Three Jews wearing kipot were attacked by 10 people in Villeurbanne, France, near Lyon, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls was quoted as saying on Sunday by the European Jewish Press.This only precipitates the sad but necessary departure many Jews will likely make from France because of these horrors.
Two of the victims were hospitalized. One victim sustained an open wound to the head, and another suffered a neck injury.
The attackers were described as being of North-African origin, and beat their Jewish victims with hammers and iron bars, an act denounced as "extremely serious" by French authorities. The attack occurred on Saturday.
Accordingly, Valls mobilized the police to search out and arrest those behind the attack.
The incident came after a March attack in Toulouse France, in which Mohamed Merah killed three Jewish schoolchildren and a rabbi.
Merah admitted anti-Semetic motivations for his attack during a 30-hour gunbattle with police who besieged his Toulouse apartment.
Update: Jonathan Tobin addresses the issue, and says that European politicians with anti-Israel leanings have to shoulder some blame too:
The flow of raw hate speech against Jews from Cairo and Tehran and other Arab and Muslim capitals is not to be underestimated, but the willingness of European intellectuals to lend their support to the demonization of the Jewish state has given these sentiments a patina of undeserved legitimacy.Exactly. That's why I figure Sarkozy's calls for Israel to retreat and remove "settlers" from Judea/Samaria could've had an indirect influence, even as most Muslims still wouldn't vote for him. One can only wonder if he'll ever be willing to apologize for any discrimination on his part against Israel, to say nothing of denying Islam's connections with anti-Jewish and misogynist violence, and might even be willing to repent by becoming an activist for legitimate causes. But alas, don't bet on the prospects he ever will.
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