Edana
09-01-2004, 05:00 AM
JTA - BEHIND THE HEADLINES
Arrest of Jew in French arson has
community worried about crying wolf
By Philip Carmel
PARIS, Aug. 30 (JTA) — French Jewish leaders fear they may have cried wolf once too often after a Jew was arrested in connection with the well-publicized arson of a Jewish community center in central Paris...
snip
...The arrest shocked community leaders who had successfully mobilized the French political establishment to condemn what appeared to be an anti-Semitic attack...
snip
...Cohen was equally scathing about politicians “who fear they’re going to be accused of not doing enough” to tackle anti-Semitism — though in part they have become zealous in their condemnations following stinging criticism that they weren’t taking anti-Semitism seriously enough...
(LoL, damned if you do, damned if you don't)
snip
...President Jacques Chirac was among those quick to suspect anti-Semitic motives, while Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin rushed back to the capital from his hometown of Poitiers to visit the scene and reassure the Jewish community.
In the aftermath of the attack, Jewish leaders sought to link the incident to recent cases in which judges had been lenient with anti-Semitic offenders...
snip
...Similarly, the recent knifing of a yeshiva student in the Paris suburbs also apparently was not motivated by anti-Semitism. And police still are investigating claims by a rabbi that he was stabbed outside his synagogue in January 2003m, as reports allege that the rabbi may have stabbed himself...
snip
...The Gagny arson led the government to enact new measures to tackle rising anti-Semitism, with Raffarin heading-up a high-profile Cabinet committee on the issue...
snip
...Roger Benarroch, vice president of the CRIF umbrella organization of French Jewry, told JTA that last week’s arson and the reaction to it should “not cause us to lose sight of the essential, that the climate of anti-Semitism makes these things credible.”
Click here for full article (http://jta.org/page_view_story.asp?strwebhead=French%20Jews%20worried%20about%20crying%20wolf&intcategoryid=2&SearchOptimize=Jewish%20News)
Arrest of Jew in French arson has
community worried about crying wolf
By Philip Carmel
PARIS, Aug. 30 (JTA) — French Jewish leaders fear they may have cried wolf once too often after a Jew was arrested in connection with the well-publicized arson of a Jewish community center in central Paris...
snip
...The arrest shocked community leaders who had successfully mobilized the French political establishment to condemn what appeared to be an anti-Semitic attack...
snip
...Cohen was equally scathing about politicians “who fear they’re going to be accused of not doing enough” to tackle anti-Semitism — though in part they have become zealous in their condemnations following stinging criticism that they weren’t taking anti-Semitism seriously enough...
(LoL, damned if you do, damned if you don't)
snip
...President Jacques Chirac was among those quick to suspect anti-Semitic motives, while Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin rushed back to the capital from his hometown of Poitiers to visit the scene and reassure the Jewish community.
In the aftermath of the attack, Jewish leaders sought to link the incident to recent cases in which judges had been lenient with anti-Semitic offenders...
snip
...Similarly, the recent knifing of a yeshiva student in the Paris suburbs also apparently was not motivated by anti-Semitism. And police still are investigating claims by a rabbi that he was stabbed outside his synagogue in January 2003m, as reports allege that the rabbi may have stabbed himself...
snip
...The Gagny arson led the government to enact new measures to tackle rising anti-Semitism, with Raffarin heading-up a high-profile Cabinet committee on the issue...
snip
...Roger Benarroch, vice president of the CRIF umbrella organization of French Jewry, told JTA that last week’s arson and the reaction to it should “not cause us to lose sight of the essential, that the climate of anti-Semitism makes these things credible.”
Click here for full article (http://jta.org/page_view_story.asp?strwebhead=French%20Jews%20worried%20about%20crying%20wolf&intcategoryid=2&SearchOptimize=Jewish%20News)