The reaction in Israel to the Nov. 13 terror attacks in Paris was one of amazement and disdain. Israeli security experts wondered why there had not been any advance warnings. How could Islamic terrorists operate so freely on the continent? Why weren’t the naive Frenchmen able to cope with events of this type on their own turf? Subsequently other rhetorical questions were asked: How could Brussels lock its gates for more than a week because of a warning? And how was it possible that a few terrorists were able to throw large European countries into such turmoil, without any proper response?
Israel, with the cumulative experience of more than 70 years of fighting Arab and Islamic terror, views itself as an upgraded, well-oiled machine in everything connected to the war against terror. We, the Israelis boasted, know how to deal with these sorts of situations.