Where Was The Huge Show Of International Support After Har Nof Terror Attack?

Immediately after the horrific murders of twelve cartoonists at the office of the Charlie Hebdo publication, a large and loud chorus of international condemnation arose, and rightly so. Not only from the west — Jordan, Bahrain, Morocco, Algeria, and even Hamas-sponsors Iran and Qatar all spoke out against the attack, as did Saudi Arabia (which only days later proceeded to give a blogger 50 lashes out of a total sentence of 1000 lashes plus jail time).

Eric Feferberg/AFP
Eric Feferberg/AFP

On Sunday, leaders from around the world, including King Abdullah II of Jordan, attended a rally in Paris. Parallel rallies in support of the French were held in Jerusalem, New York, Berlin, London, Brussels, Madrid, Moscow, Vienna, Stockholm, Dublin, Rome, Milan, Lisbon, Istanbul, Beirut, Sydney, and Tokyo. I admit I scratched my head when I saw that there were even shows of solidarity in Gaza and Ramallah, although in each case only some dozens of people showed up.

This is all as it should be. It is right and good that — with notable exceptions such as the Al Jazeera editorial staff — the vast majority of the world is united against terrorism.

Victims of 2012 Toulouse attack
Victims of 2012 Toulouse attack

But where were all of these people after the massacre at Har Nof? Or, for that matter, after the running down in Jerusalem of Chaya Zissel Braun in October, after three people were killed outside of the Brussels Jewish Museum last June,  or when three Jewish schoolchildren were gunned down in Toulouse in March of 2012, or  . . . .

The list could go on. But I think you see my point. Terrorism against Jews merits some press releases, some of the time. But nothing in the scope and scale of what we saw this weekend. Sure, Abbas, under pressure, issued a statement condemning the Har Nof attack. I would love to see him attend an anti-terror rally in Jerusalem.

Nor did the attack in Kenya that left 67 dead in a shopping mall elicit such an outpouring. Africans, apparently, do not merit the world’s sympathy any more than Jews. The attack in Nigeria that may have killed as many as 2000 this weekend also seems to have been downplayed by comparison to what is happening in Paris. As I’m writing this, the World section homepage of the New York Times has six different articles and a slideshow about Paris right at the the top, with no mention of Nigeria.

The world’s outrage is selective. This needs to change. As Ross Douthat wrote in, of all places, the NY Times on Wednesday, “If a large enough group of someones is willing to kill you for saying something, then it’s something that almost certainly needs to be said, because otherwise the violent have veto power over liberal civilization . . . when offenses are policed by murder, that’s when we need more of them, not less, because the murderers cannot be allowed for a single moment to think that their strategy can succeed.” This is true not only of freedom of speech, but also of freedom of religion and mobility and any other freedom that terrorists attempt to usurp. The violent cannot have veto power over any aspect of society. Terrorism needs to be condemned every time, not just some of the time.

7 thoughts on “Where Was The Huge Show Of International Support After Har Nof Terror Attack?”

  1. Thanks Mirabelle!

    In the Koran (Bukhari 4.52.220) Mohammed is quoted: “I have been made victorious through terror cast into the hearts of my enemies.” There is no question that, in general – especially among the infidels – pragmatic usually non-religious – terror is a highly effective tool of ‘persuasion’. Quite simply, terror and it’s consequent murder and mayhem exists because it is an integral part of religious belief in Islam:

    Terror is only one of the branches of Jihad – conversion or subjugation of the infidel under Islam. This has not changed in over 1,400 years. Until there is a universally accepted, internal permanent reformation of Islam, the philosophy and practice terrorism is here to stay.

    Surprisingly, recently Egypt’s President Sisi has pointed out the dangers of terror for Muslims. Can 1.5 billion Muslims really expect to prevail against 7 billion ‘infidels’?

  2. It’s worse than that, at least if I correctly understood the report on the radio here from the deputy head of the Jewish community of Toulouse. The French are not particularly interested in defending the Jews, “Je Suis Juif”. They are much more interested in “Je Suis Charlie”, backing a vicious anti-Semitic piece of filth.

    Do you recall the original cover that caused the attack a couple of years back, that Dave showed us? It showed a Moslem and a Chosid, the two sides of the school shooting awhile back, equating the murderer and the victim. As far as I am concerned, the magazine and the Islamists deserve each other.

    (Two disclaimers – I don’t know if the magazine was put out before the shooting, and it is possible I misunderstood the cover. But as things stand, the only victim of the magazine shooting that I have sympathy for is the Moslem policeman. Should I have sympathy for a Nazi hall that was shot up by the local Ku Klux Klan?)

    1. BTW, the New York Daily News, in showing the cover, pixelated out the Moslem part but left the anti-Semitic part showing.

    2. You seem to be coming close to saying that the employees of Charlie Hebdo deserved to be murdered for producing cartoons you believe were meant to offend others. OK, so you wouldn’t participate in memorializing them, but how do they deserve to be murdered?

      1. Well, then I will clarify. They did not deserve to be murdered. Their murderers were evil. I just can’t feel sorry for them, any more than I would feel sorry if Islamists burned down Westboro “Baptist Church”.

  3. ahad_ha_amoratsim

    In the late 1970s, a bomb at kosher restaurant in Paris killed several non-Jews walking by. A French official called it an attack aimed at Jews that killed innocent Frenchmen instead. Not much has changed, it seems.

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