That attack came on the heels of other terror attacks targeting Israeli civilians, including the mowing down of a baby at a Jerusalem rail stop and the shocking kidnap/murder of three Israeli teens from a bus stop. (The murdered boys are depicted in a cartoon on the official Fatah Facebook page as rats, not humans).
HOME INVASION, RAPE, LEAVE ALL FRENCH JEWRY VIOLATED Shots fired at synagogues, beatings, vandalism, and fears of ISIS-trained terrorist attacks have left French Jewry reeling. One incident in particular has left many shaken.
In December, assailants forced their way into an apartment in the Paris suburb of Creteil, tied up a young, Jewish man and woman. “Tell us where you hide the money,” one of the assailants demanded, “You Jews always have money,” as they ransacked the house and raped the 19-year-old woman.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve confirmed the “anti-Semitic nature (of the attack)…” saying the assailants, “Started with the idea that being Jewish means having money.” The Service for the Protection of the Jewish Community in France reported two suspects were charged with religion-motivated violence, armed robbery, rape, sequestration and extortion.
At the Elysee Palace, President Hollande declared, “A family in a city in France was attacked because it is Jewish…When such dramas occur, such tragedies, it is not simply the family that is wounded, attacked. It is the greatness of France that finds itself wounded, damaged.”
Prime Minister Manuel Valls Tweeted that the attack in Creteil showed, “The fight against anti-Semitism is a daily fight.” The words of sympathy and support are welcome, but as 2014 comes to a close, members of Europe’s most vibrant Jewish community worries if France can ensure a safe future for its Jews. 
“TOILETGATE” DIVIDES LEADERS OF THE LEFT PARTY
On November 10th, The Left party invited notorious Israel-bashers, Max Blumenthal (listed on the SWC 2013 Top 10) and David Sheen to present an “expert talk” in the Party’s meeting room in the Bundestag, the day after commemoration of the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the 1938 pogrom when the Nazis burned Jewish synagogues across Germany. Blumenthal often casts Zionism as racism and conflates alleged Israeli misdeeds with Nazi imagery. That was too much for top party leader Gregor Gysi who canceled the usage of the Party’s meeting room.
The incident came to be known as “Toiletgate” because Gysi was forced to barricade himself in a bathroom to escape the wrath of Blumenthal and Sheen. It highlighted the ongoing efforts to demonize Israel by a group of extreme anti-Israel MPs led by Inge Höger and Annette Groth. Both of these parliamentarians were onboard the controversial 2010 Mavi Marmara Gaza flotilla and upon their return to Berlin were hailed by many of their party’s MPs.
Groth, Höger and MPs Claudia Haydt and Heike Hänsel – as organizers and participants – played a crucial role in stoking hatred of Israel during the “Toiletgate” scandal. All were present at the Blumenthal/Sheen talk. They are a part of a sizable group of hardcore anti-Israel The Left party MPs.
In response to the “Toiletgate” scandal, a petition signed by the reform wing of The Left party MPs, regional politicians and members stated: “By stoking obsessive hatred of and demonizing Israel, members of our party in positions of responsibility are promoting anti-Semitic patterns of argument and a relativization of the Holocaust and the German responsibility for the extermination of millions of European Jews.”
