'European Jews Have Been Abandoned'
Sunday, March 01, 2015 | Yossi Aloni ISRAEL TODAY
Amidst calls from Israeli leaders for Europe’s Jews to make aliyah en masse, and counter-calls from European leaders for their Jewish constituents to stay put, Israel’s Foreign Ministry says all arguments aside, the growing threat of Islamic terrorism in Europe is making a mass Jewish migration inevitable.
“It is time to tell the truth - the Jews of Europe have been abandoned. The security afforded Jews in most of those countries is a joke. And they [the Jews] aren’t even permitted to arm and protect themselves.”
That according to Foreign Ministry officials following a terrorist shooting outside a Copenhagen synagogue in which an unarmed volunteer Jewish guard, Dan Ozen, was killed.
Senior Israeli officials spoke of an almost criminal approach to Europe’s treatment of Jewish communities that want only to protect themselves.
“The Europeans refuse to recognize the fact that Islamic terrorism is anti-Semitic because they want to remain politically correct and not upset the Muslim community in Europe,” said one Foreign Ministry official. “Without a proper diagnosis, there can be no treatment.”
Another senior staffer at the Foreign Ministry added: “There are some European countries that are doing more, and there are some that are doing less. But all of them need to improve security. No nation is immune to terrorism, but what is happening today in many European nations is the result of being irresponsible. The writing is on the wall, and the Europeans need to wake up.”
In Israel, there is fear that the recent string of attacks is just the beginning. As far as Jerusalem is concerned, there is a clear and worrying pattern whereby the Islamists first attack European values such as freedom of speech (see the recent shooting at Charlie Hebdo), and immediately after take aim at the Jews.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman stated that these recent attacks “prove what we have been saying for years, that Israel and the Jews absorb these attacks first because we are the frontline in the war against terrorists that are ultimately targeting the entire free world.”
Lieberman insisted that Western nations “must not be satisfied with strong announcements and mass rallies against terror, but must shake loose of political correctness and launch an all-out war against Islamic terrorism and its roots.”
European Union officials have actually been attentive to the criticism coming out of Israel, and for the first time have invited Israeli officials to join a dialogue in Brussels next month regarding intelligence coordination in the fight against Islamic terrorism.
Israel initially requested this dialogue amidst concerns that European citizens who are today fighting for ISIS will soon return to Europe and attack Jewish and Israeli targets there.
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