Much like the reaction to the Hamas massacre of 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, it didn’t take long for some in the media and on the anti-Israel left to try to flip the narrative about what took place in Amsterdam on the night of Nov. 7. Even as both the prime minister and the king of the Netherlands apologized for the failure of the Dutch police to protect Israelis from a planned and coordinated attack on visiting Israeli soccer fans, many in the international media were suggesting that the incident was provoked by the Israelis.

According to The New York Times and the Associated Press, some Israelis in the country, who were there to attend a game between the Dutch Ajax team and Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv, allegedly chanted anti-Palestinian slogans and tore down a Palestinian flag. Rather than innocent victims of a mob reportedly composed of Arab and Muslim immigrants determined to hunt down and harm Jews, the leader of one left-wing Dutch political party referred to the visiting tourists as “thugs” who uttered “genocidal” and “racist” slogans.

Not to be outdone by the journalistic establishment and its anti-Israel bias, the left-wing Forward also claimed that the victims were “violent hooligans.” It claimed that Dutch Jews who feared antisemitism but didn’t wish to be associated with Israel and its post-Oct. 7 war on Islamist terrorists felt trapped in a conflict they wished to avoid. According to the paper, they are worried that the attacks in Amsterdam would be “weaponized” by Zionists or by non-Jewish right-wing politicians like Geert Wilders, leader of the largest party in the Dutch parliament. Wilders speaks for many in Holland and in Europe who are deeply critical of the way a massive influx of Muslim immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa is changing the character of their nations for the worse and that is also responsible for a surge in antisemitism. Yet for many on the left to even raise these issues is, by definition, racist.