The tiny Gulf State of Bahrain on Tuesday, April 9, became the first Arab country to place the Arab terrorist group Hezballah (Party of Allah) on its state designated terrorist list.

It is not that Bahrain is concerned over Hezballah’s decades-long genocidal intentions against Israel. But as a radical Shia sect, Hezballah also plays a destabilizing role in the Arab world. The terrorist group receives financial support, weapons and military training from Iran.

The Lebanese Shiite movement based in Lebanon has allegedly been backing and training radical Shiite groups against Bahrain.  That appeared to be the main reason the group received the terrorism designation.  Although the majority of Bahrainis are Shia, the monarchy is Sunni.

“The measure is to protect Bahrain’s security and stability from Hezballah’s threats,” Bahraini MP Adil al-Asoumi told Al Arabiya. There is evidence that Hezbollah is instigating violence against the government in Bahrain, Asoumi added.

“When we were in Syrian refugee camps in Turkey, we met with defected Syrian soldiers. They told us that in the past years, the Syrian regime was conspiring against the people of Bahrain,” in coordination with Iran and Hezbollah, Abdulhalim Murad, deputy head of Bahrain’s Islamist al-Asala bloc said, according to Al Arabiya.

The United States, Canada and Israel have all had Hezballah on terrorism-designated lists for some time.  Such a designation means that the bank accounts of the organization can be frozen, and suspected members can be legally monitored.

During the Mubarak regime, Egypt considered Hezballah a terrorist organization, but in late December of last year the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Egyptian government announced it would pursue a “tight relationship” with the terrorist group.

An investigation into the deadly bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria last July, revealed that Hezballah was behind the violence that killed 5 Israelis and a Bulgarian bus driver.

In the wake of the Burgas bombing, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barrosso said the European Union would consider including Hezballah on its list of terrorist organizations.  The Israeli government and Shurat HaDin (the Israeli Law Center) had each attempted to convince the EU to make that designation.

However, on March 7, the EU announced it would not make the change, claiming it “did not yet have sufficient evidence of its activity in Europe” to place Hezballah on the EU terrorist organization list.  Presently, Holland is the only European country to officially sanction Hezballah as a terrorist entity.

Were the EU to follow suit behind the U.S., Canada, Holland and Bahrain, and place the terrorist organization on its list of official terrorist groups, it would likely have a serious impact on Hezballah’s financial footing, and therefore its ability to continue its global terrorism operations.

Two artworks sold under duress during the Nazi occupation of Germany will be returned to the heirs of New York art collector Michael Berolzheimer, who died in 1942 after escaping from Germany and settling in suburban WestchesterCounty.

Berolzheimer and his family fled from Germany in 1938 after selling his art under duress, traveling first to Switzerland before immigrating to the United States. He lived in WestchesterCounty until he died at the age of 76.

In 2011, the Holocaust Claims Processing Office of the financial services’ department opened a claim to recover works for the heirs of Berolzheimer, an attorney who pursued a lifetime interest in fine art and served on the acquisitions committees of several art museums. The HCPO earlier had recovered three other artworks for the heirs; it is working on 26 other restitution claims for the estate.

A Dutch antiquarian bookseller who owned one of the two drawings agreed to return it after learning of its origin, according to a statement from the office of Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of financial services for the State of New York.

The 1834 pen-and-ink portrait of a geographer by Reinier Craeyvanger was bought by the Dutch bookseller at a Sotheby’s auction in 2005.

The Kunsthalle Bremen in Germany is returning a drawing attributed to the 17th century Italian artist Giacomo Cavedone. The museum acquired the drawing in 1941.

The works once belonged to an art collection of more than 800 pieces.

Originally published at Rubin Reports.

A few years ago in Amsterdam I was shown the most popular manual published in the Netherlands, in Dutch, on how to raise one’s children as proper Muslims. The book included virulently anti-Semitic passages, based on Muslim holy texts. After the Jewish community objected, the authorities forced the publisher to put white tape over the offending passages. The tape could easily be peeled off by purchases so that these words could be read.

Separately, consider what has just happened. A Turkish-Dutch researcher publicized a record of systematic anti-Semitism among other Muslims in the Netherlands, including a dramatic video that showed teenage boys calling for genocide and praising Hitler.

What happened? The researcher, Mehmet Sahin, had to go into hiding after being accused by others of being a Jew and a Zionist.

The growing anti-Semitism in Western Europe is like that. The European Union, governments, and the media paste a white tape over the problem to conceal it or pretend to do something about it. But when one peels back the tape the hatred is revealed as growing and being passed onto the next generation.

While one doesn’t want to exaggerate rising anti-Semitism in Europe – mostly from Muslim immigrants and their children but facilitated and even reflected by the increasingly intellectually hegemonic left – the growth of anti-Jewish hatred is enormous. Some people view this as fear-mongering, pointing to other developments that show the glass to be half full. Indeed, the hostility of European governments toward Israel has often been exaggerated. The situation is actually better than it was 20 or 30 years ago.

Yet the broader question is one of social trends and the behavior of institutions, especially the mass media and universities, which are generally becoming not just critical but viciously so of Israel and periodically Jews generally.

Take the Netherlands, a mild-mannered country that prides itself on moderation in all things. Traditionally, the Netherlands was friendly to Israel and while it has always had its anti-Semites and even, historically, fascists, it had far less proportionately than other European countries during the last half-century. In other words, if things are bad in the Netherlands, they’re really bad.

Last year, the chief rabbi of the Netherlands spoke in a published interview in which he spoke extensively about his love for the country, the good treatment of Jews there, and other such points. Asked at the end, however, whether there was any future for Jews in the country he said, “No,” and advised the community to move to Israel.

That doesn’t mean the Netherlands is a maelstrom of anti-Semitism. It isn’t. But there’s a growing anti-Semitic sector which consists of two parts: Muslim immigrants and their offspring, and the far left that is so often dominant in the Netherlands –as in other Western countries.

The Dutch government, unlike others in Europe, has defined Hezbollah as a terrorist group and while less favorable to Israel than its predecessor remains on good terms with Israel. Yet shocking slanders appear about Israel in the mainstream Dutch media.

To cite just one example, on March 17, 2010, NRC Handelsblad, Holland’s most prestigious newspaper, published a front-page article claiming the “Israel lobby” was threatening to defeat President Barack Obama’s health plan to blackmail him regarding his Israel policy. While statements on other matters by Israel’s government are evaluated in a cynical way, the basis for this story was a single left-wing blogger.

An observer who wants to avoid exaggerating the problem warns about: “A rising tide of anti-Semitism that the top level is unwilling to address out of a fear of being labeled a racist or out of a fear of losing the all-important Muslim vote,” which is vital for the Left in elections. There is no effective opposition in the political sphere. The center dithers; some on the right speak out but do nothing effective.

A Dutch person involved in inter-communal work adds: “I know many upstanding young Muslims who are as appalled by anti-Semitism,” and these voices should not be forgotten. It should also be remembered that there have been attacks on mosques over the years. In contrast, though, a moderate left politician described in great detail how her family was forced to leave their neighborhood by verbal and at times violent harassment by Muslim youths there.

The Dutch government has advised business owners to refrain from labeling products from the Golan Heights, Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem as “Made in Israel.”

In a circular written by the Dutch Foreign Ministry and published on Wednesday on the website of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, stores are advised but not required to replace “Made in Israel” labels with a label reading “Product from Israeli settlement.”

This applies to products that require a label, such as fresh vegetables, fruit, wine, honey, olive oil, fish, beef, poultry, eggs and cosmetics products, the notice said. The recommendation is in line with guidelines published in 2012 after a meeting by EU foreign ministers that said that “the European Union and its members are obligated to fully and effectively implement existing EU legislation and agreements with Israel regarding products from the settlements.”

The notice also said that labeling products from areas beyond the Green Line as made in Israel would be “misleading,” as international law does not recognize those areas as being part of Israel.

The governments of Ireland, Denmark and the U.K. have also stated their support for labeling settlements products.

Yael Rosen, Director of ATZUM‘s Righteous Among the Nations Project speaks with pride of the astonishing accomplishments made in a joint project with the Leo Baeck Education Center in Haifa.

Students there launched a research project about specific remarkable, heroic acts during World War II, focusing on the heroism of the Van Hall and Boissevain families from Amsterdam. “The beauty of fostering the inter-generational, cross-cultural relationships that resulted from this effort is indescribably valuable,” Yael says. She has much more insight to share.

“The research project began in 2009, culminating in a heartfelt, sometimes tearful opening ceremony for the exhibition held May 21 at the Leo Baeck Education Center in Haifa. ATZUM is involved with improving Israeli society in various ways. One branch of our work is an attachment to the Righteous Among the Nations, gentiles who risked their own lives by saving Jews during the Shoah. The public sometimes hears of this group of people through Yad VaShem. Several RAN members reside in Israel. We at ATZUM believe that these now elderly survivors, aged 77-95, deserve whatever financial, legal and bureaucratic help they need. Since the Leo Baeck school has impressive social action programs of its own, we joined forces.”

Irony, wonder, and genuine soul-searching detective work culminated in the May 21 2012 opening ceremony for a 10-day exhibition entitled “The Light in the Darkness,” held at the Leo Baeck Education Center in Haifa. It made an ironic setting. The school was founded as a kindergarten for German children fleeing Nazi Germany in 1938. Today it is a flourishing campus with over 2,000 students from varied backgrounds.

Here’s some of what transpired between the debut of the project and opening night: Participating students learned of the biggest bank robbery in Holland as they followed a paper trail of diaries, letters and notes regarding Walraven Van Hall. He’d been a banker who used insider knowledge to fund the Dutch Resistance to Nazism. Van Hall had surreptitiously replaced mounds of cash with counterfeit bills to secret it to resistance fighters. The teens also learned of Mies Bossevain, a woman who was a key figure in that resistance, and an aunt of Esther Grinberg (formerly Hester Boissevain). Esther is a resident of Israel who arrived in 1961 at age 26, converted to Judaism and married a Jew.

Esther Boissevain-Grinberg’s father had died in Buchenvald on the last day of the war. A slip of a child then (she was born in 1935), Esther grew up not knowing much about his life. Sixty years later, she read his letters to his wife, Esther’s mother. Esther’s adult access to that and to other information across the world jettisoned the progress in this joint project. Now living in Kiryat Tivon, Esther agreed to ATZUM’s request that she write out her life’s story. She delved into her family’s past, a formidable prospect she’d never wanted to face before. Aware that her family had saved four Jews, she investigated her own life and theirs. Twenty-nine pages plus many hours of phone calls, letters and deeply felt emotions later Esther had learned of other heroes who deserved honor. She agreed to work with the students. Esther also reconnected with one of the Jews her family had saved: a little girl who’d since grown up and married. She lives in Canada.

Esther’s personal account of her family’s heroism served as a roadmap for the students while planning the exhibition. It is available online and entitled “Echoes of the Past.” Esther’s assistance to the students preparing the exhibition helped to jog her memory.

Another key figure in this research project, Esther Barach, comes from a family that saved 80 Jewish children from Hitler’s murderers. Her relatives placed them in foster homes. Three of those survivors attended the May 21st ceremony, representing others who also live in the Holy Land and elsewhere. One of those attendees has given birth to fifteen children. Her 110 grandchildren and 39 great grandchildren are testimony to the victory over Hitler. Artist and poet Binyamin Peleg, also a Shoah survivor, donated some of his art to the exhibit. He also gave Judaica items from Holland, commemorating pre-war Jewish life there.

Tehilim 71:9 reads “Do not cast me off in the time of old age; Do not forsake me when my strength fails.” The message is apropos to the endeavor –  Wonder and spirituality ruled as respect for aging heroes of the Shoah increased among Leo Baeck students.

Austerity — what governments are currently experiencing in Europe – can be a bad thing. It is a well-known basic economic theory that when politicians try to slash the government budget by taxing citizens rather than by cutting government expenditure, they only harm the economy, which results in less tax income and worsens the situation. In the early 1970s, economist Arthur Laffer visualized it by drawing a curve on a napkin, indicating that from a certain point on, higher taxes result in less government income. When taxes are raised even further, the economy begins to contract.

A typical example can currently be seen in the Netherlands. The country’s economy has not grown in the last three quarters. Pressured by the European Union, austerity policies were introduced in 2010. Last April, the government fell when the Freedom Party of Geert Wilders refused to back a new austerity package of €11.5 billion, of which only €4 billion was to come from cutting expenditures and €7.5 billion was expected to come from raising taxes. The new austerity round was nevertheless imposed by the EU, which insisted that the Netherlands trim its budget deficit to 3% of BBP in 2013. Geert Wilders was right to have refused to go along with the latest plans. Not only will the amount of €7.5 billion in new taxes in all likelihood not be reached, but the Dutch economy will be hampered even more.

Last January, Standard & Poor’s warned the Netherlands that its credit rating could be lowered if its growth kept declining. S&P warned that the Dutch austerity policies risked “becoming self-defeating, as domestic demands fall in line with consumers’ rising concerns about job security and disposable incomes, eroding national tax revenues.”

Geert Wilders’ party is expected to do well in next September’s general elections. The electorate agrees with his rejection of the austerity package. Like Mr. Wilders, it blames the EU authorities in Brussels for imposing these policies on the Netherlands.

The same phenomenon can be seen all over Europe, with electorates in revolt against EU-imposed austerity everywhere. The rising unpopularity of governments that are trying to cut back their deficits has worried the IMF. Earlier this month, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said that the IMF is aware that fiscal austerity holds back growth and that the effects are worse in an economic downturn. This is, however, only a half-truth. As no one, not even the state, can indefinitely continue to spend more money than he receives, cutting government expenditure – hence austerity – is badly needed. The problem is that the austerity policies are targeting not the institution which is living beyond its means — namely the government — but the taxpayers. As Europeans are already suffering tax levels that are almost twice as high as those in the U.S., it is only natural that the voters are in revolt.

The irony is that the austerity policies of the past years have been imposed at the behest of the unelected liberal, leftist authorities in Brussels on center-right governments in the EU member states. The electorates are punishing their center-right governments by voting in center-left politicians who promise to end the austerity policies and “tax the rich” — a course that will make matters even worse.

The Dutch are lucky to have Geert Wilders; but the French, who lack an equivalent of Mr. Wilders, quite understandably voted President Nicolas Sarkozy out because they disagreed with his austerity policy. However, they voted the Socialist François Hollande in, who will undoubtedly only heighten the problem.

The same phenomenon can be witnessed in the United Kingdom. Two years ago, the Conservative David Cameron managed to oust Labour. Today, polls predict that if elections were to be held now, Labour would beat the Conservatives with a margin of 10%. David Cameron is fortunate that Labour leader Ed Miliband is unpopular or the margin might be even larger.

What did Cameron do wrong? He, too, made tax payers pay for austerity. One of the first things Mr. Cameron did was to raise Britain’s top tax rate to 50%. The result was that the tax revenue from Britain’s highest income group fell. Another thing Cameron did was to raise sales taxes. VAT – or Value Added Tax – rose from 17.5 to 20%, the highest level ever, as part of Cameron’s effort to bring down the country’s budget deficit.

Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders called on the government of the Netherlandsto  issue an apology to the Jewish people for its “passive” role in the mass deportations of Jewish citizens by the Nazis during World War II.

Wilders, a Dutch right-wing politician and leader of the Netherlands’ third-largest political party, Party for Freedom,  wrote to Prime Minister Mark Rutte with the request on Wednesday, after two former Dutch government ministers said in a book published in October that the Netherlands did not take a strong enough stand on behalf of the Jews during the war.

Former health minister Els Borst was quoted in “Judging the Netherlands” by Manfred Gerstenfeld as saying that she believes the Dutch government in exile, led by Queen Wilhemina and Prime Minister Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy,  would have appealed more resolutely on behalf of the Jews to the Dutch people if the deportees had been Catholics or Protestants.  She was involved in talks during the 1990s on reparations for Jewish survivors, which led to an agreement in 200 to pay $180 million in restitution.

Former finance minister Gerrit Zalm, who was also involved in 1990s reparations talks, said in the book that he would also support calls for an official apology.

Wilders is a long-time vocal critic of what he perceives to be aggressive Islamic encroachment on the West, and a supporter of Israel’s war on terror.  He has praised Israel for defending the West against an Islamic onslaught, warning that “if we do not stop Islamification now, Eurabia and Netherabia will just be a matter of time.”

“Thanks to Israeli parents who send their children to the army and lay awake at night,” Wilders said in a speech in New York,  “parents in Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.”

Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940 despite Dutch assertion as a neutral state.  When the first Jews were deported in 1941, Dutch citizens conducted the “February Strike” a unique general strike of Dutch workers in protest of the measure.   The Nazis responded by cracking down on protest leaders and acting even more harshly against the Jewish community.

The Dutch were the first Europeans to strike against Nazi actions against the Jews, followed only by the Danes and Luxemburgers. Only 30,000 of Holland’s 140,000 Jews survived the Holocaust.

Wilders wrote to Prime Minister Rutte that apologizing for not doing more is “the least thing to do”.

Spokesman Chris Breedveld said the government would carefully consider Wilders’ request.

In December 2010, Wilders flew to Israel and took part in a conference of MK Aryeh Eldad’s HaTikvah movement.  There, Wilders called Israel “an immense source of inspiration for me,”  saying “I will always defend Israel.” Wilders also reaffirmed the Jewish right to Judea and Samaria.  “Israel, including Judea and Samaria, has been the land of the Jews since time immemorial,” he said.  “Never in the history of the world has there been an autonomous state in the area that was not Jewish.”

 The city of Jerusalem recently was the recipient of a magnanimous donation  of 50,000 tulip bulbs from the Netherlands as representatives of the Dutch chapter of Christians For Israel made their presentation at the Hineni Center in Zion Square.

  Benjamin Phillips, director of Hineni in Jerusalem – the Torah outreach organization founded by  Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis  – and is of Dutch descent, was asked by the municipality of Jerusalem to host this special event at the Center in honor of the longstanding friendship between Christian Zionists from Holland and  the State of Israel.

Mayor Uri Lopianski, Mr. Dick Schutte

 Phillips expressed his appreciation to the Dutch contingent for the “donation of the tulip bulbs for the beautification of Jerusalem.”

 Mr. Dick Schutte, chairman of the Board of Christians For Israel in Holland, told attendees that the giving of tulips is a sign of friendship and encouragement in Holland, and spoke of the “unbreakable bond” of friendship that exists between Christians who support Israel and the Jewish people.

 ”As Christians, we know that the Bible tells us that whoever blesses the Jewish people shall be blessed and as such we are cognizant of the fact that the Jewish nation is indeed God’s  chosen people, so it is  our honor and privilege to donate these tulip bulbs  to Jerusalem.”

  The event’s featured speaker was outgoing mayor of Jerusalem, Uri  Lopianski who expressed gratitude and appreciation to CFI on behalf of the city of Jerusalem.

 Lopianski also recalled that he began his term as mayor at the opening ceremony of the Hineni Center and “now I am back here at the end of my term for another special dedication.”