Left: Jo Goldenberg’s restaurant at the Marais district, Paris, attacked in 1982 by PLO mastermind Souhaur Mohammed Hassan Khalil al-Abbassi, aka “Amjad Atta” that killed six people and wounding 22 others.
Politicians and the media in Europe and the United States are talking about the latest terrorist attacks as if they are a new phenomenon. They are not. Israelis have been confronting similar terrorist attacks, including shooting at and blowing up innocent diners at Pizzerias and coffee shops in Jerusalem, restaurants in Tel-Aviv, stabbing passengers at bus and train stations, or running over them with a car.
However, European and other governments, including the Obama administration, look upon Palestinians killing Israelis with a rather sympathetic eye. They, like Palestinian leaders justify the attacks as expressions of frustration with Israeli real or fictional occupation. And as the latest wave of Palestinian killing of Israelis increased, the European Union decided to support the Palestinians by declaring an economic warfare against Israel.
Anything produced by Jews in East Jerusalem or the West Bank is labeled “made in settlements.” But if it is an Arab settlement in the West bank, it is not labeled as such. It is exactly like the Nazi labeling of Jewish businesses in the 1930’s. If in East Jerusalem there is a small factory owned by Jews next to an identical one owned by Arabs, in the same street, or the same building, only the Jewish owned – even if all employees are Arabs – will be labeled. The labeling has no relation to the location and not also to who is the government there. If it is outside of Israel’s 1949 border. Clearly, the Europeans happily caved in to the BDS movement and the Palestinians demands that area outside the 1949 armistice line should be Juden Rein.
The Europeans seem to be suffering from selected memory lapses when it comes to the Palestinians. This European amnesia deprived them of lessons that could have minimized and perhaps alltogether prevented the ISIS attacks. After all, the PLO served as the precursor of other Islamist terror organization. Palestinian murderous attacks in Europe, blackmailing of most European carriers as an “insurance” against hijacking and blowing up planes and other acts of terrorism, are all forgotten. Yet, they have paved the way and in many instances went on to found and participate in other Islamist terror groups, including al Qaeda and ISIS.
Moreover, like ISIS and al Qaeda, and Hizballah and Iran, the Palestinians are holding similar jihadi ideology, using similar methods and yelling allahu akbar while murdering as many people as they can.
On Sunday, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent his condolences to President Hollande and the French people, saying: “In Israel, like in France, terrorism is terrorism,” He went on to call “for the nations of the world to condemn terrorism against us as much as they condemn terrorism anywhere else in the world…t is fitting that we remember, we are not guilty of terrorism directed against us, just as the French were not guilty of terrorism directed against them,” Netanyahu continued. “With terrorism, the terrorists are to blame – not the ‘occupiers,’ not the ‘settlements’, and nothing we do.”
He could/should have added a few sentences from Ronn Torossian’s satirical ‘open-letter’ in Artuz7, to President Hollande:
“First we wish to share with you what we usually hear from the world in the aftermath of these “incidents” or “unrest” (I know you called it terrorism, but that is what the world calls it when it happens in Israel). Perhaps these pointers will help you cope and avoid future “incidents” …As your government told us recently…countries must “protect themselves from militants, but show restraint to not further fuel a highly sensitive situation in the region.”…
“You must understand the pain and needs of the angry Muslims shooting and setting off explosives, and not respond inappropriately so that there is no escalation of the cycle of violence.
You must negotiate even while under attack; conditioning negotiations on an end to violence is a no-win situation. It will simply extend the bloodshed….To close your borders will only lead to further oppression and anger, so don’t do that.”
“Best of all would be to divide France into two parts, and Paris into two cities for two peoples. No Frenchman dares go into a Muslim neighborhood in Paris and neither do the police anyway, so the city is already divided de facto. What’s the difference if it is your ancestral homeland?
Torossian further advise Hollande: “If you strike at the perpetrators of the attack and their supporters, you will simply extend and enlarge the cycle of violence, so don’t do that….Begin by declaring a unilateral ceasefire! Give peace a chance! Do not allow yourself to be drawn into the abyss of violence. End that cycle of violence. Show restraint.”
If past French and European reaction to Palestinian/Islamist jihadist attacks is of any indication, they will continue to support their chosen jihadi group – the Palestinians.