Tea at Trianon: Pogrom in Amsterdam

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, November 10, 2024

Pogrom in Amsterdam

From The National Pulse:

Israel was forced to send aircraft to the Netherlands this week to rescue Israeli soccer fans who were attacked in the streets of Amsterdam, leading to five injuries and at least 62 arrests. Videos have emerged on X and other social media platforms showing antisemitic mobs attacking supporters of the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer club and chanting anti-Israeli slurs on Thursday, November 7.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema stated that police had to escort the Israeli soccer fans to their hotels. She added that they were targeted for violent attacks, including having fireworks launched at them. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his office sent five airplanes to Amsterdam to help the soccer fans get home. Dick Schoof, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, who is part of a right-wing coalition with anti-Islamist Geert Wilders‘s party, said he was “horrified” by the scenes.
“This is completely unacceptable. I am in close contact with all parties involved and have just spoken to [Prime Minister] Netanyahu by phone to stress that the perpetrators will be identified and prosecuted,” he wrote on X. (Read more.)