It is highly doubtful that the French police and their European counterparts actually believe their own announcement that the latest driver who smashed his vehicle into pedestrians "was a deranged individual" rather than a terrorist. Maybe the police hope to calm the public's fears by saying that this act was not terrorism but just a freak isolated incident. But as in geometry -- a line is actually a collection of points, and that is what we are seeing in nations with growing Muslim minorities that are resisting integration in the local culture. Israel has recently been terrorized by a series of vehicular attacks similar to what is currently happening in Europe. In one of the Israeli attacks, the one in Gush Etzion, authorities initially tried to calm people down by saying it was just a car accident, which later proved false. The same happened in Samaria, much to the distress of the victim's family. The number of car attacks will only rise as the clash between extremist Islam and the enlightened world continues to intensify, with the main, but not the only, target being the Jews. Ultimately, European police forces and governments will all come to the sudden realization that the car ramming attacks are just another form of Arab terrorism. There is Islamic State and there is Hamas, there is al-Qaida and Hezbollah and even the threat of an attack by the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and they are spread over at least two continents and perhaps in the U.S. as well. The car ramming attack by itself does not carry much weight but it is part of an ill boding atmosphere throughout Europe. If Holland tells Jews to avoid setting up a Sukkah, and perhaps not put a hanukkiyah in front of their homes as authorities would not be able to prevent an attack -- how is that (aside from quantitatively) different from Sony's decision to capitulate to North Korea and not screen a movie that Pyongyang did not like- History teaches us that Israel was not always a big draw for Diaspora Jews. At times it was the Diaspora that pushed the Jews toward Israel instead. In the past there was nowhere to emigrate, but now Israel does exist and it awaits emigres with open arms. Zionism's fundamental assumption is that anti-Semitism is a chronic disease without a cure. At times it is active and it spreads and at other times it seems to taper off. But their is no need to hide the remedy, which irks many Diaspora Jews, and reintroduce the notion of the gathering of Israel. Sound crazy during the age of open borders? Not when synagogues and European bystanders are being attacked by terrorists and mad drivers.
