Israeli right campaigns on Paris terror attack
When calling on Europe to stand by Israel and when calling French Jews to immigrate to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is harnessing the Paris terror attacks for his electoral needs.
As I sat writing this article, a message popped up in my mailbox from a public relations firm of someone whose name I had never heard. It said that Uri Bank, secretary of HaBayit HaYehudi party’s Knesset faction, proposes that Israel mount “a heavy, armored international public information and diplomacy campaign” to explain to the world that Islamist terrorism is “a real danger to the entire world, and not just a problem in Israel.”
Bank, according to the message, was running in his party’s primaries. He, too, wants to benefit from the series of Paris terror attacks. Are only the big boys allowed? One can compare the reactions of Israeli politicians to a producer of fire extinguishers, who runs an ad featuring a house that burned down the previous day with all its tenants.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to announce on Jan. 7 that “Israel stands by Europe’s side — and Europe must stand by Israel.” He added, “Above all, we must support each other on a united and determined front.” Is this not an implied reprimand of Europe for not supporting Israel in its occupation and settlement enterprise, especially France, which is behind the initiative for recognition of a Palestinian state?
Netanyahu took advantage of the Paris-wide terror attacks by global jihad activists to regurgitate his baseless claim that the Islamic State and Hamas are one and the same. But Hamas is a Palestinian Sunni organization that acts against the State of Israel and is careful to keep its distance from global jihad and from challenging Arab regimes and the culture of the West. Just like other representatives of the right, the prime minister ignored that among the victims of the attacks — both editorial staff and policemen — there were Muslims, too.
