Can you imagine the uproar if a bunch of Jews kidnapped and tortured to death a young man because he was a Muslim or Arab?
I can. There would be riots and protests throughout the capitals of Islamic countries. Muslims would protest and riot in the streets of Europe, taking revenge against anything Israeli or Jewish owned. Probably, Jews would be attacked in the streets in numbers that would pale the attacks that French Jews suffered in 2000 and the years following. Synagogues and Jewish property would go up in smoke.
I’m not suggesting Jews react in the same way. I’m proud we don’t. We are civilized. I'm just illustrating the differences.
The Mohammad cartoon row has had not a few people ask me, “Well, how would Jews react if people lampooned them in the same way?” Such a question reveals two things:
The first is a woeful ignorance about the anti-Semitic filth that has been published in Arab and Islamic mainstream publications for decades. To that question I say: You have seen the Jewish reaction—it is one of disgust and revulsion, of letters-to-editors, op-eds, and diplomatic complaints. But not violence, not threats of violence. Added to that I might add that such ignoramuses should do some basic Internet searches about Islamic/Arab anti-Semitism; to visit MEMRI, and educate themselves about this dangerous and disgusting phenomenon before opening their big mouths and asking me such a stupid fucking ignorant question.
It also reveals the Western, politically correct desire to try to draw moral equivalence between us and them. But there is no equivalence—and for that I am very proud.
A question that we should all be pondering is, how have the decades of Islamic/Arab anti-Semitic hate published regularly in their media contributed to Halimi's murder?
