French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy visited Sinai, a
Jewish day school located in Paris' 18th arrondissement,
after three Arab teenagers were arrested on suspicions of
throwing bottles filled with a chlorine solution into the
school yard and the beis knesses. "He who attacks Jews
attacks the French Republic," Sarkozy declared.
The incident took place on Shabbos during the tefilloh
and was accompanied by antisemitic shouts. The congregants
heard an exploding sound and then a suffocating smell escaped
from the bottles. No injuries were reported.
According to the Interior Ministry antisemitic attacks have
been cut in half but Jews in the city's less hospitable
neighborhoods say violence has been on the increase. In the
18th and 19th arrondissements groups of Arabs have been
harassing Jews on their way to shul and recently
Jewish children were beaten by Arabs. The terrorist attacks
in London and Sharm a-Sheikh, ongoing antisemitic incitement,
and the summer heat in cramped apartments, all combine to
rile the Arabs youths of Parisian suburbs.
The use of chemical substances indicates that they are
preparing crude chemical weapons. Had the bottles come close
to the children playing in the school yard the acid could
have caused serious injuries, chas vesholom.
Before his visit that began on Tuesday, Sharon complimented
the French government for its fight against antisemitism.
Several months ago French President Chirac rescinded an
invitation to Sharon for calling on French Jews to make
aliyah.
Many Jews are now leaving the dangerous suburbs and some of
them are indeed moving to Eretz Yisroel. A special flight
brought a group of 300 French immigrants early this week,
including an entire kehilloh with its four sifrei
Torah that settled in Har Choma. The immigrants include
numerous students who were offered study grants in Israel.
Another 600 French immigrants are scheduled to arrive later
this week on two more flights. According to reports not a
single Israeli minister received them at the airport this
time, to avoid annoying French President Chirac.
Puzzled by the decision to leave their relatively comfortable
lives in France to live under the threat of Palestinian
terrorism, the French attribute the move to Israeli
propaganda against France. Meanwhile Jews are saying they no
longer feel at home in France due to the protracted
antisemitic agitation and the pro-Arab policy. President
Chirac is trying to repair his ties with Israel, altering
appearances but not French policy.
It appears that judges have also received instructions to
issue stricter rulings in cases of alleged antisemitism. One
judge sentenced three antisemitic agitators for the first
time. Writers Edgar Moran, Daniel Salvan and Sami Na'ir, who
wrote a hateful article in Le Monde accusing the Jews
of crimes against humanity and claiming that the Jews, former
victims, have now turned into the hangmen, and that the
landless have turned into occupiers, were sentenced to pay
50,000 euros for antisemitic incitement. Salvan even went
digging in the wreckage of Arab villages in Israel to uncover
"Zionist crimes." Until now both antisemitic agitators and
assailants have been systematically acquitted.
