There’s a habit or reflex, in discussing antisemitic violence, to explain or even, on some level, excuse it as being a response to Israel, which allows its apologists to change the subject to purported Israeli injustices. Of course, that collides with the assertion, by many of the same voices, that we ought not to equate anti-Zionism with antisemitism, even when it is hard to explain exactly how attacking Jews celebrating Hannukah in Australia has anything to do with Gaza other than the simple fact of being Jewish and alive. This morning on the site, Noah Rothman dismantled all of this.
The fact that should make this even more thunderingly obvious is that Islamist radicals are not principally acting out of grievance at Israeli foreign policy, but they are simultaneously waging war on open and public Christianity in Europe. News of the latest plot broke yesterday in Bavaria:
German authorities announced Saturday that five men have been arrested on suspicion of planning an attack on a Christmas market in the Dingolfing area of southern Bavaria, the Munich public prosecutor’s office said. Prosecutors allege the suspects were preparing to carry out the assault using a vehicle, and authorities believe the plot was motivated by Islamist extremism. According to prosecutors, the suspects include a 56‑year‑old Egyptian, a 37‑year‑old Syrian, and three Moroccan nationals aged 22, 28, and 30. Investigators say the 56‑year‑old allegedly called for an attack in a mosque in the Dingolfing‑Landau area, urging the planned use of a vehicle to injure or kill as many people as possible at a Christmas market.
Bavaria is not exactly the center of IDF activity, especially not its Christmas markets. Nor is this a new or isolated development. From 2024:
A car drove into a crowded outdoor Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg on Friday, killing at least five people and injuring more than 200. Similar attacks have targeted Christmas markets in other cities, including the 2018 attack in Strasbourg, France, where five people were killed and several more were injured, as well as incidents in Nantes, France, and other cities in Germany. Ensuring the safety of Christmas markets has been a heightened concern since 2016, when an Islamist extremist drove a truck into a crowd at a Berlin Christmas market, killing 13 people and injuring dozens more.
In Paris, this extends beyond Christmas to authorities canceling an annual New Year’s celebration along the Champs-Élysées that drew half a million people last year, because their safety from Islamist radicals can no longer be secured.
It starts with Jews. But it never ends there. These are enemies of our entire civilization, and their only actual demand is submission. That’s every bit as true today as it was 25 years ago.