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Published on 22 November 2015
Will Israel’s terror fight gain sympathy?
By Joshua Mitnick published in the Jewish Week November 18, 2015
“We understand more than anyone else,” read the decoration on the memorial candle outside the French embassy here.
The red, white and blue of France’s tricolor flag lit up the Tel Aviv municipal building in Rabin Square as well as the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel stands “shoulder to shoulder” with France, and President Reuven Rivlin declared that “we stand united” in the fight against terrorism. Opposition leader Isaac Herzog added, “Evil knows no borders and only courageous and decisive cooperation among the family of nations will make it possible to eradicate it.”
Amid the shock and revulsion over the Paris terrorist attacks in Israel, there was guarded hope that the new focus on national security and counterterrorism in Europe would spur more understanding in a relationship that has become heated over the policy toward the Palestinians.
“I wouldn’t want anyone to experience this,” said Ron Ben Nun, a 29-year-old industrial designer, as she stopped to snap a picture of the memorial candles and flowers outside the embassy. “I would like to support them, so those who are rational can get over this problem of radical Islam together.”
But alongside expressions of sympathy and condolence, there was a healthy dose of official indignation toward Europeans who are seen by many as blinded by loyalty to upholding civil liberties at all costs, naive about the threats of Islamic extremism and biased against Israel’s handling of the Palestinian conflict.
Still outraged from a shooting attack in the West Bank that killed two Israelis, Netanyahu on Sunday called on the international community to be more forceful in condemning Palestinian terrorists. “We are not to blame for the terrorism directed against us, just as the French aren’t to blame for the terrorism against them,” the prime minister said... Read more.