Belgian Member of Parliament Sam van Rooy issued a stark warning on Monday about the future of Europe, arguing that rising Islamic extremism and unchecked immigration are threatening democratic values across the continent.

“We want to remain a democratic society, but as we do, more and more neighborhoods Islamize,” Van Rooy said during a panel discussion at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem. “We either become a secular totalitarian country and force Islam out, or we remain a democracy until eventually Islam forces us out.”

Van Rooy, who previously served as policy director to Dutch right-wing leader Geert Wilders, returned to Belgium in 2012 to launch his own political career. He currently serves as a city councilor in Antwerp and a Belgian Member of the Chamber of Representatives (MP), and is a vocal supporter of Israel. On Monday, he joined the “Changing Europe” panel alongside chair Fiamma Nirenstein, a senior contributing writer for JNS; Hungary’s Center for Fundamental Rights director Miklos Szantho; and former commander of British forces in Afghanistan Col. Richard Kemp.

A self-described “radical Zionist,” Van Rooy lamented the lack of political support for Israel within the Belgian Parliament. “There are 150 members, and almost none of them stand with Israel,” he said. “I came here to express my solidarity and to take a message back to Belgium: We need to stop with the ICC and UNRWA nonsense and ban groups like Samidoun, which are allowed to organize and demonstrate in our country.”

Speaking after the panel, he called for an end to mass immigration from Muslim-majority countries, warning that Europe risks losing its cultural identity. “We can at least save the neighborhoods and cities that are still free and European,” he said. “We also need to stop treating Islam as a religion like any other. It’s a totalitarian ideology disguised as a religion, hostile to freedom of belief.”

He described the climate after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, as particularly dangerous for Belgium’s Jewish community, which he said is under increasing threat.

“Since Oct. 7, antisemitism has risen dramatically. Every day we have at least one antisemitic incident,” he stated. “I raise the issue every month at city hall, demanding more protection for Jewish schools and synagogues, and harsher penalties for antisemites.”

Van Rooy warned of a potential exodus of Belgium’s Jewish population. “My fear is that we will become a Judenrein country,” he said, invoking the Nazi-era term for areas "cleansed" of Jews. “That’s what I fight against every day. The Jewish people are our friends and part of our heritage. If they are forced to flee, we will be next. People don’t want to believe it because believing it means they have to act.”

He described Israel as a model for confronting radical Islam. “Israel is fighting Islamic jihad more than any other country. We should realize that and support them. After they take Jerusalem, the next target will be Rome,” he said, referring to the Islamists.

He named Qatar, Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda, Islamic State and Hezbollah as part of the same ideological threat. “That’s their end goal,” he said, emphasizing that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel should be supported in this war. “Our own safety in Europe depends on it,” he added.

‘Their civilization is at stake’

Van Rooy criticized what he sees as hypocrisy among Western leaders, saying that “leftist and centrist politicians are always present at Holocaust memorials, but where have they been since Oct. 7? That massacre was the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. It marked a renewed intent to destroy the Jewish people, and yet many still don’t grasp it.”

In the European Parliament, Van Rooy’s party cooperates with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, Wilders' Freedom Party, Sweden’s Democrats and Hungary’s ruling Fidesz under the “Patriots for Europe” alliance. But, he noted, not all right-wing parties are aligned with Israel.

“That’s something we need to fix. All conservative, nationalist parties should be pro-Israel. We should all take Hungary’s lead—Prime Minister [Viktor] Orbán showed Netanyahu respect and welcomed him properly. Hungary is leading the way when it comes to Israel and Jewish communities in Europe.”

This visit was Van Rooy’s third to Israel since Oct. 7. He toured the site of the Supernova music festival massacre, Kibbutz Be’eri and Sheba Medical Center, where he met with injured soldiers.

“I was horrified by what I saw, but I returned to Belgium with a sense of hope. Israelis are resilient, powerful and fully aware of what they are fighting for. They know their civilization is at stake,” he said.

“In contrast,” he concluded, “Europe is growing weaker by the day. Since Oct. 7, our leaders have sided with Hamas, with Samidoun, and with the street protesters. We should look to Israel—not only as an ally, but as an example to follow.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott penned a letter to Jane Hughson, the mayor of San Marcos, on Tuesday, decrying what the Republican said is a "proposed antisemitic resolution" that flouts Texas state law "openly."

"Israel is a stalwart ally of the United States and a friend to Texas," the pro-Israel governor wrote. "I have repeatedly made clear that Texas will not tolerate antisemitism. Anti-Israel policies are anti-Texas policies."

After Oct. 7, Abbott issued an executive order on Jew-hatred in higher education. "I have proudly signed legislation prohibiting government entities from supporting efforts to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel," he stated. "That remains the law here."

Abbott's office "is currently reviewing active grants to determine whether the city has breached terms," the governor wrote to the San Marcos mayor. "If the city adopts the antisemitic resolution, the office of the governor will immediately terminate all active grants not in compliance with state law."

The San Marcos City Council considered a resolution on April 15 that calls for transferring “permanent sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territories” and an “embargo on the State of Israel,” according to the governor.

"The resolution claims to be rooted in the principle that 'all people are entitled to live life in safety and free from violence'" and states that it denounces targeting civilians "unequivocally," Abbott added. "But I have not found any past resolution that 'unequivocally condemn[s] targeting civilians' by Hamas or affirms that the Jews murdered on Oct. 7 were 'entitled to live life in safety and free from violence.'"

"City Council members voted to bring this pro-Hamas resolution to a formal vote at their next meeting on Tuesday, May 6, 2025," he stated.

An agenda for the city council's meeting noted a discussion "regarding a possible resolution calling for the immediate and permanent ceasefire in occupied Palestine, an arms embargo on Israel, recognition of Palestinian sovereignty and the protection of constitutional rights for all people under national and international law."

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Tuesday called on the United States to pressure Israel to complete its withdrawal from Southern Lebanon and to facilitate the release of Lebanese prisoners.

Speaking in Beirut during a meeting with a U.S. military delegation led by Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, Aoun emphasized the Lebanese Armed Forces’ role in maintaining border stability and curbing unauthorized armed groups. The delegation co-chairs the monitoring mechanism established under the November 2024 ceasefire agreement.

The truce, which ended more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, calls for Hezbollah’s withdrawal north of the Litani River and anticipates Israel’s pullout from five remaining military positions in Southern Lebanon.

Aoun urged Washington and Paris to act as guarantors of the agreement, warning that continued Israeli presence undermines Lebanese sovereignty and regional calm.

Earlier this week, Israel carried out an airstrike on what it said was a missile storage site in Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburb, a Hezbollah stronghold. No casualties were reported due to pre-strike evacuation warnings. It was the third such strike since the ceasefire took effect.

Hezbollah has not responded militarily in recent months, following a series of setbacks including the assassination of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an Israeli strike last September.

A new Swiss law banning Hamas and groups linked to the Palestinian terrorist organization will come into force on May 15, the Swiss government announced on Wednesday.

The legislation, which was approved by parliament last December, gives Bern "the necessary tools to take action against Hamas activities or support for the organization in Switzerland," the government said.

The law allows for preventive police measures such as entry bans or expulsions, and also makes it more difficult for the terrorist group to use Swiss banks as financial hubs for its activities, the statement noted.

In January, Ali Abunimah, co-founder and executive director of the anti-Israel Electronic Intifada website, was arrested by Swiss police ahead of a speaking engagement in Zurich.

Abunimah previously celebrated Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre as an "anti-colonial operation."

Zurich Canton Councilor Mario Fehr told the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, "We do not want an Islamist Jew-hater who calls for violence in Switzerland."

The Swiss parliament on Dec. 11 approved a five-year ban on Hamas in response to the Oct. 7 invasion. The European country had previously only banned Al-Qaeda and Islamic State, which are on the United Nations' list of designated terror organizations.

The Swiss Parliament has also voted to outlaw Lebanon's Hezbollah terror group. Opponents—including the Swiss government—argued that the ban would violate Switzerland's commitment to neutrality.

"If Switzerland now moves to ban such organizations with special laws, we must ask ourselves where and how the boundaries are drawn," said Swiss Justice Minister Beat Jans during the parliamentary debate.

The third round of talks on Iran’s nuclear program will take place in Oman on Saturday as the United States hopes to restrain the Islamic Republic through negotiations.

The talks have garnered mixed reactions from Israel supporters, with some calling for a wait-and-see approach and others, viewing past as prologue, warning that Iran will only use the talks to buy time, rebuild its capabilities and persist in its malign activities.

To Western thinking negotiation means compromise and reconciliation, but Iran’s ayatollahs see it as a way to recover from defeat and ready for renewed confrontation, according to Yoram Ettinger, a former Israeli ambassador and head of Second Thought: A US-Israel Initiative.

For over four decades, negotiations have constituted a stage for Iran to bolster capabilities for further assault on the "so-called infidel West,” he told JNS.

U.S. President Donald Trump, by adhering to the negotiation option despite 47 years of adverse outcomes, is ignoring the fact that America’s pursuit of negotiations has contributed to turning Iran into a hub of anti-American terrorism, crime and weapons proliferation, he said.

However, Janatan Sayeh, a research analyst with the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), told JNS it’s too soon to start sounding alarm bells, as talks would help legitimize any subsequent military action that proves necessary.

“We don't know if the administration has played all its cards. Nothing’s been finalized yet and we don’t know exactly what the administration’s strategy is,” he told JNS.

What would raise his concern, he said, is if the administration starts issuing statements about permitting limited uranium enrichment rather than full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program. The latter would allow Iran to quickly build a nuclear bomb if it decided to exit the agreement, he told JNS.

“Ideally, we should utilize the leverage Trump has built up through his maximum pressure campaign to pursue full dismantlement,” he said.

A second worry, according to Sayeh, is Iran being allowed to drag out talks—in its interest as it wants to appear diplomatically engaged, calm its markets and reduce internal unrest as talks demoralize regime opponents within Iran.

“Time is of the essence” as the October 2025 “snapback” deadline approaches, when the United States and Europe must agree on whether to reimpose U.N. sanctions on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic program.

The true deadline may be earlier. A report issued on April 3 by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) argued that the snapback must be implemented no later than May 2025 due to the time the process requires, and other tactical reasons.

Ettinger dismissed the whole notion of talks as misguided, arguing that they play down the ideological nature of the Islamic regime. The Western belief that money and peaceful coexistence outweigh ideology doesn’t align with Middle Eastern realities—especially when it comes to the ayatollahs, he said.

The Iranian regime's fanatical vision is rooted in a 1,400-year-old apocalyptic worldview, which translates in modern times as fulfilling a divine mission to defeat the “Great American Satan,” according to Ettinger. “Decades of negotiations have failed to change this stance, but only served to strengthen Iran’s anti-American posture,” he added.

Effective leadership means learning from past mistakes, he contended. That means recognizing that negotiation has not deterred the regime, but enabled its hostile ambitions and regional influence to grow.

Even sanctions haven’t done the job, including “maximum-pressure" sanctions imposed by Trump. “While they may have constrained Iran, we know now that all economic sanctions are reversible. President Trump imposes sanctions, and along comes another president, in this case, [Joe] Biden, and suspends and softens economic sanctions,” he told JNS.

Iran has also become adept at evading sanctions through China, Russia, and European and South American countries, he noted.

“It's time to resort to the only effective option for anyone who wants to minimize war and terrorism, and that is obliterating the main epicenter of global wars and terrorism and drug trafficking,” said Ettinger.

“It means regime change in Iran. And refraining from regime change obviously plays into the hands of the ayatollahs,” he continued.

It also harms the Iranian people, most of whom want to bring about an end to the ayatollahs’ rule, he noted.

The regime’s internal opposition is "well aware" that change is impossible without outside military support, he said. Past uprisings by Iranians in 2009 and 2022 failed because U.S. Presidents Barack Obama and Biden offered no real backing.

“They left them hanging high and dry.”

I didn’t learn about the Holocaust from a textbook. I learned it from the silence in my grandparents’ voices, the missing names in our family tree and the stories of ancestors that ended without explanation. Being a Jewish teenager in 2025 means knowing that genocide isn’t ancient history; it’s recent memory. And watching antisemitism rise again isn’t shocking. It’s familiar.

Right now, antisemitism is continuing to explode on college campuses. Students are chanting “From the river to the sea” and waving signs defending Hamas. Professors are posting conspiracy theories. Jewish students are getting assaulted, harassed and told they deserve it. This isn’t a campus culture war, it’s open hate.

In response, President Donald Trump did what no one else was willing to do: He took real, measurable action. During his first term, in 2019, he signed an executive order applying Title VI civil-rights protections to Jewish students, forcing colleges to take antisemitism seriously or lose federal funding. That wasn’t symbolic. It was a concrete step that made schools suddenly accountable for what they’d ignored for years.

When Columbia University allowed antisemitic protests to escalate over the last 18 months without consequences, Trump responded by cutting funding. This isn’t just about one school; it is a warning to all of them. If you enable antisemitism, you lose support

Still, the outrage on campuses didn’t start in college. That’s the part no one is talking about, and it’s where the real failure lies. By the time students get to institutions of higher learning, their views on Jews, Israel and the Holocaust are already shaped. And in most American schools, those views are shaped by silence.

Holocaust education in the United States is broken. In a 2020 survey by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also known as Claims Conference, 63% of American young adults, ages 18-39, didn’t know that 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. Nearly half couldn’t name a single concentration camp. One in 10 believed Jews caused the Holocaust. That’s not a knowledge gap. It’s a national scandal.

In many schools, the Holocaust is a brief sidebar in a textbook. One class period, a few images of barbed wire and a sentence about “Never Again.” Students don’t learn how Adolf Hitler rose to power legally, how propaganda turned neighbors against one another or how entire bureaucracies were built to erase a people. Students aren’t taught that genocide happens in steps—slow, quiet and fully documented.

Worse, young people are rarely taught how those same warning signs—dehumanizing language, conspiracy theories, mob violence—are showing up again. So when students see mobs outside synagogues or professors calling Hamas “freedom fighters,” they don’t connect the dots. Instead, students repost and cheer; not necessarily because they are hateful, but because they were never taught how to tell the difference between activism and hate.

That’s why now is the moment to fix Holocaust education.

Trump wants to overhaul the Department of Education. If he’s serious about protecting Jewish students, that has to start long before college. We need a national mandate for Holocaust education: detailed, age-appropriate and required in every public school.

It should begin in middle school and expand each year, the same way we teach U.S. history or civil rights. Holocaust education must include survivor testimony, primary sources, propaganda analysis and clear instruction on how antisemitism spreads—and what it leads to.

And just like he did with higher education, Trump could enforce these standards using funding. He already made clear to universities: If you don’t take antisemitism seriously, you won’t get federal support. The same principle should apply to other educational systems as well. 

If a state refuses to implement real Holocaust education, it shouldn’t receive federal education funding. It’s that simple. Schools that ignore this issue shouldn’t be rewarded; they should be held accountable.

Right now, we’re trying to fight antisemitism after it’s already rooted. That’s backward. If you want to change how students act at 20, you have to change what they learn at 12.

Democrats say Trump’s actions on antisemitism have been extreme. They say cutting funding or deporting foreign students who glorify terror is a threat to free speech. Maybe those concerns are worth discussing, but the left misses the larger truth: Speech that calls for genocide is not intellectual. And if our campuses are protecting that kind of hate, they’re not places of learning but places of danger.

We need real action and real education. Not one or the other. If we want to stop antisemitism in college, we have to start fighting it in middle school. Not after it’s already too late.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed on Wednesday that an individual armed with a knife attempted to break into the Jewish state's embassy in London "with the intent to carry out an attack" earlier this week.

"Local security forces prevented the intrusion into embassy grounds and apprehended the attacker," Jerusalem confirmed in a statement.

"All embassy staff are safe and no damage was caused to the embassy," according to the Foreign Ministry.

The U.K.'s Daily Mail cited police sources as saying on Tuesday that the suspect was wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh during the intrusion. He was wielding a knife and moved close enough to attack staff, the daily said.

"He managed to get very close to where staff members were, so naturally people were absolutely terrified," one of the sources stated. "From my understanding he was on the walls and he got arrested by police.

"They need to investigate exactly how someone was able to get that close—it is one of the most secure roads in the country and should be one of the most secure buildings," they added.

Last week, Israel's ambassador to South Korea was harassed by anti-Israel activists while dining at a restaurant in Seoul, with protesters accusing the diplomatic envoy of being complicit in "genocide."

In video footage, one activist could be seen telling Ambassador Rafi Harpaz, "Science and technology should not be used as tools of genocide," while another held a keffiyeh near Harpaz's table.

Following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel, the National Security Council warned that "increased efforts have been detected on the part of Iran and its proxies, as well as on the part of Hamas and elements of global jihad, to attack Israeli and Jewish targets."

The Islamic Republic of Iran is behind a series of terrorist attacks carried out by criminal gangs targeting Israeli embassies in Europe, including several in Sweden, the Mossad intelligence agency revealed last year.

British warplanes joined U.S. forces in a coordinated airstrike on a Houthi drone facility in Yemen late on Tuesday, marking the first British military action against the Iran-backed terrorist group since U.S. President Donald Trump’s re-election in November.

According to the U.K. Ministry of Defence, RAF Typhoon jets, supported by aerial refueling aircraft, hit a site south of Sanaa used by the Houthis to launch attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea. The strike is part of ongoing Western efforts to degrade the group’s drone capabilities following repeated attacks on commercial vessels and regional allies.

The Houthis, aligned with Iran, have intensified their use of drones and missiles in the Red Sea and beyond, threatening global trade and drawing international military responses under the joint U.S.-U.K. "Operation Prosperity Guardian."

IDF intercepts suspected Houthi drone

The Israel Defense Forces reported late on Tuesday that an unmanned aerial vehicle approaching from the east—believed to have been launched from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen—was successfully intercepted by Israeli fighter jets before breaching Israeli airspace.

The military confirmed that no warning sirens were activated, in line with protocol.

Over the weekend, air-raid sirens did sound across Israel’s southern Arava region and the Dead Sea area as the IDF intercepted two ballistic missiles launched by the Houthis on Saturday and Sunday.

Despite joint Israeli and U.S. efforts, the Houthis have maintained a steady campaign of missile and drone attacks, targeting Israel as part of their declared solidarity with the Hamas terror group in Gaza.

April is a bittersweet month in Israel's calendar. It is the month when the national holidays of Yom Hashoah, Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut are marked in quick succession. It is a time of remembrance and celebration, but also a time that can be sensitive and triggering for members of Israel’s security forces.

Many communities made the decision this year not to have the traditional fireworks to celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel's Independence Day, which begins on the night of April 30, out of sensitivity to soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Defense Ministry Deputy Director-General  Limor Luria, who heads the ministry’s Rehabilitation Department, said that soldiers struggling with PTSD experience holidays and memorial days as especially straining, even more so during wartime. The Rehabilitation Department estimated that it would be treating approximately 100,000 wounded personnel by 2030, half of whom are expected to have suffered from PTSD. 

The number of suspected suicides among Israeli soldiers rose sharply since the Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the data published by the IDF. Since the start of the war, some 28 soldiers have died by suicide. In 2023, before the Hamas attack, 10 suicides were recorded.

Since the Oct. 7 onslaught, Luria said, the Rehabilitation Department has absorbed some 16,500 wounded soldiers, nearly half of whom were treated for PTSD.

PTSD is defined by the Mayo Clinic as “a mental health condition that is caused by an extremely stressful or terrifying event—either being part of it or witnessing it.”  It is often characterized by recurring nightmares, frequent panic attacks, depression and other trauma symptoms. Often, those with PTSD fear sleep because persistent nightmares torment them. 

The wounds are not physical but internal and for many years, PTSD has been misunderstood and often stigmatized. Treatment for veterans suffering from PTSD has not been adequate and has been neglected.

In April 2021, IDF veteran Itzik Saidyan set himself on fire outside the Petah Tikva offices of the Rehabilitation Department for disabled soldiers, after years of struggling to receive the care he had sought for PTSD. 

Following Oct. 7 and the rising number of soldiers experiencing PTSD, the Ministry of Defense has amped up efforts to treat this with a variety of different therapies, including special dog companions. 

Animals play a vital role in helping PTSD sufferers process and cope with the emotions and challenges they face. Canine companions are excellent at providing a special kind of therapy. Therapy dogs help their soldier get active and leave the house because they need a lot of exercise. They help rebuild trust and give unconditional love. Dogs also help soldiers make the sometimes-difficult transition to civilian life and help their humans feel protected. 

Tal Morag, a board member of No Soldier Left Behind—a non-profit organization that offers canine therapy—told JNS that there is a clear distinction between therapy and service dogs.

“Soldiers live with the shock of battle that can come at any time," she said. "There are certain triggers like loud noise or the smell of blood that can come at any time. It can take years to understand what is happening to them. We don’t question them, we give them the chance to tell their stories and therapists assist them."

She said the organization helps combat soldiers as well as police, paramedics and other security forces. "The dogs are trained not to be a service dog but just to be the soldier’s dog and you can see the effect it has on him. The dog learns his owner, is able to smell that a panic attack is about to happen and can calm him down.”

Liran Dimri is the Dog Program Coordinator at Belev Echad, a nonprofit that is dedicated to restoring wounded IDF soldiers and offers a program called Dogs 4 Soldiers. In an interview with JNS, Dimri explained how man's best friend can also be his best therapist and how therapy dogs can help alleviate the trauma of soldiers who have fought in the current war.

“People who suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder usually prefer to be alone, locked up at home, and this is what causes them depression," he said. "Dogs help them by getting them out of the house at least three times a day. In addition, when they are alone at home, the dog is always with them and seeks the person's attention and treats them, so they don't feel alone.” 

Dimri, who understands firsthand the impact that PTSD has on families of soldier, urges relatives to be actively involved in the training process.

“I myself suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. It mainly affects my sleep. I also got a dog three years ago and it helped me a lot when I was depressed. So I can advise them on what to do and how it helped me. I also talk to their family members and explain to them about post-traumatic stress disorder and how they should deal with their children or partners, and that way it helps them deal with them better."

Dimri concluded, "I encourage their family to come to dog training with them, to go through this process together, so that the soldiers understand that they are not alone in this process. Their family is with them and so am I. In addition, it gives them quality time together at least once a week when we meet for training and eat together at the end of the evening.”