Rabbi Menachem Hadad speaking on Israeli radio said Belgium lacks capacity for fighting terrorism while other Western European states are wrestling with their own growing jihad movements.

The well-known Brussels rabbi said: “The unexpected appearance of terrorists at the airport demonstrates Belgium is unable to deal with terror threats.” He said Belgian government institutions “do not understand security issues.” Rabbi Hadad, the head of the Shomrei Had Orthodox community in Brussels, made a number of observations and criticisms on IDF radio about the current situation and expressed real concern that Belgium lacks the ability to fight terrorism. He said the soldiers sent to guard the synagogue and the city’s Chabad community building following the murder of four Jews at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in 2014 had told him they lacked firearms and ammunition for many months while they supposedly stood guard. “It was just for show. This isn’t realistic,” he said.

Hadad leveled the criticisms after examining reports about the inactivity demonstrated by Belgian government institutions when it comes to security issues. Worse, Belgium earlier received warnings from Turkey about one of the suspected attackers in the March 22 bombings. Belgium’s ministers of the interior and justice attempted to resign Thursday but their request was turned down by the prime minister. There are also a number of odd laws and a constitutional ban on ethnic profiling which exacerbate an already poor situation, he said.

Israeli minister of intelligence Israel Katz told the Knesset following Tuesday’s events: “If the Belgians continue to eat chocolate and enjoy life, imagining themselves great democrats and liberals but failing to note that some of the Muslims in their midst are planning terror attacks, they will be unable to fight and to defeat them.” This statement by the Israeli minister was widely criticized in the Belgian media as undiplomatic and insensitive.