October 7, 2023. Forever, this date has stuck to our memories. As if the memory of this day of misfortune and atrocities remained suspended, like a menacing shadow, hovering above our heads. And now, three years later, in Israel, but also in France and even throughout the West, we are still in shock from this unspeakable tragedy. A few days ago, we paid tribute to the victims of September 11, 2001, and as with the pogrom of October 7, the collapse of the Twin Towers had something unreal. The West struck in its flesh, in its heart, in its guts, by the barbarity of its enemies. This is what we are talking about.
Since October 7, everything has changed. First in the Middle East, where the war launched by Benjamin Netanyahu, in the aftermath of the deadly Hamas attacks, shook the entire region. In Gaza, Hamas executioners captured innocent people, hostages to the barbarians who had ravaged their villages. The same people have made their civilian population the human shields of their infamies. In the Arab world, Israel, through its response, attracted a new kind of detestation, and the Hebrew State went in a few weeks from victim to torturer in the eyes of part of the world.
In Europe, and in France, the conflict has impacted society with much more impact than any other attack in history, even September 11. October 7 has become an object of division in our countries. Some make the Palestinians the new wretched of the Earth, oppressed by the Jewish State, others denouncing Islamism and anti-Semitism which are spreading everywhere at breakneck speed. The French public debate heated up in proportion to the military clash which took place several thousand kilometers away, revealing in the process our own fractures.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become structuring in our society
Because that, ultimately, is the big issue. Three years after the terrible tragedy of October 7, and despite all the voices which have rightly called for “do not import the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into France”it is clear that the latter has become deeply structuring in our society. You only need to see the number of Palestinian flags waved in recent urban riots to see this. If in the past France could protect itself from being relatively impervious to fractures coming from abroad, we must admit that this is no longer the case today.
As we commemorate the October 7 attacks, French Jews are experiencing a wave of anti-Semitism not seen since the end of World War II. Physical attacks, insults, tags, terrorist threats, etc. have been noted across the country. Our Jewish compatriots now fear for their lives and avoid certain neighborhoods. The kippah, or any other distinctive religious sign, is abandoned because it is too dangerous in public spaces. At the same time, part of the political class, on the far left in particular, is returning to anti-Semitic rhetoric, to the delight of its new electorate. And now the country threatens to sink into irreparable divisions.
A new anti-Semitism
Never in our recent history has a succession of events taking place abroad had such a resonance on our soil. As a direct consequence of the lowering of borders, the country has opened itself to the conflicts of others, with all the threats this entails to our security. Other European countries are not spared, and this is only the beginning.
As for French Jews, they are, as is often the case in our history, the first to be affected by the major threats that lie in wait. Today, as yesterday, it is they who are in great danger in the country. The new anti-Semitism is cloaked in the trappings of anti-Zionism. Under the pretext of a war, the excesses of which we can rightly denounce, the new anti-Semites call directly or indirectly to attack the Jews. Political Islam is at work and the far left is blowing up the embers.
Today, the whole of society, and not just the Jews, is under the threat of Islamism. From Charlie Hebdo to Nice, via the Bataclan, we French know what this fanaticism of doom promises us for decades to come. Blood flowing, violence everywhere and repression for those who refuse to comply with the morals that will be defined. The attacks in Paris, like those at Ground Zero or Israel, are the same. For our enemies, it is about terrorizing us into submission. Let’s make no mistake about the fight, it is time to resist together, we owe it to all the victims of terrorist barbarity.
