The Smear Campaign Against Geert Wilders

Few politicians are as pro-Jewish and pro-Israel as Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch Freedom Party PVV. The 49-year old Wilders, who lives under round-the-clock police protection because of Islamist death threats, has visited Israel over 40 times. In his recent book Marked for Death: Islam's War against the West and Me, Wilders, who was raised a Catholic, relates how he lived and worked in Israel for one year as a young man and how he admires the Jews and their state.

Geert Wilders also leads the fight against anti-Semitism in the Netherlands -- and in Europe. Two years ago, the senior Dutch politician Frits Bolkestein advised "recognizable Jews" to leave the Netherlands and emigrate to Israel and the U.S. because of the Dutch government's inability to prevent the anti-Semitic violence committed by Jew-hating Muslim immigrants. An indignant Wilders reacted that "Jews shouldn't emigrate; anti-Semitic immigrants should."

Public opinion, misinformed by the Western media, is as anti-Israel in the Netherlands as in any other European country. Consequently, it is not electorally rewarding to take pro-Israel positions -- Wilders has nevertheless been unwavering in his support for the Jewish state.

Despite Wilders's record as a friend of the Jews, it is strange to see that there is a smear campaign going on which accuses the PVV leader of harboring anti-Semites within his own party. This campaign has everything to do with the upcoming general elections to be held in the Netherlands on September 12th.

Last year, the Dutch Chamber of Representatives approved a bill of the Animal Party to ban unstunned ritual slaughter. The bill received a large majority. Apart from three Christian parties, the bill was supported by all the parties in the Dutch Parliament, including Wilders's PVV, the Social-Democrats, and also the Conservatives of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Yet only the PVV has been singled out for criticism -- although the party, which has Jewish parliamentarians, allowed its representatives to vote as they pleased regardless of the party line. (...)