For the first time in some three decades, Belgian army forces are seen out in the streets, protecting Jewish institutions in that country. The army protection includes the Jewish Quarter of Antwerp as well as the United States and Israeli Embassies located in Brussels. NATO and EU installations will also be covered in the army’s protective mission as the nation works to thwart any and all planned terror attacks.
Belgian Defense Minister Steven Vandeput announced on Shabbos the nation’s terror alert stands at stage 3, the next to the highest level.
It appears two anti-terror raids carried out by forces in that country on Thursday, 24 Teves, prompted the heightened security. Two terrorists were killed in the anti-terror operations in which security forces targeted a Belgian Jihad cell from Syria. The Belgian media reports the cell receives its orders from commanders in either Greece of Turkey.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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The Europeans will lose patience with this very quickly and will either decide to let the Muslims chase the Jews out of Europe (perhaps to Israel, though I suspect North America is more likely), or they will decide to crush the Islamic terror movement (quite easy to do since most European countries have anti-Nazi laws they can use). A factor is whether they see the matter as overflow from the war in Israel or whether they see this as a second chance to prove they weren’t really collaborators with the Nazis (perceiving the Muslims as neo-Nazis).
And the question needs to be asked what happens in America. Was the decision not to immediately surpress the Crown Heights pogrom a foretaste of how the US will act, especially if liberal Democrats are in charge?
There is really a lot riding on this, for all of us.