As Belgium again experiences an internal political crisis, having no federal government for four months since the last general election, the turmoil will get bigger.
On October 13, the country heads to provincial, municipal, and district elections expected to sharpen political tensions between the two main national groups in Belgium: the Dutch-speaking Flemish and the French-speaking Walloons.
One of the most interesting battles in these elections will take place in the port city of Antwerp, the capital of Flanders, where, for the first time, a Jewish candidate is included in the list of the separatist Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) party.
In Belgium’s June election, Vlaams Belang became the second-largest party. However, due to a cordon sanitaire imposed by the other parties on the Flemish nationalists and separatists almost 50 years ago, Vlaams Belang is still kept out of negotiations to form a federal government.
The cordon sanitaire was created against another party, the Vlaams Blok, an extreme-right party dissolved in 2004 and to which Vlaams Belang is considered the successor.
Due to the shadow of the Vlaams Blok and the fact that some of its founders collaborated with the Nazi occupiers, the Vlaams Belang was boycotted in the past by the Jewish community of around 20,000 living in Antwerp.
However, the deteriorating security situation and growing attacks on Jews brought the community to understand that they should deal with the threats of the present instead of with the ghosts of the past.
David Rosenberg, a businessman born in Antwerp and a descendant of Holocaust survivors from Poland and Hungary who settled down in Belgium after the war, symbolizes this change.
Rosenberg became famous after participating in the TV reality show Shalom Allemaal! (Shalom everyone!), aimed at introducing Jewish Orthodox life to the general public.
“I had one condition to my participation: that the show will be positive,” Rosenberg told The Jerusalem Post. “It had a very positive influence, and then came October 7. I became very worried for the future of Israel and our future in Belgium. I decided to use my new position as a public figure.
“The Belgian media adore submissive Jews, who distance themselves from Israel by making a distinction between Israel and the Jews, between Zionism and Judaism.
“I gave an interview to the largest left-leaning newspaper here, in which I accused the local media and most of the political parties of antisemitism. The former prime minister traveled to Egypt and put all the blame for the situation on Israel.
The foreign minister declared that October 7 is not an excuse to commit genocide. I said that if anything should happen to Jews in Belgium, the blood would be on the hands of politicians and journalists. I decided to use my public standing for the sake of the Belgian Jews and Israel.”
Rosenberg was then invited to lecture on the situation in Israel in a meeting of the Vlaams Belang in Antwerp.“It was Friday evening,” recalled Rosenberg, “I agreed to come if I could talk without a microphone. I spoke freely and saw that the more I defended Israel, the more the public became enthusiastic. I felt love and warmth, which I wasn’t expecting. People told me that they stand with us and hope that Israel will finish the job in Gaza. They came with stories about their time on kibbutzim and how they love Israel.
“The meeting organizer, Filip Dewinter – one of the party leaders – brought some bottles of wine from Judea and Samaria and asked me if I wanted to be on Belang’s list for the local elections.
“At first, I didn’t take it seriously. I knew that by accepting his offer, I would isolate myself socially, in business, and within the Jewish community. Then I decided that if, by doing so, I could change things for the community, I should go for it.
“I asked to meet with the leader of the party, Tom Van Grieken. I told him that I was willing to join the party, not as a kosher stamp but only if I knew that the party would support the Jews and Israel. I received clear positions from him.
“I didn’t have problems with the party’s history, and I see what is happening now in Belgium. There is antisemitism everywhere, in all parties and in the media. I believe that the interests of the Jews here are in line with the Vlaams Belang in every aspect.
“Now, we are working with my party to solve the problem caused by the legislation that forbade kosher slaughtering. Our planned legislation, which will hopefully be proposed in the coming weeks to the Flemish Parliament, follows the steps of the UK, Poland, and the Netherlands, where kosher slaughtering was recognized as humane.
“The only negative reaction I got from the Jewish community to my decision to run for the Belang came from the Jewish candidate of the other main Flemish party, the New Flemish Alliance (NVA).”
In an exclusive interview with the Post, Vlaams Belang leader Van Grieken, who has been leading his party since 2014, admits he now feels a change in the Jewish community’s attitude toward his party.
“First of all,” stressed the 37-year-old Flemish politician, “we don’t have Jewish or female or male candidates on our list. All the candidates are Vlaams Belang candidates. Each one has his own identity, and I think it’s a natural evolution that if society changes, our list changes as well. I truly think that it’s a result of simply reading our program. If you are concerned about safety in the cities of Flanders, whatever your religious background is, you should vote for us. If you are concerned about freedom, Vlaams Belang is the freedom party.
“I do think that there has been a switch within the Jewish community in Antwerp. In the past, it had candidates for almost all the other parties.
The socialists and left-wing parties abandoned the Jewish community. They chose the immigrants’ votes over the votes of people who have been living here for decades or centuries. They don’t care about the safety of Jews in Antwerp anymore. Personally, I want everybody to be safe. You cannot rule a city or a country if certain minorities don’t feel safe.”
Belgium is again facing a political deadlock. Why has Belgian politics become so complicated?
“Belgium has been a complex state since its foundation in 1830, when two peoples were forced to live together in one state.
“The recent elections were very interesting. In the past 40-50 years, we have seen the rise of center-right and right-wing parties, like my party and the semi-conservative party NVA. However, in Belgium, you vote for a right-wing party, but you get the socialists and other left parties in the government. It’s a ‘buy one and get one for free’ system, mainly because the NVA excludes political cooperation with our party.
“We were the big winners of the last elections. The NVA chose to negotiate the formation of a coalition not with their patriot colleagues but with the socialists of the Vooruit Party, who ran a campaign with a lot of love for Hamas and had a minister who compared the current war in Gaza with the Holocaust. Right-wing voters voted to get more security, and what did they get?
“The NVA is looking again for a coalition with the socialists. I think the deadlock is permanent. There can only be a breakthrough when our party gets into power.”
Do you see an end to the cordon sanitaire against the Vlaams Belang, as we have recently seen in the Netherlands?
“I truly love my country, Flanders, although it’s very small, with about 6.8 million inhabitants. I am a Flemish patriot. You see a breakthrough of patriotic parties in Europe – like in the Netherlands with my good friend Geert Wilders, Denmark, Estonia, Sweden, Italy, Hungary. Everywhere, you see a real change. So I am hopeful.“In the last elections, we were one seat short of a majority with the NVA. It was quite a pity that we didn’t manage to get it. But the evolution will not be stopped. Sooner or later, the cordon sanitaire will break. There will be some possibilities for doing that with the local elections. At the national level, we have a strong impression that those in power want to stay there and will do everything to boycott the democratic signal the voters send at every election.”
The cordon sanitaire was adopted against a former party, the Vlaams Blok. The Vlaams Belang is a new party. Why is this political tradition still continuing?
“I do not think there is a cordon sanitaire around our ideas. For example, we are for stricter border control. Our opponents said it was impossible to apply it. Now, we even see stricter border control in Germany, starting a few years ago, after the ISIS attacks in France. All the things we proposed 20 years ago were considered the end of the world and impossible. Nowadays, they are a reality in many countries. So there is no cordon sanitaire around our ideas.
“It’s the essence of politics. You win the fight for the ideas and then win the political battle. We won the fight for ideas, and the electoral results are in our favor.“The cordon sanitaire in Belgium is unique. Why does it still exist? It’s simple: if you exclude a big party like ours, the smaller parties have a bigger chance to be in government. It has nothing to do with democracy or values, but with being or remaining in power. It’s a dirty game.
“People are fed up with the cordon sanitaire. I believe in democracy. In the end, democracy will win, prevail, and end the antidemocratic cordon sanitiare.”
The opponents of Vlaams Belang accuse the party of having connections to neo-Nazis and antisemites, mainly due to its past and roots. What is your response to these accusations?
“Rubbish. Often, people refer to our roots. I want to stress that the founder of the Green Party was a member of a fascist organization. The king of Belgium collaborated with Hitler and shook his hand. All the old parties want nothing to do with their past, but a young party like ours, founded in 1977 and later relaunched in 2004, is still accused of things in the past we have nothing to do with.
“It’s a political method. If you can label someone as a Nazi or extreme right, you don’t have to listen to him. Nowadays, we have a strange situation: the socialists, the communists, and the Greens label right-wing Israeli politicians as Nazis. ‘Nazi’ has become a label without any content.
“It surely hurts me when they call me fascist, racist, or Nazi, because we are democrats. The suffering of the Jews during World War II was terrible. We condemn it 100%. But here is the reality: the problems of mass immigration, Islamization, and insecurity in our streets don’t disappear if you shout ‘Nazis.’ They remain.
“We see that the first victim of open borders, mass immigration, and Islamization is the Jewish community in our country. We see the rise of antisemitism.
Many Jews are afraid. This has nothing to do with right-wing voters but with the voters of the socialists and the left-wing parties.
“I accuse the Left of using the current conflict in Israel to gain electoral benefits from it. The way they import this conflict is not at all constructive. We have to live and work together. By importing conflicts, you can’t build a future.”
How do you explain the fact that those in Belgium who oppose the division of Belgium into two states for two peoples are also those who support this idea in the Middle East?
“I have to laugh at it. Those who are shouting ‘The Internationale’ hymn suddenly find out that there are two peoples in the Middle East, but they deny that there are two peoples in Belgium. It’s funny and sad at the same time. They deny the Flemish their own state, but they want to give a state to the Palestinians.
“However, if you listen to their propaganda and speeches in the parliament, you realize that they don’t want a two-state solution. They want a one-state solution for the Palestinians, without any Jews in it.
“I don’t think it’s a way to solve this conflict. I feel that the Vlaams Belang is the only party that really supports a two-state solution in the Middle East. If you listen to the center and left parties in Belgium, it almost feels as if they don’t want Israel to exist, while we acknowledge that Israel has the right to exist.”
After the mass killing of October 7, can you still say that the creation of a Palestinian state will advance a peaceful solution, or will it be a permanent threat to Israel’s existence, as many Israelis think today?
“I feel a lot of sympathy for the first emotional reaction to what happened on October 7. I am afraid that Europeans don’t understand how Israelis live under the permanent threat of rockets and attacks. I think October 7 was a big shock, and we should be respectful [of the way Israelis] reacted the way they did. We are lucky that we don’t live in a conflict zone like the Israelis.“We believe that for a durable peace, you need two states.
“But let me be quite clear: there can’t be a two-state solution as long as there is still a fight against terrorism. We are democrats. You have to get to such a solution democratically and not by violence. That’s not how you start a state. The Palestinian state also has to be democratic. Nobody would accept an ISIS state as a neighbor. Firstly, they should stop the killing, and then you can talk about a two-democratic-state solution.“We are patriots. We believe in the self-determination of people.”
Do you consider Israel’s fight against radical Islam and terrorism in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran as the fight of the West against radical Islam?
“I think it’s a fight for the whole world. One can see it very clearly in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but in Europe we also have terrorist attacks. I think it will be a permanent struggle against radical Islam. It’s time for the moderate Muslims to also start fighting against those extremists, who make the world a dangerous place. We see it now in our streets. Our biggest fear is that what is happening now in the Middle East will happen in Europe in 30 or 40 years, and we should work to prevent it.”
There are calls in Belgium for a weapons embargo on Israel or closing Antwerp’s port to the supply of weapons to Israel. What is your party’s position on that?“There is no need for a boycott of Israel.
Generally, we do not believe that boycotts are very effective. That doesn’t exclude that, when war crimes are committed from whatever side. But the idea that you would end a conflict by not giving weapons is quite strange.
The same people who are for an embargo say that we shouldn’t defend our borders. They say we don’t need borders in Belgium, and Israel doesn’t need weapons to protect itself.
“Being honest, the socialists and Left do not actually care about peace or lives in the Middle East. They only care about immigrants’ and Muslims’ votes. They don’t care about the lives of Jews and Israelis, nor the lives of the Palestinians. The Left in Belgium only cares about getting immigrants’ votes, and therefore they say the most horrible things.”
Antisemitism in Belgium has risen since October 7. What do you think can be done to curb it?
“This rise in antisemitism is a trend that has sadly increased since the ’90s. I can’t disconnect it from the open borders and multiculturalism policies. There are reasons behind our struggle for safety, border controls, and stopping mass immigration. One of them is the rise in antisemitism.
“We have to be honest: After the very dark page of World War II, there was no significant antisemitism in Europe. What changed in the last 80 years? The influx of immigration from a Muslim background. If you want to stop antisemitism, you have to stop immigration.
“We should also stop importing conflicts. There is no reason why there should be demonstrations in Brussels or Antwerp for a conflict that is happening far away. Some of the demonstrators have never been to the Middle East, and they don’t demonstrate peacefully. They attack the police, they cause damage on the streets. It all has to do with the hate against Europe and the West. The Left is using the suffering of Palestinians to get political benefits. I think it’s very sad.”
The Jewish community in Belgium and Flanders has specific concerns regarding the freedom to exercise their traditions and rituals, like kosher slaughtering and circumcision. What can you tell the Jews regarding the respect of their religious life?
“Because we are democrats, once a law is voted in, it applies to everybody. There was a public debate about slaughter without stunning. I think everybody has found a modus operandi, including the Jewish community. Then, there was only one proposal by an MP regarding circumcision. I don’t think that is a political debate.
We listened to the concerns of the Jewish community, and there is a debate whether circumcision should be done in a more medical environment.
“For us, the most important thing is that the state will not reimburse the circumcision costs. We respect religious beliefs but don’t think our society should pay for them. I am a big supporter of personal needs. That’s the point of view of my party. We let everybody enjoy religious freedom. But society doesn’t have to pay for it.”
Do you think that the existence of the Jewish community in Antwerp and Flanders is essential for your country’s future?
“I can’t imagine an Antwerp without a Jewish community. It’s as old as Antwerp. The one who invented our famous cookies, the handjes, was a Dutch Jew. I grew up in a Jewish Orthodox neighborhood, so for me it’s part of the history of Antwerp. If there was a past together, why shouldn’t there be a future together?”
If you win the local elections, what do you plan to do to increase the security and security feelings of Jews in Flanders?
“We will do everything to increase security for all the people in Flanders. There are limits to the resources. If there is an imminent risk of terrorist attacks against specific communities, you have to take extra measures. We are the party of law and order, of zero tolerance, and we believe we should tackle the problem very early. It starts there. If they are already planning attacks, you are too late. One should intervene earlier. There is no place for violence in our society.”