Among the more disturbing aspects of the attacks on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam last week was the rush to blame it on the Jews. Many in the western media determined that the Jews provoked the violence with more than a dash of their own. It was payback. The brutal “backlash” by local Muslims was understandable.

This was not antisemitism, many say, but a justifiable response by enraged Islamists, having been provoked to attack by racist Israeli soccer thugs. Not quite.