewed about the subject of your ignorance is beyond comprehension. To say “driven from their territory” to describe (in most cases) a voluntary evacuation of a proposed combat zone is the epitome of the lack of knowledge.
Comment by mike packer — June 30, 2008 @ 4:25 am
Someone should tell this fool that for the past 1400 years - before they found oil under their rear-ends - invasion, rape, and plunder were the only means of survival of the islamists.
Islamism is not a modern phenomenon; it’s an age-old habit.
Comment by keelie — June 30, 2008 @ 5:41 am
MY, MY, Why am I not surprised?
An American tourist was kicked out of a cafe in Belgium for being Jewish.
Marcel Kalmann, a 64-year-old professor, told the Antwerp Jewish magazine Joods Actueel that he was ejected from the renowned restaurant Le Panier d’Or in Bruges after a waiter saw his yarmulke under his cap.
“We are not serving Jews, out of here,” the magazine reported.
Kalmann also told Joods Actueel that he was mistreated at the police station where he went to file a report and was told the incident would not be considered anti-Semitic. He said he will file reports against both the restaurant and the police.
Kalmann was born in the Auschwitz concentration camp three days before its liberation.
The mayor of Bruges has ordered a police inquiry into the incident and apologized to Kalmann, the European Jewish Press reported.
in Krakow (also spelled Cracow) Poland, a Bishop preached a sermon against “the kikes.” n case you are unaware, kike is a horrible antisemitic slur akin (but not the same as) the n-word. I find it quite disturbing that the church a significant figure in a church (edited on 2/17 after reading comments below) is once again preaching hateful antisemitism.
Here is an excerpt from an article by Ha’aretz:
“This was not a pogrom, but it was close. Sunday’s incident in Krakow at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was rife with overtones of hatred. “The Jews are attacking us! We need to defend ourselves,” shouted Prof. Bogoslav Wolniewicz, to stormy applause.
“About 1,000 people gathered for special services Sunday at the church, organized by the Committee Against Defamation of the Church and For Polishness, along with the anti-Semitic Radio Maryja. Local residents were informed of the service by posters that proclaimed: “The kikes will not continue to spit on us.”
“The huge church was packed. People sat on the stairs and stood in the aisles. The service opened, as usual, with prayer and song, but after about half an hour, the 91-year-old bishop of Krakow, Albin Malysiak, began inflaming the crowd with his sermon.” http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/953499.html
Much of the vitriol was spewed against Jan Gross, a scholar and Polish-American who grew up in post-war Poland. He has published a number of works, including “Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz” for which there are a number of reviews, including one by Publisher’s Weekly.
Comment by yamit82 — June 30, 2008 @ 7:45 am
Please die now, Dedecker.
Comment by elvis — June 30, 2008 @ 8:02 am
Their “solution” is to destroy Israel. So she is continuing the old tradition of finding cost efficient solution to the Jewish problem.
Only a fool, Islamic or non-Islamic would think that after that anyone is “safer”.
But Europe is full of fools and their foolers.
Comment by Max — June 30, 2008 @ 8:34 am
The VB is better off, having let this fool go.
Comment by Kim Hartveld — June 30, 2008 @ 8:48 am