Terror driving Jews to Israel

"WE'RE not waiting around here to die," said Johan Dumas, one of the survivors of the siege at the kosher supermarket during the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in Paris in January. He had hidden with others in a basement cold room as the Islamist gunman roamed overhead and killed four of the hostages. So, said Dumas, he was moving to Israel to be safe.

It's not really that simple. The 17 victims of the terrorist attacks included French Christians, a Muslim policeman, four Jews, and probably a larger number of people who would have categorised themselves as "none of the above". It was a Muslim employee in the supermarket who showed Dumas and other Jewish customers where to hide, and then went to distract the gunman. And the Middle East isn't exactly safe for Jews.

Dumas has been through a terrifying experience. He now feels like a target in France, and no amount of reassurance from the French government that it will protect its Jewish citizens will change his mind. But Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu didn't help much.

What Netanyahu said after the Paris attacks was this: "This week, a special team of ministers will convene to advance steps to increase immigration from France and other countries in Europe that are suffering from terrible anti-Semitism. All Jews who want to immigrate to Israel will be welcomed here warmly and with open arms."

He was at it again after a Jewish volunteer guarding a synagogue in Copenhagen was one of the two fatal victims of last week's terrorist attack in Denmark. "Jews have been murdered again on European soil only because they were Jews," he said, "and this wave of terrorist attacks - including murderous anti-Semitic attacks - is expected to continue."

"Of course, Jews deserve protection in every country but we say to Jews, to our brothers and sisters: Israel is your home. We are preparing and calling for the absorption of mass immigration from Europe."

As you might imagine, this did not go down well with European leaders who were being told that their countries were so anti-Semitic that they are no longer safe for Jews.

French President Francois Hollande said: "I will not just let what was said in Israel pass, leading people to believe that Jews no longer have a place in Europe and in France in particular." In Denmark, Chief Rabbi Jair Melchior rebuked Netanyahu, saying that "terror is not a reason to move to Israel".

The chair of Britain's Parliamentary committee against anti-Semitism, John Mann, attacked Netanyahu's statement that the only place Jews could now be safe was Israel. "Mr Netanyahu made the same remarks in Paris - it's just crude electioneering."

It IS crude electioneering on Netanyahu's part - but it is also true that even in Britain, where there have been no recent terrorist attacks, Jews are worried. Statistically, Jews are at greater risk from terrorism in Israel, but it's much scarier being a Jewish minority in a continent where Jews were killed in death camps only 70 years ago.

What European Jews fear is not their neighbours in general, but radicalised young Islamists among their Muslim fellow citizens. The Muslim minorities in the larger Western European countries range between 4 and 10 per cent of the population.

But it is a very small threat.

Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.