DEATH OF A THOUSAND CUTS: According to Israel National News, "The government of Holland has banned kosher slaughter, becoming the sixth European country to do so."

The local Agriculture Ministry informed Jewish community leaders there that they would no longer be permitted to slaughter cows in a kosher manner [shechitah] because of its "cruelty" to the animals.

Deputy Foreign Minister Rabbi Michael Melchior, the former Chief Rabbi of Norway, says he is not convinced that concern for the animals is the real motivation behind the new regulation:

"They simply don't want foreigners and they don't want Jews. I won't say that this is the only motivation, but it's certainly no coincidence that one of the first things Nazi Germany forbade was kosher slaughter.

"I also know that during the original debate on this issue in Norway, where shechitah has been banned since 1930, one of the parliamentarians said straight out, 'if they don't like it, let them go live somewhere else.'"

The whole point of kosher slaughter, of course, is that the animal is sacrificed in the most humane way possible, and does not suffer unnecessarily. Before the rest of the EU follows suit, perhaps they'd do well to check out how it's usually done, in the absence of rabbinical supervision. (WARNING! Not for the squeamish.)

UPDATE: DailyPundit and his readers comment here.