Up In Flames

The Jerusalem Post reminds us of the obvious.

In the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the US media became preoccupied with a key question: "Why do they hate us so much?" A fair-minded people, the Americans believed there must be a good, rational explanation why 19 educated, economically comfortable young men would ram planes into buildings, killing themselves along with thousands of innocents.

Among the many reasons proffered, one that appeared frequently - and drew concern in Jerusalem - was that it was all due to US support for Israel. If the US would only toe a more pro-Arab, pro-Palestinian line, this argument ran, then the Arab and Muslim masses wouldn't hate it so.

The events in Paris over the last 12 days have confirmed the vacuity of this argument.

Indeed. Has any western country been more reliably anti-Israel than France? The answer is "no."

The reason they hate us is because they are taught from birth to hate anyone who is not Islamic. Islam is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a religion of peace.