French Jews live in fear of the far left

One of the most shocking images in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in 2001 was the sight of Palestinians dancing in the street. Who would have known the murder of 3,000 Americans would elicit such delight?

A larger number of Palestinians were on the streets of the West Bank in January 2015 following the slaughter of the staff of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Their angry placards and bellicose chants weren’t condemning the two Islamist gunmen who had committed the crime but the fact that the same magazine had, in defiance of the terrible attack, published a caricature of the Prophet in its next issue. ‘France is the mother of terrorism, America is the mother of terrorism,’ the protesters chanted.

Five years later an Islamist in France knifed to death a teacher outside school as a punishment for showing a similar cartoon during a class discussion on freedom of expression.