This has been a year of magical thinking.
In the wake of the attacks in Paris on Friday, I am disappointed by stupidity, opportunism and tacit hatefulness.
French Twitter largely wrote off the attacks, with the second trending hashtag being #Palestine. @Sel_fa tweeted: "Friends telephone me: cries of joy in the suburbs of the 94th (Vitry, Ivry…) and 93rd districts. Arabs at their windows with the Algerian flag." He retweeted dozens of posts like @Raiponce__’s: "Oh Allah grant victory to those of Palestine, that Allah helps them don’t forget them in your dua <3 <3 <3 <3."
A more recent tweet of hers said, "When your brother saw the attacks he told you: now we have to get ready for war," and she signed off with two gun emojis.
Co-founder of the Free Gaza movement, Mary Hughes-Thompson, suggested Israel was behind the attacks. American friends posted Facebook statuses claiming it was racist to assume the terrorists were affiliated with the Islamic State group (ISIS).
Yes, the formerly colonized are poorly integrated. But as of April, an estimated 3,000 French nationals had gone to Syria to join the Islamic State group, which has claimed responsibility. This is a real situation with blood on the ground.
This is catechism: Look away, and it goes away. Look from Islamic State group to Iraq, and Islam is no longer to blame. Look from Vitry to Algeria, and the jihadist Armed Islamic Group is absolved. Look from Paris to Palestine, and you’ve got a Jew to blame.
So when we turn to Palestine, what do we support? President Abbas, whose dissertation called Zionists the Third Reich’s "partner in crime"? A Hamas Television kids show that urges children to "shoot all the Jews"? The East Jerusalemites who julienned peace activist Richard Lakin’s intestines on a bus last month? Child suicide bombers?
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) manifesto advocates the right of return, so where are the Jews to go? Jack Kugelmass, the director of the Center for Jewish Studies at UF, said, "It’s just a fantasy."
He raised more issues with BDS. Are Arabs of Palestine still refugees after years away? Who are the indigenous residents of Palestine, as up to the early 20 century, very few Arabs would have disputed that Israel was Jewish land? What about the many Jews who have lived in the region for 500 to 2,600 years? Why dismiss the terror that drove Jews out of countries like Iraq and Egypt?
Where should Jews have gone in 1945? Should the GIs have poked the corpses of Bergen-Belsen and said, "Dude! Wake up! We’re going back to Germany!"
As Maxim Biller argues, anti-Zionism fabricates a global conspiracy. See the obsession with Israel-Palestine and neglect of every other ethnic conflict. See my BDS-supporter friend who said, "Ugh, Jewish Studies. They must have a ton of money." See the German news comments sections that are already closed.
A German who has made five trips to Israel told me, "I’ve never met a Palestinian who’s not anti-Semitic," recalling one who confided, "Germans and Palestinians have a lot in common. We both live in divided countries and we both have a problem with the Jews." Imagine Palestinians getting an Arab national state. How are the Jews going to be treated there, compared to Arab Israelis?
Oppose Netanyahu, Israel Defense Forces excesses and even the occupation. But tolerance of the Islamic State group, Hebdo shooters and Abbas-endorsed terrorism is not tolerance. Islamic State group members rape young girls, and invoking Dubya won’t excuse that. We can condemn terrorism without condemning refugees, but the experience of France suggests we emphasize integration. We must condemn this week’s Islamist attacks in Beirut, Kenya and Israel, not resort to tired clichés.
Let’s recall when Mohammed Merah shot up a Toulouse Jewish school in 2012 in the name of Palestine, the graffitis of "F--- the kippa" and the whoops of joy at his funeral. Especially since the Second Intifada knee-jerk solidarity with Palestine has been used to justify escalating violence in France, and to write it off: It’s not France’s problem, it’s Israel’s.
It’s despicable, as is calling Israel an apartheid state despite Arab representation in the Knesset, or calling Jews Nazis, although European Jews never blew rockets at Berlin. But it’s fun. It’s a safe, stupid and sexy new anti-Semitism. The Jews are villains, in cahoots, and can call nowhere home.
And you don’t have to wait long after a terrorist attack before you whip this fashionable ideology out.
Ann Manov is a UF French, English and Spanish senior. Her column appears on Mondays.
