It seems like only yesterday that millions of people, including 40 world leaders, gathered on the streets of Paris, marching in solidarity against terror and anti-Semitism.
Given the terrorist attacks since that massive Jan. 11 demonstration, the march might as well never have happened. Apparently, it’s still open season on Jews.
The most recent attack came Jan. 21 on a Tel Aviv bus when a West Bank Palestinian went on a stabbing spree, wounding 12, several of them seriously. The terrorist fled but was quickly shot in the leg and arrested.
The would-be killer later told Israeli police he did it for Gaza, the Temple Mount and paradise. That makes him yet one more radical Islamist, cut from the same evil cloth as the Paris killers.
In recent months Israel has suffered a spate of terror incidents by meat cleaver, car, acid, knife and gun. Twelve people have been killed. This low-tech, “lone wolf” style of attack is clearly the new black for Palestinian terrorists bent on mayhem.
Not surprisingly, Hamas cheered this week’s bus attack, calling it a “heroic act.” A new hashtag is all over Twitter: #JeSuisCouteau, or “I am knife.” In a sick twist on the solidarity hashtag #JeSuisCharlie, this one is being tweeted by people praising the attacker; some of the posts include cartoons depicting bloody knives, piles of Jewish skulls and other nightmarish imagery.
Only two weeks have passed since the Paris slaughter. More time may be needed before the world fully grasps the scope of the threat that radical Islamic terror poses. Jews and Israelis have been shouting from the rooftops about it for years, yet so many in Western democracies seem content to shut their eyes when it’s “just” Jews or Israelis being attacked.
How many more slashing knives will it take? How many more meat cleavers, how many more cars driven into crowds of innocents before the West recognizes that this scourge is a threat to the world?
America suffers from counterterror fatigue. After two long, bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is little appetite for sending troops off to fight ISIS, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, or any other foreign enemy.
But America and the world should follow Israel’s lead, especially when it comes to rooting out homegrown terror. France and Belgium seem to have gotten the message, indicated by their recent raids on sleeper cells. We hope the rest of Europe and other democracies will follow suit.