At a time when their country has endured significant terrorism over the past two years, one might expect the French to repudiate all those who perpetrate it, irrespective of where in the world a terrorist may strike. But unfortunately, some portion of France remains surprisingly hospitable to the terrorist cause. Consider the Parisian suburb of Valenton, which not long ago named a street after the notorious Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti. Meanwhile, several local French councils are planning to grant the convicted murderer honorary citizenship.
But it gets worse. A campaign has gained momentum in France to nominate Barghouti for the Nobel Peace Prize. In the country that introduced the world to the Age of Enlightenment — Les Lumières — some residents have surrendered their moral authority.
Who is Barghouti, and why are some groups in France obsessed with glorifying him? In addition to serving five life sentences for the murder of innocent civilians, Barghouti founded the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a terrorist organization responsible for the deaths of both Israelis and Palestinians. Some of the group’s notable suicide bombings include a January 2002 massacre at a 12-year-old girl’s Bat Mitzvah, killing six and wounding 33; a January 2003 attack at the Tel Aviv central bus station that killed 22, and a January 2004 suicide attack on a Jerusalem bus that killed 11 passengers.
Al Aqsa terrorists also target Europeans and Palestinians. They killed the brother of Nablus Mayor Ghassan Shakaa and raided the European Union’s Gaza offices, demanding an apology from Denmark and Norway regarding the publication of Muhammad cartoons. They have also carried out several joint attacks with Islamic terror groups Hamas, Islamic jihad and Hezbollah.
These initiatives by various groups in France to honor Barghouti are dismaying in the wake of the Nice rampage that saw an Islamic terrorist plow a truck through a crowd, killing 84 people, and of the attack last week, in which a terrorist slit a priest’s throat in his Normandy parish church. Are these groups suffering from memory loss after the spate of terrorist attacks in France occurring in the past 19 months? After all, Barghouti too has conducted radical Muslim terror attacks on innocent civilians.
The only obvious difference between Barghouti and the terrorists in France is that Barghouti’s preferred targets are Israelis rather than French. Can one imagine the United States honoring terrorists who confine their atrocities only to France?
Regrettably, the moral crisis suffered by these groups in France is a symptom of a deeper problem. For decades America has been the moral compass of the world, with peace, human rights and mutual security guiding its foreign policy. Our country has been unafraid to speak truth to allies and adversaries alike, and to take action to preserve our way of life.
While world leaders marched with the French president last year in a show of solidarity after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, with President Obama’s notable absence, there is no outrage at the French initiatives to honor a bloodthirsty terrorist. Less than a century after France’s collaboration with the Nazis that led millions of Jews to the gas chambers, these councils in France are taking steps to honor and promote a terrorist who murders still more Jews. How memory and shame run short.
But that is not where the hypocrisy and shame of these French groups ends. While the French consider a temporary ban on foreign financing of mosques, they criticize Israel for taking measures to limit foreign funding of organizations that incite violence and deny Israel’s right to exist. Other European Union countries have not hesitated to condemn Israeli efforts to protect its civilians.
The time of moral equivocation must end. While Israel is a tiny nation of only 8 million, lacking the political clout of France or the U.S., the leaders of free nations must stand together with all terror victims, of whatever nationality or religion.
History teaches that no nation is immune from terrorists. A horrific phenomenon, begun in the Middle East with Israel as its primary target, has metastasized throughout the world. No amount of appeasement can mollify Islamic terrorists brainwashed to hate and kill those whose religious beliefs differ from theirs.
The world today suffers from a critical deficit of moral leadership. Freedom-loving people victimized by terrorism yearn to elect leaders who will uphold basic human values and international security.
Donald Trump is just such a leader. His decisive leadership would instill much-needed confidence in our allies, trepidation in our adversaries, and renewed pride in our freedoms and values. With him as our president, Americans will set about the critical task of restoring those values at home and abroad, united in common purpose.
Jason Greenblatt is an executive vice president and chief legal officer of The Trump Organization, co-chairman of Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump’s Israel Advisory Committee, and co-founder of the popular parenting and family website www.inspireconversation.com. Follow him @JasonDovEsq. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
