The Middle East Media Sampler 3/25/2012: "See No Evil" In Toulouse Massacre

From DG:

1) See no evil

In Lather, Rinse, Repeat, Mark Steyn asks:

Look, pace Ed West, isn’t it just a teensy-weensy little bit to do with Islam? Or at any rate the internal contradictions of one-way multiculturalism? No, it’s not a competition. Most times in today’s Europe, the guys beating, burning and killing Jews will be Muslims. Once in a while, it will be somebody else killing the schoolkids. But is it so hard to acknowledge that rapid, transformative, mass Muslim immigration might not be the most obvious aid to social tranquility? That it might possibly pose challenges that would otherwise not have existed — for uncovered women in Oslo, for gays in Amsterdam, for Jews everywhere? Is it so difficult to wonder if, for these and other groups living in a long-shot social experiment devised by their rulers, the price of putting an Islamic crescent in the diversity quilt might be too high? What’s left of Jewish life in Europe is being extinguished remorselessly, one vandalized cemetery, one subway attack at a time. How many Jewish children will be at that school in Toulouse a decade hence? 

In a similar vein, Barry Rubin writes:

Barry Rubin: France: Here Comes the Whitewash

The following by Barry Rubin is reposted with permsission

France: Here Comes the Whitewash

By Barry Rubin

The murders in Toulouse should be a wake-up call for France and all of Europe. True, the assaults on Jews and French soldiers were three individual terror attacks perpetrated supposedly by a single individual. The more information that emerges, however, the clearer it becomes that this terrorist was well connected to a bigger al-Qaida network.

Even more important, these shootings are among dozens of antisemitic incidents that happen daily in France and throughout Europe. A big story like the Toulouse attack can draw attention to a broader, dangerous political and social trend.

Or it can be treated as an isolated incident. Nothing to see here; move along; go back to sleep. Al-Qaida terrorists don't pull up in front of Jewish schools to murder teachers and students every day, right?

In the past, the mass media could be expected to present a debate on how to interpret this event but now all too often they give a monopoly to the whitewashers and the apologists.

Increasing Number Of French Jews Consider Moving To Israel

Der Spiegel is reporting that More and More French Jews Emigrating to Israel--and illustrates the point with a scenario that recently took place at a public school in France:

Many must have been reminded of the treatment of Jews under the Third Reich. Shortly after the attack on a Jewish school in the southern French city of Toulouse on Monday, school principals in the city walked into classrooms and asked the Jewish pupils to come forward. "We ask you to leave the class and join the other Jewish children, who are in a locked and safe location."

Yedidya Atlas: When in Doubt, Kill a Jew

When in Doubt, Kill a Jew

By: Yedidya Atlas


When in doubt, kill a Jew. That seems to be the de rigueur thing to do. After all, even after a cold-blooded and ruthless radical Muslim killer deliberately takes a sub-machine gun and mows down three small Jewish children and a young rabbi-teacher in front of a Jewish day school in Toulouse, France, no one seems capable of just saying that an extremist Muslim murdered four Jews because they were Jews.

No Islamists Here: Media Buries Motive on Toulouse

Why did Mohammed Merah kill three children and a teacher at the Otzar Torah school in Toulouse, France? Why did he previously kill three French soldiers in two shootings prior to Monday’s massacre?

That is the question--and over the past week or so, the answer changed, not only in relation to the information that became available about the identity and goals of the terrorist, but also as the requirements of politics, and political correctness, became clear.

Gerstman notes in No Islamists Here: Media Buries Motive on Toulouse that Mohammed Merah's Islamist identity became something of an inconvenience that called for finessing--by both the media and by leaders. As an example:

Arlene Kushner On The Toulouse Murders And France

From Arlene Kushner:

March 22, 2012

"No Words"

What can one say to this...

Little Gabriel, 3, was the younger of Rabbi Yonaton Sandler's sons to be murdered in Toulouse.

Credit: Flash 90

It has been revealed that this beautiful child had been named for Rabbi Gavriel Horowitz, who was horrendously slaughtered in Mumbai shortly before he was born.

Mohammed Merah? Can't Blame Conservatives And Heaven Forbid Talk About Radical Islam

In response to the Norwegian massacre perpetrated last year by Anders Behring Breivik, the media focused our attention on the conservative media which was quoted by Breivik--blaming conservative writers and pundits for creating and fostering his worldview and for the murders themselves.

Don't expect to see that when it comes to the murders by Mohammed Merah of French soldiers and Jews.

The politically correct theme to take in these murders was already established yesterday that Islam was not to be held in any way responsible for the terrorism:

It's Over Toulouse Killer Mohammed Merah Is Dead (Updated 7:45am)

Update 7:45am: Mohammed Merah is dead. Jewish Press reports that Merah was hiding in the bathroom--when the police came in, he came out with guns blazing.

Update 12:15am: So what is taking so long? According to the Washington Post (hat tip: Challah Hu Akbar):

The authorities’ patience seemed to reflect a determination by President Nicolas Sarkozy to put the man on public trial for what were described as terrorist acts by a committed Islamist militant who had trained at a Taliban camp in Afghanistan.

Sarkozy was described as furious that such hateful crimes could be committed in France. In addition, the issues the suspect has cited are particularly sensitive as Sarkozy runs for reelection in two rounds of voting, scheduled for April 23 and May 6. The president is eager to be seen as a firm defender of security, lest any of his conservative support shift to the far-right candidate, Marine Le Pen of the National Front.

Update 9:03pm More blasts heard, again intended as intimidation. Merah is suspected of being heavily armed.

Update 8:09pm France 24 reports that sounds of explosions were not the police taking steps to capture Mohammed Merah, but just "intimidation".

Update 1:45pm: According to CNN, a US mil. official says French military, not US, that sent French shooting suspect back to France from Afghanistan.
Meanwhile Drudge had a headline:

FLASH: U.S. SENT FRENCH SHOOTING SUSPECT BACK TO FRANCE FROM AFGHANISTAN...

Update 12:40pm And so it begins: YnetNews reports the French prosecutor says that terrorist suspect Mohammed Merah has had mental problems since he was a boy ‎‏

Update 11:38am According to LeMonde, it appears all three brothers were involved with the French jihadi attack (Hat tip Aaron Y. Zelin)

Update 10:33am Times of Israel reporting that Mohammed Merah is still holed up in his home, surrounded by police.

Update 10:02am: According to France 24, suspect has NOT been arrested, negotiations still underway. No assault has begun.

Update 10:00am Being reported by Jewish Press that Mohammed Merah is not yet in police custody.

Update 9:45am The Algemeiner reports that Mohammed Merah is in police custody.

Update: 8:30:

• AFP reports Mohammed Merah was arrested in Kandahar back in 2010 for planting bombs and sentenced to 3 years--but escaped in a prison break.
  
  
• Al Arabiya reports: Fayyad decries use of Palestinian cause to justify terrorism--another case of too little too late. Does this mean the Palestinian Authority will stop inciting hatred of Israel by naming stadiums after Palestinian terrorists who murder children, stop paying stipends to terrorists in Israeli prisons and break off unity talks with terrorist group Hamas?
  
  
• Meanwhile, Merah has still not surrendered.

Update: 6:01 France 24 reports that French intelligence has been tracking Mohammed Merah for years. Also that both brother and Mother of Merah are being detained by police.

Update: 5:44 The report is that Merah wants to surrender "after lunch". I'd hate to think that he is stalling for time in order to set something up.

Update: 5:00am Jewish Press is reporting Mohammed Merah has another brother, besides the one who has been arrested, who is still on the loose.

Update 4:59: France 24 speculates that fact no terrorist group has stepped forward to take credit for the murders lends credence to the theory that Mohammed Merah is acting alone.

Update 4:47 Douglas Herbert, France 24 International Affairs editor: Though the suspect through a gun out the window, the French Interior Minister says he certainly has other weapons.

Update 4:45 Al Arabiya reports, according to French police, the suspect's name is Mohammed Merah, of Algerian origin

Update 4:16: France 24 reports the suspect says he will turn himself over this afternoon.(it is now 9:16am in France)

Update: France 24 has just announced that the killer has thrown out his handgun and the siege may soon be over.

Hat tip Challah Hu Akbar who pointed out France 24 as a news source, and who has been tweeting updates

France 24 has been reporting that a man claiming to be Toulouse killer called France 24 two hours before siege, making the same claims reported now, that the killings were in retaliation for killing of Palestinian children and for French actions in Afghanistan. The man on the phone said this was the only beginning.

Arlene Kushner on The Toulouse Killer and Funeral

From Arlene Kushner:

March 21, 2012

"What Nazi?"

The bodies of the four Jews, one teacher and three children, shot down in Toulouse, France, were brought by El Al to Israel at dawn and laid to rest late this morning in a funeral at Har Hamenuchot cemetery in the Givat Shaul neighbor of Jerusalem.  Thousands, mostly French-speaking religious Jews, attended.  Because of the intense emotions and the strong sun, some 30 in the crowd collapsed.

 Credit: vosizneias.com

Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin was there, and spoke, as did the two Chief Rabbis of Israel, Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger, and ministers of the government.

Barry Rubin: The True Perpetrators of The Antisemitic Attacks in Toulouse and Throughout the World

The True Perpetrators of The Antisemitic Attacks in Toulouse and Throughout the World

By Barry Rubin

What a tragic, evil joke. A drive-by shooter in the beautiful, almost magical, city of Toulouse, France, murders three Jewish children and a teacher in front of their school. Various VIPs issue statements about how terrible is this deed, how unspeakable.

And yet at that very moment, the next round of murders, the next slanderous and inciting antisemitic lies are being perpetrated by respectable people and institutions. There is no real soul-searching, no true effort to do better, no serious examination about how the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hysteria is paving the way to murder and potentially genocide.

Here are three examples of such deeds in nominally democratic countries—not Iran, not Syria, not Pakistan, where such things are even more intense—but in supposedly rational places.

1. The Turkish editor

Meet Mahir Zeynalov, an editor at Today’s Zaman, a Turkish Islamic newspaper that is supposedly moderate. Meet the modern art of tweeting. Here is Zeynalov’s response to the murders: