TOULOUSE – ATTACKERS launched two cars packed with petrol bombs at a synagogue in France’s south-western city of Toulouse on Monday night, causing damage but no casualties, officials said.
One car was set on fire and pushed by the other until it hit the door of the synagogue, at a time when about a dozen people were attending a class with a rabbi. The building caught fire but all those inside escaped unharmed.
Police found unexploded petrol bombs inside the second car, which did not catch fire. They said they were investigating the attack and had not made any arrests.
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In recent years, flare-ups between Israel and the Palestinians have been followed by acts of violence against Jewish people or buildings in France, which has large Jewish and Muslim communities.Some analysts have attributed the problem to a build-up of resentment among children or grandchildren of immigrants from Arab countries who feel they are poorly integrated into French society and are victims of discrimination in the job market.
Such frustrations, coupled with feelings of solidarity towards the Palestinians, have resulted in attacks on Jewish targets that have been strongly condemned by almost everyone in the French political establishment.
Le Monde’s top article today: Les autorités françaises redoutent des tensions entre les communautés juive et musulmane French authorities fear tensions between the Jewish and Muslim communities.
All this lip service to “fearing tensions” and “attacks on Jewish targets that have been strongly condemned”, and what did Le Monde have in yesterday’s paper?
This:
Logique de purification ethnique à Gaza The logic behind Gaza’s ethnic cleansing, by French-Lebanese writer Dominique Eddé. Not only Israel is accused of ethnic cleansing, but also the USA.
The largest newspaper in the country legitimizes that vile and hate-filled opinion by carrying it, not only on its op-ed page, but featured in its newsfeed, which is where I found it yesterday reading Le Monde’s newsfeed in my iPod.
Anyone surprised by the attacks on synagogues, then?
