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Canary in the Coal Mine

(Jerusalem Post) Warren Goldstein - The plight of Jews in France bodes evil for the world. A few years ago, the murder of Rabbi Sandler and the young children of the Jewish day school in Toulouse occurred, followed by many other attacks on French Jewry, all of which were early warning signs of the lethal threat posed by radical Islam. A society in which Jews are not safe will ultimately not be secure for journalists, or for freedom, or for any values of human decency. On the Shabbat after the attacks, the Grand Synagogue of Paris was closed for services for the first time since the Nazi occupation of France. A society in which synagogues cannot open freely and in which Jews are not safe is one that is itself in danger. If Europe becomes Judenrein once again, the civilized world will have succumbed to the worst forces of barbarism and savagery. The fact that virtually every Jewish institution throughout the globe has to be heavily protected against the threat of Islamist terrorism is a sign of the dangers that the civilized world faces from these ominous forces. The fact that Jews cannot exist in places such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and many other Muslim countries is a moral disgrace which portends danger for the very future of humanity. Israel is the canary in the coal mine of the community of nations. Suicide bombers first launched themselves against the people of Israel, and then after that came the attacks of 9/11 in New York, 7/7 in London, in Bali, and in many other places. As the great powers of the world negotiate with the Islamic Republic of Iran, they should realize that while today its nuclear ambitions are directed at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, history has taught that tomorrow their targets will be Paris, London, New York and Cairo. The writer is chief rabbi of South Africa.
2015-01-16 00:00:00
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