"The fact that our mothers in the West can sleep peacefully is because the mothers of Israeli soldiers lie awake," Wilders said.
PM Netanyahu wrote in his telegram account: Thank you Geert Wilders! You are a true friend of Israel!
(June 5, 2025 / JNS) “If Jerusalem falls, Athens, Paris or Amsterdam are next,” Dutch right-wing leader Geert Wilders declared on Wednesday, speaking during a parliament session following the fall of his coalition government.
The Israel Defense Forces is “fighting our battle,” Wilders snapped at opposition leader Frans Timmermans (Labor Party/GreenLeft), who had accused him of cozying up to the “far right” Israeli government.
“The fact that our mothers in the West can sleep peacefully is because the mothers of Israeli soldiers lie awake, wondering whether their child will come home alive from a battle fought in the name of freedom,” said the politician. “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, and it has to fight the terror of Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.”
Wilders slammed the left-wing opposition leader as a “stain” on the House of Representatives of the Netherlands for what he said were “statements that are almost antisemitic, about a country that is fighting for its existence.”
“Right now, there are terrorists in Gaza who hold power there—whether they were elected or took control—who have one goal: to destroy Israel and the Jewish people, to wipe them off the map. Of course you have to defend yourself in that case,” explained the senior Dutch lawmaker.
“Naturally, in war, there are casualties. I regret every death, I regret every child, every mother, every innocent civilian who dies in conflict. But I still believe—and I am proud of this—that Israel must fight,” he said.
Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister for diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, thanked Wilders for his support of the Jewish state, sharing translated footage of his remarks on X on Thursday.
Wilders—a staunch supporter of Israel’s right to the entire Land of Israel from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea—has said he visited the country more than 40 times. After graduating from high school, he spent a year volunteering at Moshav Tomer in the Jordan Valley.
In 2018, Wilders declared, “The more Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria, the better, for that land is Jewish—and Jordan is Palestine!”
Following Wilders’ win in the 2023 election, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority condemned him for saying Palestinians should be offered the right to settle in the Hashemite Kingdom and elect their government.