YNET
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French police during a raid in search of the
perpetrators
of the Paris attacks
|
This is my fourth visit to
Europe this year. And it's not the same Europe. I've been in France when
journalists and Jews were murdered, during the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the Hypercacher supermarket. And no, it's not the same. At the time, Europe
thought these attacks were a one-off, but now it is starting to realize this is
not an isolated incident, it's a serious disease. The terror attacks in Paris caught me at dinner, five minutes away from the theater where a mass
slaughter was being committed.
And while my train from Hamburg was making its way to
Hanover, on Tuesday evening, it turned out the city was in a state almost
complete curfew as a result of alerts about a bomb in an ambulance, which led
to the cancelation of the soccer
match between Germany and the Netherlands.
On
Wednesday, I managed to land in Marseille before security forces decided to
evacuate the airport. Hundreds of people were standing outside. The weather was
excellent. Landed planes remained on the runway. It wasn't clear what was
happening, and no one was allowed in or out. Shortly after that, as I write
these lines, a Jewish rabbi was stabbed in Marseille by
ISIS supporters.
And on it goes. According
to the Schengen Agreement, there is no need for passports or border control for
flights inside Europe. This week, that changed. The European Union is turning
into a Europe of separate states. Border control is back while the Schengen
Agreement continues to exist - but only on paper. Security checks are becoming
more and more serious, and the lines grow longer. The economies of the free
world are going to lose billions. The terrorists already managed to achieve
something. There's an increased presence of police or soldiers in airports and
malls and they do surprise ID checks. I haven't seen police carding any
blonde-haired women. The suspects, naturally, are only people with a
"Middle Eastern look." It's called ethnic profiling. This is
discrimination. Is this even allowed? There are endless debates about the
matter among human rights activists and legal experts. Israel's Supreme Court
also debated this issue. But now, there is no longer need for debate. Fears,
whether real or not, create new rules.
Europe is currently going through what Israel went
through in the 90s.
When four Arabic-speaking
young men boarded the train in Germany, the body language of those sitting in
the car changed. 99.99 percent of these young people have nothing to do with
terrorism. One of them sat next to me while I was working on my computer. I
noticed him curiously glancing at my screen, and we started talking. I told him
I was typing in Hebrew. For a moment, I thought I had taken an unnecessary
risk. After all, I have no idea what's going on in his head.
He
is one of the refugees who recently arrived in Germany. His English was as bad
as my Arabic. They were on their way to another city in Germany, where they
have friends. They have no home, no family, no livelihood, and they do not know
the language - life doesn't seem very hopeful. But for him, for them, they have
reached the Promised Land. Germany has turned into a country that millions in
Muslim and African countries dream about, but very few get to realize that
dream.
The conductor comes in to check our tickets. He doesn't dare
approach them. There was no need for words - new situations create new codes of
conduct.
How
long will this last? What the hell can be done about these masses? How big is
the threat they pose? These are the questions Europe is dealing with these
days. There is no one answer. In Germany, like Sweden, arson attacks against
refugee centers have turned into something of a routine. Hand-in-hand with the
Europeans' commendable hospitality, xenophobia develops. It won't solve any
problem, but racism is rearing its head.
The increasing flow of refugees only serves to further
exacerbate the existing fears. After all, a young man who came into Europe with
the masses of refugees, going through Turkey, Greece and the Balkans, all the
way to Germany - was one of the
perpetrators of
the massacre at the Bataclan Theater. British intelligence estimates that two
out of a hundred refugees could have ties to terror activity or one of the
jihad organizations. Even assuming that wasn't true, even assuming only one out
of a hundred has ties to radical groups - we're still talking about thousands.
How can people deal with the
refugees and the fears they create, I asked Dr. Clemens Heni, a Berlin-based
intellectual, a Christian, and a researcher of anti-Semitism. An imam came to
one of the refugee centers in Berlin to speak to the young refugees, he told
me. He wasn't one of the moderate imams, and some of the young refugees
complained that they did not come to Germany in order to listen to radical
preaching. After all, some of them escaped this very radicalism. The problem
was that the nice imam was sent by the institution. Someone wanted the young
refugees to have a sympathetic ear and a spiritual guide. Despite complaints
from the refugees, the imam continues visiting the center. It turns out the
Germans' good intentions also include stupidity.
How can people deal with the refugees and the fears they
create, I asked a political science professor in Hamburg, who had me over for a
lecture about the Middle East. We have no idea what is about to happen, he told
me with candor. It was a lot better than the clichés spewed by most
intellectuals, who believe it's only a matter of hospitality and good will that
would make hundreds of thousands of refugees - soon to be millions - magically
turn into productive, responsible citizens.
It is true that experience from over the last few decades has
shown that some groups of immigrants, like Hindus and Chinese, can acclimate,
while in some groups, and we can't mention which, quite a large percentage
create their own closed communities and oppose acclimation. But facts can never
confuse people who believe. And it doesn't matter whether they are
ultra-Orthodox Jews wearing a shtreimel, or intellectuals wearing a fashionable
scarf.
At cafés and restaurants in many cities in Europe, life
goes on as normal. But it's an illusion. Something is brewing under the
surface, the atmosphere is changing. The Jews are the first wind vane to
indicate which way the winds are blowing. "I was born in Riga," told
me a Jewish woman from Cologne. "I lived in Israel for only a few years,
but circumstances led me to Germany. This week, for the first time, my son told
me he is not allowed to say he is Jewish. He understood the situation before we
even explained it to him."
"We came to
Cologne," she continued, "because we were told it was
different."
It was true. But now, like
every other city in Germany, Cologne is changing. Jews came to Cologne along
with the Romans. It used to be one of the oldest communities in Europe, if not
the oldest. But no one is left now from that old community - they either ran
away, or were murdered. Now, the title of the oldest community belongs mostly
to the Jews of Eastern Europe.
"We're considering moving
to Israel," she concluded.
Some claimed this week that the terror attacks were meant
to drive a rift between the Muslims and the old-timer Europeans, perhaps even
to scare the latter away. White Flight is a known phenomenon. It happens in
neighborhoods populated by immigrants and foreigners. Terrorism raises the
number of asylum seekers - and it goes both ways. There are those escaping to
Europe and those escaping from Europe.
The continent has been
suffering from brain drain even before, and regardless of, the terror attacks
in Paris. Young Europeans are leaving for the US, Australia, Canada and New
Zealand. The Jews, meanwhile, are once again fleeing to the land of Israel
mostly out of distress. This is exactly what is happening right now. But there
is only one problem. If the Israelis are telling the Europeans: "Now you feel
what we feel," then what is the point of fleeing to Israel? Just so they
could feel the same fear? The thing is that Israel, despite all of its woes, is
still home.
One thing that hasn't changed, for now, despite the
massacre in Paris, is the old tunes. There was no need to count to ten to hear
the same old tunes again: Terror is a result of discrimination; of misery; of
despair; of the sins of the West; of colonialism and Christianity, Zionism and,
in general, we must not forget that Israel is to blame. It oppresses, it's a
militant state. It drives the oppressed to turn to terrorism. The Swedish
foreign minister was
not alone with her absurd claims; there are more and more comments of this sort
being made in recent days.
These absurdities were joined
by the usual parade of clichés: The Muslims? They're actually moderate. You can
always find the interviewee de jour carrying a "Not in my name" sign.
He will join the condolences, he will condemn, he will say this was not what
Islam is about, and that the murderers are betraying true Islam. And Barack
Obama sent out a similar message this week, as he always does. Islamic
terrorism? There's no such thing. There simply isn't. On this issue, the
American administration does as the Communist Party's mouthpiece Pravda used to
do: It rewrites reality. And reality, unfortunately, insists on striking back
with full force.
For the sake of our collective sanity, we must abandon
this parade of delusions and clichés, for some facts. Well, there isn't just
one Muslim that opposes terrorism - there are thousands. No, not thousands -
millions. Perhaps even hundreds of millions. Except the issue is slightly
different: Who controls the Muslim communities in Europe? Moderates or
radicals?
Let's take the story of Imam
Hassen Chalghoumi, a moderate and brave imam who is against radicalization and
sermons of hatred. He was accidentally presented as the head of France's imams.
Inshallah. The day that happens, we could take about change. But it's not
happening. Far from it.
Chalghoumi issued repeated
warnings about Qatar funding radical imams, who are radicalizing the younger
generation and making it more dangerous. He also dared, in the past, to meet
with an Israeli ambassador. Left-wing websites, like l'Expression dz, Agora Vox
and Egalite et Reconciliation, have turned him into a pariah.
Chalghoumi supported a law banning women from wearing
headscarves in public, while the Union of Islamic Organizations of France
(UOIF) took the opposite stance. Chalghoumi was once again made into a pariah.
He needed bodyguards around the clock.
The UOIF is controlled by the
Muslim Brotherhood. Their superstar is Tariq Ramadan, who turned into the
ideological star of young Muslims in Europe. He's leading them by the nose to
become more and radical. He's an intellectual and a smooth talker, he is the
sweetheart of the European left-wing that is nurturing him. But he was and
remains an Islamist, who supports the "resistance" of global jihad
groups all over the world. As always, he is immediately invited to every
possible panel, so he could condemn terrorism. And straight after this
condemnation comes the "but," which is comprised entirely of
accusations against the free world, colonialism, discrimination, Zionism, and
so on. Countries like Canada and the United States weren't buying his sweet
talk and would not let him into their borders to incite. But then came Obama,
and canceled the ban against him. After all, there is no such thing as Islamist
terrorism, so Ramadan can't be supporting something that doesn't exist.
Stupidity won, once again.
Chalghoumi on the one hand, and Ramadan on the other
hand, are only two of the prominent figures in Muslim circles in Europe. It is
true that Chalghoumi is a pariah while Ramadan has turned into a symbol, but
the more important question is what do the Muslims in France think. Well, there
are many polls that point to alarming support of terrorism.
The most serious poll appears
to be the one from Pew, conducted in 2007. According to the poll, 35 percent of
French Muslims support suicide bombers. Among people aged 18-29, 42 percent
support suicide bombers while 19 percent think it is "sometimes
justified." In Britain, 35 percent of young people justify terrorism.
If we take into consideration the shock in the education
system in light of the refusal of many Muslims to condemn the perpetrators of
the Charlie Hebdo murders, then there is concern - but only concern - that a
more current poll would point to far graver results.
It's all fine and dandy when
many Muslims, most definitely many of them, condemn the Paris attacks and carry
signs proclaiming that "We Stand Together," but there are many
others, millions, in France and in other European countries, that are becoming
more and more radical.
Those who demand
boots-on-the-ground are also delusional. Is it really that easy or that simple?
Was it easy for Russia when it found itself sinking into the Afghan quagmire?
Was it easy for Israel to deal with Hezbollah? Is it easy for Israel to
eradicate Hamas? The Islamic State, much like al-Qaeda, Hamas, and all of the
other jihadist organizations, cannot be eradicated. This is also about
perception.
If
France wanted to really make a difference, it should have clamped down on the
radicals a long time ago, just like Israel should have banned Raed Salah, and the other supporters of
destruction and bloodshed, a long time ago. But it didn't happen because the
belief that "we need to let them blow off steam" is as common in
Europe as it is in Israel.
We
have to admit: In communities where Chalghoumi and his like are outcasts, and
Tariq Ramadan and Raed Salah are heroes - the fight against jihad is far from
over. Where intellectuals from the forces of progress show understanding
towards and justify terrorism - and that happens a bit too often in the free
world, including in Israel - the fight against jihad becomes much harder.
Europe
is entering a new era. It's a bit more anxious than Israel, which is already
accustomed to such situations. It reminds me of a quote from American
intellectual Sam Harris: "The truth is, we are all living in Israel. It’s
just that some of us haven’t realized it yet." It's not just that the
Europeans have yet to realize it. In Israel, as well, we have to admit, there
are those who insist on not realizing it.
