Belgium should know better: Doing wrong is not right

How soon we forget.

It wasn’t that long ago that Belgium — a beautiful country situated between the Netherlands, Germany and France in the middle of Western Europe — was a victim of the Nazis’ effort to control the world. Hope was in short supply for Belgian freedom.

Enter the United States into World War II, and the rest has been a long history of friendship and support between Europe and America, most notably the NATO alliance to which Belgium was one of the first signatories.

Not that this history needed a refresher course, but it wasn’t that long ago that my wife and I were visiting Belgium and, to a person, the Belgians we met couldn’t wait to express to us — as if they were talking to all Americans some six decades later — their unending and continuing gratitude for what the United States did for them and their families.

In short, when Belgium and the rest of Europe needed someone to stand up to a malevolent bully — by committing its resources, its money, its equipment and, most importantly, its men and women of the armed services — America stood in the breach.

And the Belgians told us to a person, they would never forget.

Well, I think Belgium has finally forgotten what it means to stand up for what is right and defeat what is wrong.

And it has done so by forsaking, of all things, Frisbee throwers.

This past week a group of teens were banned from competing in the 2024 Under 17 European Youth Ultimate Championships.

What did these young Frisbee throwers do to merit the punishment? They came from Israel.

That’s right. A country that itself was a victim of the violent desires of another, refused to let a young Israeli team of Frisbee-throwing teenagers compete against other teenagers because of the threatened violence by others.

Rather than ensuring the needed security that the moment required, rather than providing the necessary law enforcement manpower the situation demanded, and rather than blaming the perpetrators of the proposed violent demonstrations because Israeli kids were throwing Frisbees, the Belgians capitulated.

What did they do?

They refused to let the Israeli teens compete, citing security concerns.

Rather than tightening security, rather than canceling the entire competition because the organizers just couldn’t handle the moment, and rather than — as the Americans did so many decades ago — coming to the aid of those under fire, Belgium blamed the victims.

I am not surprised at what the Belgians did because there is a lot of that going around these days, especially when the victims are Jewish.

But I am very disappointed in a country that promised to forever remember those who saved their butts in World War II and the principles that compelled Americans to do so.

Simply put, America was standing up for right and against wrong.

In this case, the right course would have been to let all of the kids compete or to let none of them.

Belgium chose the wrong course. How quickly they forgot.

Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.