
The tragic events that took place in Paris over the past few days came as no surprise to readers of this column and from other commentaries that regularly appear on these pages. Going back decades, we kept warning that what comes to Israel will come to France and to all of Europe.
Sadly, we were right…and we continue to sound the alarm.
Cries of 'kill the infidel' do not come from our synagogues or churches.For my part, I don’t read the stars. But I can see the clouds. Here is a selection from what I warned over the years from the clarity of being a pessimist.
From “First, The Saturday People” -- Published in Arutz Sheva Sept 15, 2003, yes, 12 years ago.
“As for you masters of Europe and your treachery; one day your sly anti-Semitism will come back to haunt you. Over the centuries, you have uprooted a thousand synagogues and replaced them with ten thousand mosques. Wait, now, and see what grows from the soil of Ishmael. Your churches are next.
“For Sunday is coming, Sunday bloody Sunday.”
Also this incidentally from the same piece more than a decade ago:
“Bush believes he has the answer. He is sending in 87 billion dollars to find Thomas Jefferson in that seventh century feud-crazed swamp that is Iraq. So now we sit back and wait for Iraq to become a light unto the nations, along with the 21 other backwater regimes that make up part of the Arab world.
“Those who think it's all about Israel are indeed hiding under the covers. As they slumber, another mosque grows in Brooklyn. Certainly in Paris.”
From “Spare the Pieties” (on Gaza) – Published in Arutz Sheva, Jan 7, 2009
“Where were you when, throughout the years, thousands of jihadist bombs fell on Israel? The streets of Europe were empty. There were no pictures in the newspapers of grieving Jewish mothers and fathers. You called it 'peace' as long as the Arabs were doing the killing and the Jews were doing the dying. All was well with the world.
“I’ve seen the photos of your candlelight vigils along the streets and boulevards of Europe, all of it; all these tears in the service of those terrorists whom you call your brothers. Indeed you are related to Hamas (and Fatah) as once before, a mere generation ago, you were related to Hitler’s stormtroopers. Your angelic faces are touching - and disgusting. Your hypocrisy is transparent and nauseating.”
From “We are not Related” – Published in Arutz Sheva, Feb 1, 2004
“There is good. There is bad. Blurring the lines between the two is what's got us into this fine mess.
“Chaos happens when clarity is replaced by professorial mumbo jumbo. There are a million examples of absolute good and bad. I'll get the reckoning started as follows: Green traffic lights are good, red is bad; Einstein good, Hitler bad; liberty good, tyranny bad; wealth good, poverty bad; paycheck good, taxes bad; Sinatra good, Springsteen bad. See how easy this is?
“Here's the paradox: Those of us who live in freedom are imprisoned for our own safety, and for reasons of political correctness, we dare not name the enemy, though it is not Jews or Christians who keep us trapped and trembling; bolting our doors and hiding under the covers. Cries of 'kill the infidel' do not come from our synagogues or churches.
“I am an island. You are an island. We are an island. We did not make that choice. They imposed it on us.”
From “Sarkozy Offers French Expertise” – Published in Arutz Sheva, June 24, 2008
“Sarkozy has his own ‘West Bank,’ where rioting among ‘foreigners’ is frequent, but no Israeli leader would dare suggest that he vacate Paris and deport Parisians.”
From “Shared Values?” Published in Arutz Sheva, Oct. 7, 2003
“Here's a possibility. Maybe we have no shared values. They have their values. We have ours. Never the twain shall meet. Doesn't mean we have to hate one another. Doesn't mean we have to love one another. Just leave us alone. We don't bother you on the road to your mosque, and you leave us alone in our churches and synagogues
“How's that for shared values?
“For all I know, it was ‘moderate’ Islam that gave us 9/11, and it is moderate Islam that continues to give Israel 9/11 every single day.
“Fanatical Islam hasn't been heard from yet.”
Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. New from the novelist, the inside-the-newsroom tell-all thriller, The Bathsheba Deadline. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller Indecent Proposal that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Website: www.jackengelhard.com