During the NatCon conference, being held in Brussels this week, Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo, condemned certain moves in the conference as “unacceptable” and “unconstitutional,” and the organizers took the matter to the conseil d’état, the country’s supreme administrative court. The court overturned a local mayor’s decision to close the conference down on Tuesday, citing the constitution of Belgium, which “grants everyone the right to assemble peacefully”, and ruled that there was no evidence of a threat to public order from the event itself and the claims seemed to be “derived purely from the reactions that its organization might provoke among opponents.” Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, responded to this incident at the NatCon conference in Brussels, as follows: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. My Dear Freind Dr. Yoram Hazoni, Distinguished guests. On Saturday night, Iran launched over a hundred ballistic missiles, each of them carrying 300 kilograms of explosives, dozens of cruise missiles, and hundreds of suicide drones towards Israel. Thanks to the remarkable prowess of Israel’s defense industries, air force, and collaboration with our allies, particularly the United States, only a few missiles managed to break through Israel’s defense lines. As a result, a seven-year-old Israeli-Bedouin girl was seriously injured, and Israel’s finest doctors, both Jews and Arabs, are fighting to save her life. Although Iran does not share a border with Israel, it allocates a massive part of its resources to its Jihadist war against Israel. The destruction of the State of Israel is a declared strategic goal of the Iranian terror regime, a regime that sees itself as the leader of the Muslim world and as a regional power that does not tolerate competition, certainly not from a Jewish and democratic state. Iran direct missile attack removed any doubt about its intentions, even for the last of the skeptics, the masks are off. The genocidal crimes against humanity committed by Hamas on October 7th who led to the murder of —- were carried out under Iranian direction. Until this very moment, 133 of our brothers and sisters are still being held hostage in Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror tunnels. Hezbollah terror organization who opened a war on our northern border, firing missiles to our villages is a direct offspring of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Many terror attacks in Judea and Samaria are orchestrated by Iran. Iran brought chaos and destruction to every state it touches: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. The Iranian regime relies on fear and terror of its own citizens, on gallows and modesty patrols. But time is running out for this terrorist state. History has shown us how such regimes end up - how Gaddafi and Saddam fell. The tyrants of Iran will meet the same fate. The Iranian people will be free. Now we need each and every country in Europe and in the West, to come together to combat and overcome evil Iranian regime, as one united force. With your permission I would like to address a different part of the war, a different part of our struggle. The assault against Zionism- the Jewish people national movement. “Every nation has the right to self-determination, except for one – the Jewish people.” This encapsulates the essence of the new antisemitism, the virulent campaign aimed at denying Israel’s right to exist, led by the Iranian terror regime, the Palestinian Authority, and their allies on the far left. “Judaism is a religion, not a nation!” - says those who have not read a single chapter of the Bible. “Occupiers” they call us – Occupiers of what exactly? Of our ancient capital, Shiloh, where Hannah prayed for a child? Of Joshua’s altar on Mount Ebal, where he inscribed the words of the Torah on the stones? Of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, the place of the Binding of Isaac, Of Solomon’s Temple, and the second temple destroyed by Titus? As one of our great leaders in recent history, former president Chaim Herzog said: " Zionism is the name of the national movement of the Jewish people and is the modern expression of the ancient Jewish heritage... It is based on a unique and unbroken connection, extending some four thousand years, between the People of the Book and the Land of the Bible.” The recent attack on Zionism - the Jewish collective identity – comes from two distinct directions: It comes from radical political Islam, notably the Muslim Brotherhood movement and the sinister Iranian regime, and from the so-called "progressive" left. Although driven by different motives, these movements are united in their pursuit of totalitarian rule and the suppression of individual freedoms: Freedom of thought, faith, and speech. Anyone with even a superficial understanding of these movements realizes that their ambitions extend well beyond to the rejection of Zionism. The motives of jihadist political Islam in its fight against Zionism have been evident since the days of the father of Palestinian nationalism, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, who skillfully blended religious fanaticism and racist antisemitism to lay the groundwork for a Palestinian identity rooted in the singular aim of annihilating the Zionist movement. Since the 1920s to the present day, this ideology has underpinned both the so called "moderate" PLO and, even more radically, Hamas, which, despite recent assertions by Western leaders, commands significant popular support in both Gaza and the Palestinian Authority. According to a survey conducted by the Palestinian research institute AWRAD (Arab World Research and Development), 75% of Palestinians supported the crimes against humanity on October 7, and an overwhelming 98% regarded them as a source of pride. However, the extreme left's obsession with Zionism presents a more complex set of motivations. On the surface, it combines all the perceived wrongs of the West into a single entity despite a non-existent factual basis. We are accused of Apartheid despite having Arab judges, Knesset members, doctors, and professors. We are accused of genocide even though our military actions are born in response to genocidal crimes against humanity committed against our citizens, and even though the IDF takes greater care than any other Western army in its efforts to prevent harming civilian population. We are accused of colonialism even though we are the oldest indigenous population in the Land of Israel, speaking in the same language as our ancestors and celebrating the same holidays. We are also accused of imperialism even though our country is no bigger than the state of New Jersey. None of these ludicrous and delusional accusations hold water, and none of them are the story. In his book The Strange Death of Europe, author Douglas Murray describes the intersection of two dangerous processes whose combination could prove fatal for Europe. The first is a reckless immigration policy stemming from a distorted perception of moral and cultural relevance, and the second and perhaps more important is Europe's loss of faith in its beliefs, in its traditional Judeo-Christian value system, in its legitimacy. “A continent committing suicide” he called it. The belief in religious traditions and in a transcendental truth has been replaced by a belief in moral relativism. The belief in the importance of national values, community and family has been replaced by a belief in the individual atom multiculturalism, and in a world without borders, identity, and constraints. We are standing in front of a new religion that cannot coexist with the Judeo-Christian values. Authentic Judaism clashes with each and every one of that new religion's core beliefs: First, Judaism is profoundly and inherently national, as it says at the very beginning of the book of Genesis, " ואעשך לגוי גדול " – “And I will make of thee a great nation.” Judaism is the expression of a nationality whose history for thousands of years coincides with the history of humanity. Secondly, Judaism is founded on the family that the new religion sees as a dangerous threat. In a week, we will sit at the Seder table to celebrate Passover and retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt to our children's. I know of no literary creation that can evoke a greater hatred of slavery and love of freedom than the story of the exodus from Egypt. Thirdly, and this is perhaps the most profound point, the keystone of our faith – is the opening passage in the Ten Commandments “ אנוכי ה’ אלוקיך ," I am your Lord. There is something which is greater than us. And the Shema prayer - " שמע ישראל ה אלוקינו ה אחד " – The Lord is One, there is an external source of truth that is present within us, that allows us to distinguish good from evil and grants us free choice. The great philosopher Moshe Hess summed this up in his essential book Rome and Jerusalem: "Judaism has never drawn any line of separation between the individual and the family, the family and the nation, the nation and humanity, humanity and the creation, the creation and the Creator." This is the absolute antithesis of moral relativism, which inevitably leads to the collapse of the concepts of right and wrong of good and evil. We have recently been provided with fresh evidence of this moral collapse: Starting with the high priestess of progressivism, Judith Butler described Hamas as a progressive movement and the events of October 7th as acts of resistance. And it continues with the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT, who shamefully failed to condemn the call to genocide of the Jewish People. The events of October 7 brought antisemitism to new heights of insanity and hatred: blatant support for the rape and murder of innocent men, women, and children, the demonization of IDF soldiers and the state of the Jewish people, comparing them to Nazis, the distortion of the Holocaust, and the application of hypocritical double standards tailored to specifically target one people and one state alone. Streets in Europe are once again unsafe for Jews, and many of its leaders, instead of showing courage, are demonstrating weakness. Instead of standing with the truth, they align themselves with false Palestinian propaganda. Instead of supporting the victims of the attack, they choose to side with the aggressors. This moral laxity may serve short-term interests, but make no mistake: The ultimate result will be the intensification and strengthening of radical Islam barbarism. It is enough to see what is happening on the streets of London to understand where we are heading. Just recently, British MP and friend of Israel Mike Freer was forced to step down from his position due to threats on his life from Islamists after his office was set ablaze by Hamas supporters. Freedom is waning in the country that brought the Magna Carta to the world, and people can no longer speak freely; even Churchill’s statue requires protection to keep it from being vandalized. Freedom is waning here, in the capital of the European Union, as we are all currently experiencing at this important conference. With strong “progressive” forces, doing everything to not allow up to speak up and share our voice. As the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks reminds us: “What starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews.” Those who turn their back on the righteous war we are fighting against absolute evil will eventually bring it to their doorstep. Those who seek to deny us our historical rights in our eternal homeland will see their rights undermined. The future belongs to those nations that will relegate political correctness and woke culture to the dustbin of history. The future of the West hinges on courageous nations willing to swim against the current, and re-cultivate the values that Judeo-Christian civilization has brought to the world: the importance of tradition, the sanctity of the family, and the vitality of a robust community. It depends on education that fosters a familiarity and appreciation of the past to comprehend the present and shape the future. Dr. Chazoni, in one of your essential articles on conservatism, you wrote the following lines: "...The only forces that grant the state its internal consistency and stability are our national and religious traditions." The unique national tradition is the foundation, and upon it is added the floor of individual freedoms and the limitation of executive authority, not vice versa. This is the essence of the conservative view. This worldview is shared by a series of exceptional leaders, some of whom are with us here today, such as Prime Minister Victor Orban. Under his leadership and action, Hungary is one of the safest countries in Europe for its citizens and also for its small Jewish community that can express its identity in public freely without fear of harassment and violent attacks. The leaders who stand firm on the right of Israel today do not do so because it is a startup nation, nor because of its cherry tomatoes. They do it because they draw inspiration from the history of an ancient nation that has risen from the ashes and rebuilt its ruins. They are inspired by the eternal book that forms the foundation of our civilization. They do so because of the values we share — human life, faith, family, and freedom. Eternal values that will survive both the storm of Jihadism that sanctifies death and the storm of "progress" that sanctifies nothingness. This world is fundamentally good, this is our belief, which is why we bring sweet children into it even during difficult times, and why our anthem is "Hatikvah", The Hope.