Dutch PM hopeful pledges ‘full support’ for Israel

Geert Wilders, the leading candidate to become prime minister of the Netherlands, on Monday pledged his “full support” for the war against Hamas terrorism, speaking during a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Amsterdam.

“I just had a great meeting in Amsterdam with the President of Israel,” Wilders tweeted on Monday morning. “I told him I am proud that he visits the Netherlands and that Israel has, and always will have, my full support in its fight against terror.”

Wilders’s Party for Freedom (PVV) won a landslide victory in the Nov. 22 general election, possibly paving the way for the most pro-Israel government in the European nation’s history. PVV won 38 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives, giving him a chance to lead talks to form a new ruling coalition and possibly become prime minister.

Herzog traveled to the Netherlands on Sunday for a visit focused on bringing about the release of the 134 hostages still held in the Gaza Strip, as well as raising awareness of the global rise in antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist invasion of the northwestern Negev.

Herzog also spoke at the opening of the National Holocaust Museum in the capital city. The ceremony in Amsterdam’s Portuguese Synagogue was held in the presence of King of the Netherlands Willem-Alexander, outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte and representatives of Austria and Germany.

In his address, Herzog noted that his late father, Israeli President Chaim Herzog, helped liberate the Netherlands as an officer in the British Army during World War II.

“Friends, I am deeply grateful to everyone that has supported the establishment of this new Holocaust Museum,” Isaac Herzog said.

“At this pivotal moment in time, this institution sends a clear, powerful statement: Remember. Remember the horrors born of hatred, antisemitism and racism. And never again allow them to flourish. Unfortunately, ‘Never Again’ is right now,” Herzog added.

Herzog was joined by the family of Maj. (res.) Yitzhar Hoffman, who was killed in action in the northern Gaza Strip on Jan. 31. The Hoffman family was saved during the war by Dutch Christians, who were later recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center.

As Herzog spoke, some 2,000 anti-Israel protestors activists gathered outside the Holocaust Museum, chanting slogans calling for the destruction of the Jewish state. Police said 13 people were arrested.

“Hamas fans attack a police van while our king gets heckled and the Israeli president is insulted at the opening of the Holocaust museum in Amsterdam. Why did we ever let that scum into our country? They don’t belong here!” Wilders said on Sunday.

Wilders lived in Israel for two years during his youth and has visited the country more than 40 times. After he graduated from secondary school, he spent a year as a volunteer at Moshav Tomer in the Jordan Valley.