Thursday, March 29, 2012 • The RIVERDALE REVIEW
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As Goes France…
The slaying at a Jewish school at Toulouse is a moment not only of horror for France and the world but also of truth. They will remind that before government of the Fifth Republic has any standing to lecture the government in Jerusalem on how to protect Jews in the land of Israel, it will have to show that it can protect the Jews of France. The killings in the southern French city are being attributed by police to the slain Mohammed Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian descent, who shot to death a 30-year-old Hebrew teacher and his two children and another child and wounded a 17-year-old. “The attacker was shooting people outside the school, then pursued children into the school, before fleeing on a heavy motorbike,” the prosecutor at Toulouse, Michel Valet, is quoted by Reuters as having told reporters. It’s too soon to say what police will find about the killings, but it’s not too soon to say that an attack on a Jewish school is cause for the highest possible alarm, particularly in France. No doubt this is why President Sarkozy, along with a raft of other high-ranking French officials, was, at this writing, racing to the scene. “I want to say to all the leaders of the Jewish community, how close we feel to them,” the president said. “All of France is by their side.” No doubt Mr. Sarkozy understands the implications for the credibility of his government, not only at home, where he is locked in an election campaign, but internationally, where he seeks to be a player in, among other theaters, the Middle East. Shortly before he acceded to the presidency, he came to New York, where, at a small lunch, he was asked point blank by the editor of the Sun whether he thought his government would be able to protect the Jews of France. “C’est une question tres grave,” he said, before assuring that it would be able to defend the Jews and asserting that the French people are broadly and deeply opposed to anti-Semitism. His remarks in respect of solidarity with the Jewish community were echoed by the socialist candidate, Francois Hollande, and the right wing candidate, Martine LePen. There’s a reason that the question of anti-Semitism keeps arising in France, and it’s not just because of the nature of the incidents — physical attacks, defiling of graves, and harassing of Jews in religious garb — that occur all too frequently. It’s also because of the foreign policy of France. This point was noted in these columns in 2005, after Commentary magazine issued a special report on Jews, Arabs, and French diplomacy. At the Quai D’Orsay, the writer for Commentary, David Pryce-Jones, reported, “The historical record displays evidence of unremitting hostility to Jews, decade after decade.” The Quai D’Orsay took great umbrage at the piece, but we said at the time that New Yorkers were a hard-headed lot and knew whom to credit. We also made the point in 2004, when Prime Minister Sharon issued a blunt warning for Jews to flee France in the face of escalating anti-Semitic attacks there. In the weeks before Mr. Sharon issued his broadside, vandals had destroyed a mural painted by Jewish schoolchildren, a 17-year-old Jewish student had been stabbed in the neck in a Paris suburb, a town hall in Vichy had been painted in swastikas, the slogan “Jews out” had been painted on graves at Colmar, a Jewish center had been set on fire at Toulon, and a school for Jewish boys had been firebombed. A stain was spreading on the Fifth Republic. Yet, we noted, even that kind of violence wouldn’t, in and of itself, lead a prime minister of Israel to urge the Jews to flee. Most worrisome, we noted, was that the eruption of violence against Jews in France has coincided with the endorsement by the Quai d’Orsay of the Palestinian right to take violent action against Jews in Israel and the embrace of the Palestinian Arab terrorist leadership by the president at the time, Jacques Chirac, and other French officials. Mr. Chirac had recently stood with Egypt’s president at the time, Hosni Mubarak, and endorsed the authority of Yasser Arafat. It turned out that even while the Quai D’Orsay was opposing America’s efforts to remove Saddam Hussein’s regime at Iraq, even while Iraq was funding the families of suicide bombers who’d attacked Israel, even while a diplomat of France was telling the British that Israel was a “s**tty little country,” a number of officials in France were among those receiving oil vouchers from Saddam. Continued on Page 19
Our street surfaces and a direct approach
To The Editor: I applaud Miawling Lam for her articles about the decaying conditions of our street surfaces. Kudus however should also go to Bronx DOT Commissioner Constance Moran for responding to my own direct concerns about the horrible conditions of the Henry Hudson Parkway East Service Road from Kappock Street to Netherland Avenue (a ride on the bus over that section of road had always been an indicator of just how bad things were). I had initially gone to Councilman Koppell’s office, however after getting no positive response from his staff over time, in September, decided to contact DOT directly through their website. I eventually got a letter from Commissioner Moran who advised that these repairs would be made as part of the 2012 Budget. Sure enough, early in march the DOT crews came. CB8 Chair
Moerdler recently suggested in an interview with Associate Editor Lam that we write directly to DOT to express our concerns. I have first hand experience that direct contact with DOT and the Bronx Commissioner does produce results. I also used the occasion to address my concern with the Com-
Support the police on terrorism To The Editor: I strongly support the NYC police surveillance of any group statistically positive to terrorism or anti-social behavior including the recent action relative to Mosques, “politically correct” or not. You will undoubtedly oppose my stand which goes much further that: I am convinced that one bullet is worth a thousand words if rationally justified. Israel’s disregard of what is clearly right and wrong in regard to international law, as witnessed in the kidnapping in
ANDREW WOLF, Editor and Publisher
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missioner, about the filth and general decay of the Parkway embankment to the service road at the same general location. Last December this was at least partially addressed by DOT. DOT does respond! We need only be somewhat compelling in our approach. Irv Weiler
CECILIA McNALLY Office Manager MIAWLING LAM Associate Editor
STAFF: Robert Lebowitz, Brendan McHugh, Richard Reay, Paulette Schneider, Lloyd Ultan, Daniel R. Wolf
Argentina and the earlier bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities, is at least covertly acceptable in view of the patently rational nature of these actions. It comes to this: legalistic morality is variable in respect to time and geography, but rational conclusions are consistent throughout. Most of us know this but lack the strength to overcome the conflict between their deep knowledge of the truth and what is considered the moral path to take. Indeed, it is the good people who are the most often so afflicted and one has to reluctantly afford these people a measure of applause but nonetheless sorrow at their understandable conflict. Too bad it is often not the best man who wins. So I will not fault you for not publishing this because of presenting a probably distasteful point of view. But try and see it my way even if it hurts. Melvin Jacobs