Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Israeli Official to Reeling Belgians: Less Chocolate, More Terror Fighting

JERUSALEM — An Israeli government minister blamed Belgian officials for “eating chocolate” instead of paying attention to security against terror.

“If in Belgium they continue eating chocolate and enjoying life, and continue to appear as great democrats and liberals, and do not decide that some Muslims in their country are organizing terror, they won’t be able to fight them,” Intelligence Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday in an interview with Israel Radio. Katz also serves as the country’s transportation minister.

His remarks came a day after twin bombings at Zaventem Airport and at a metro station in central Brussels killed at least 34 people and injured dozens.

“Europe and the U.S. aren’t prepared to define that the war is on Islamic terror,” he also said. “When your definition isn’t right and doesn’t exist, you can’t lead a global war.”

Several Israeli lawmakers criticized Belgium and Europe for lax security and for being hospitable to Muslims, but not integrating them properly into society.

Joint Arab List lawmaker Ahmed Tibi called the attacks “worthy of moral and political denunciation.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.