RUTHFULLY YOURS

The Christians of Mosul had 24 hours, the infidels of the West have a bit more time.

The just and merciful caliph gave the Christians of Mosul 24 hours to convert, leave, or die. The payment of the jizya (= dhimmitude) option, initially included in the multiple choice injunction, was withdrawn. A church dating back 1800 years, before the advent of Islam, was burned to the ground before the Christians left. The infidels of the West were too busy decrying the “massacre” in Gaza to ask for whom the bell tolls.

Ali Khamenei proposes the elimination of Israel by referendum. Former French MFA Dominique de Villepin thinks an imposed peace plan enforced by UN peacekeepers would do the trick. Hamas leaders, safely hunkered down in tunnels or abroad, exult in victory. Western media launch lethal narratives from morning to night and Jews look for the nearest shelter. Israel’s bosom buddy, the United States of America, wants an imposed ceasefire, presumably before joining in on an imposed peace plan, while slapping a brief but telling blockade on air travel to and from Israel. Did you get the message, haverim? Do unto the blockaders as they do unto Gaza.

In the aftermath of the shocking violence unleashed last weekend in Barbès and Sarcelles, benevolent French judges smiled upon the meager handful of culprits who were arrested after the Barbès operation. Suspended sentences of 4, 6, or 10 months were handed down like feeding candy to the wolves. The justice ministry has exercised its right to appeal these lenient sentences. Those arrested for mayhem in Sarcelles will theoretically go to jail, but perhaps not. Short sentences rarely lead to actual imprisonment here. It’s hard to prove that a given actor in an enraged mob actually committed this or that infraction. And it’s hard to have confidence in the government when thousands of punk jihadis show up for a banned demonstration and are not immediately dispersed. All the more so when a political party, the anti-capitalist NPA formerly led by the phony mailman Besancenot, brazenly maintains its call to demonstrate.

62% of French people polled said the pro-Palestinian demonstrations should be banned. But who’s listening?

Under pressure from interested parties, the Hollande government decided to authorize demonstrations on the 23rd and 26^th of July… because every possible guarantee had been given by the organizers that there would be no débordements [literally, “overflow”]. The Communists had by then joined the NPA in fronting for the Brotherhood. Jean-Luc Mélenchon was there under the banner of the Front de Gauche that is part of the governing coalition, along with a handful of Socialist deputies. PM Manuel Valls had tried to stick to his guns. All last week he defended the ban, refuting claims that the ban was the cause of the violence. Note the lethal narrative: An authorized demonstration on July 13^th replete with Death to the Jews culminates in attacks on synagogues. Therefore, demonstrations banned the following weekend yield 50 times more incitement and violence. Logical, n’est-ce pas? If I park in a no-parking zone and you tow my car away, it’s only to be expected that I will burn down the city hall and invite the assassination of the mayor.

Lethal narrative, cont’d. The authorized pro-Palestinian demonstration, majestically escorted by riot police, marched from Place Denfert-Rochereau to les Invalides—in the shadow of Napoleon’s tomb– via Montparnasse  where artists and intellectuals, refugees from tyrannical regimes, used to gather and enrich Parisian life.

Lo and behold, it worked. All, these 14,000 blessed souls needed was the freedom to wrap themselves in Hamas keffiehs, brandish Israel-assassin posters, and confide to complaisant microphones their heartfelt concern for Palestinian victims of a massacre. “They’re killing Palestinians for no reason, for the fun of it.” “We see the images every day, it’s unbearable, we had to do something.”

Print and audiovisual media fell over themselves oohing and ahing over the concerned darlings. No anti-Semitic slogans, no threats, no destruction. When a few punks moved in on a France 2 correspondent doing his stand-up routine in the field, and covered his face with a big Palestinian flag, the incident was packaged as “demonstrators (nicely) interrupt a France 2 newscast.” A few years ago, near Cairo’s revolutionary Tahrir Square, a similar maneuver ended with a sexual assault on the French journalist that had been (nicely) interrupted during her newscast.

Nothing objectionable in this bon enfant  demonstration where the good-natured, friendly citizens of France expressed (nicely) their grievances against “Israel Assassin, Hollande complice,” some dressed in soft green BDS t-shirts, others holding up horrible photos of massacred children and shouting in unison “Palestine vaincra [will triumph].

Last night, Le Monde Juif Info filled in some of the missing details. Fine-tuned ears picked up Death to the Jews that had escaped the attention of mainstream media. A camera filmed the burning of an Israeli flag. A BFM TV correspondent had proudly claimed that a woman immediately went over and stopped the unruly gesture. Monde Juif Info says she told them not to do it because it would be all over the evening news. In fact, it wasn’t. And the cameraman noticed a group of men clearly saying “Let’s go to the Marias Jewish Quarter and fight the Jewish defense League.” For these experienced stone-throwers, the Marais is NOT a stone’s throw from les Invalides You have to really be motivated to make the detour!

This morning a Jewish radio station reported that some 40 individuals had tried to attack a restaurant in the Marais.

Riposte Laïque has an eloquent photo gallery of posters the mass media didn’t see. The restaurant that was attacked, the Pitzman, is on rue Pavée next door to the synagogue and across the street from the yeshiva. Just a half block away from a main thoroughfare, rue de Rivoli, it was probably easier to hit than the shops and restaurants on rue des Rosiers.

Breaking news: a plane flying from Ouagadougou to Algiers disappeared from radar screens somewhere near northern Mali. Many, perhaps the majority of the passengers were French.

Flashback: the day the French troops landed in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, 1,000 people were killed in what is described as “ethnic conflict” between Muslims and Christians. French forces gradually imposed relative calm. Remember Sabra and Chatilla?