Belgian Jews Beg to Stay Disarmed

Perhaps I should not be surprised.  Jewish leaders that insist that everyone remain defenseless.

Belgian Jewish leaders denounced calls for their governments to issue gun permits to members of their communities this weekend, saying that such efforts could lead to harrowing consequences.

Last week, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the Brussels-based head of the European Jewish Association (EJA) and the affiliated Rabbinical Center of Europe, sent a letter to senior officials in a number of EU states requesting that gun laws be loosened to allow “designated people” among Europe’s Jews “to own weapons for the essential protection of their communities.”

Both community heads and Jewish business owners should be trained in firearms and be permitted to carry them, he said in a statement.

“There is absolutely no intention to create a pro-active force.

Rather, we expect local authorities to identify, train and oversee all designated armed personnel,” Margolin said.

Belgian Jews were quick to distance themselves from Margolin’s comments, asserting that he does not represent their communities.

“I think that he has no authority to speak in the name of Belgian Jewry because he doesn’t represent Belgian Jewry,” Abraham Guigui, the country’s chief rabbi, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

Over the weekend, Guigui issued a statement blasting what he called marginal elements and stating that calls for the arming of Jews were “a real danger and unacceptable.”

Calling for Jewish gun ownership would be tantamount to an admission that the Jews are outside of mainstream European society and that their governments are unable to provide for their security, he explained.

Such a view is considered unacceptable to the vast majority of Belgian Jews, he said, calling on the government to defend every Belgian no matter his religious creed.

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