When four Jews were killed in an apparent terrorist attack in Toulouse, France, in March, interest in the story quickly evaporated when the shooter turned out to be a Muslim extremist rather than a neo-Nazi, as it was first believed. But though the international press hasn’t done much follow up about the connection between the current wave of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiment sweeping over Europe and violence against Jews, it appears the problem continues to grow. As the Times of Israel reports today, attacks on French Jews are becoming more frequent.
The beating of three Jewish men in Villeurbanne, outside of Lyon, by ten assailants believed to be of North African extraction is just the latest incident alarming French Jews.
Joël Mergui, president of the Central Consistory, an umbrella organization working to coordinate local Jewish communities, said the country’s Jews were under constant attack. “Not a week passes without anti-Semitic assaults in France. I refuse to believe Jews will be forced to choose between security and their Jewish identity.”
The chief rabbi of the Grand Synagogue in Lyon, Richard Wertenschlag, called the atmosphere “unbearable.”
“These incidents are becoming more and more frequent, so much so, alas, as to make one take them for granted,” he said.
While French authorities talked about a crackdown on Muslim extremists after Toulouse, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) told Le Figaro that incidents such as the one in Villeurbanne are becoming commonplace, noting that in the month after the incident, more than 140 attacks on Jews were perpetrated. But the problem is not just the scale of these assaults but also the unwillingness of many to confront the source of the problem.
Though attacks against Jews in Western Europe seem to be the province of Muslim immigrants, it is a mistake to view this violence as solely the result of the importation of Middle Eastern attitudes.
The flow of raw hate speech against Jews from Cairo and Tehran and other Arab and Muslim capitals is not to be underestimated, but the willingness of European intellectuals to lend their support to the demonization of the Jewish state has given these sentiments a patina of undeserved legitimacy.
The notion that there is a clean distinction between street violence and the effort to delegitimize Israel’s right to exist and defend itself cannot be sustained. European intellectuals may think they operate on a different level from street thugs. But the logical next step from the hounding of Jews on the editorial pages and in academia is clear. So long as Israel is singled out for unfair treatment and economic and academic boycotts of the Jewish state are treated as “human rights” causes, we should not be surprised that violence against Jews is on the upsurge.
It's deja vu all over again . . .
The victims were not adult men, but youths or school children, accroding to reports. They were wearing kippot, and the attack occurred on the Jewish Sabbath. n nSome things never change. On Ynet news, a commenter claiming to be from Australia theorized that the attack was intended as payback for the way Israel treats illegal aliens from sub-Saharan Africa. Why this would be a cause dear to North Africans in France (according to police, the suspects are all North Africans) or why this would justify an attack on Jewish school children in France was not explained. One is reminded of the CAIR talking point before the murderers of the Fogel famliy H'yd were caught that the killer was probably a Thai guest worker who had been cheated out of his wages. (No proof of the guest worker or the supposed sharp practices was ever offered.) n nProof once again that when the world is not turning a blind eye on attacks against Jews, it is busy reaching for any excuse to show that the Jews brought it on themselves.
The inevitable progression: n n1. Nation facilitates or turns blind eye to anti-semitism n n2. Jews begin to leave the nation n n3. Nation experiences economic and intellectual downturn. n nWhen a nation countenances antisemitism, it is well on its way to disaster.
The Jews of Europe should stop to complain. They can move en mass to Israel, the US, Canada or even Australia. That of course would not eliminate antisemitism even if there was not a single Jew left in the country. The case of the Muslim countries prove the point "ad nauseam". nI have a solution: "all the Jews (no exception) should move to another planet". nThat would not eliminate antisemitism but at least the Jews would have to deal only with each other.
Watsa, according to further reports, the young men were 19 or 20. They got into a scuffle with three North African men who were harrassing them, The Jews thought it was over, then saw the three return with 10 more Muslims who were armed with a hammer and iron bars. n nThe father of one boy noted that aliyah is not a solution because the same kinds of attack happen in Israel.
Maybe the “father” would care to enumerate?
Given the numerous visible French speaking people in the streets of Tel Aviv I don’t think this is a viable argument.