Date:
Friday, January 9, 2015
Netanyahu and Barkat send condolences; foreign minister urges
tougher stance on northern branch of the Islamic Movement
BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF January 8, 2015, 2:26 pm | The Times of Israel|
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman issued a scathing broadside against a radical Islamic
preacher in Israel in the wake of the deadly terror attack on the offices of the Charlie
Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris.
“If there is an important lesson that we learn from the terror attack,” Liberman said in a statement
Thursday, “it is that extremist groups, which are distinguishable from terror organizations only by
semantics and legal minutiae, must be dealt with preemptively. Those who tolerate such
movements and organizations in the end pay for this [tolerance] with the blood of many innocents
and with a threat to the very democracy that allowed them to function. Therefore, we must not
dally any longer or allow the continued activities of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement
headed by Sheikh Raed Salah.”
Salah, a firebrand Muslim preacher, antiZionist and former mayor of the Israeli Arab city of Umm
alFahm, served a twoyear prison term after a conviction for funneling funds to Hamas. The
Islamic Movement’s northern branch, led by Salah, has long claimed that Israel was secretly
working to destroy the Muslim shrines on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.
“This movement is an inseparable link in the chain that includes the terror organizations of Hamas,
Islamic Jihad, alQaeda and Islamic State, and over the years its members, led time and again by
Sheikh Salah, have demonstrated that they support terror and identify with it,” Liberman
maintained on Thursday.
“The northern branch of the Islamic Movement under Salah espouses the exact same values
as the perpetrators of the massacre in Paris, and the same intolerance to any criticism or speech
that does not fit their extremist values. They constitute a threat to Israeli democracy and to the
lives of Israel’s citizens.”
Liberman vowed to “continue to work to push them outside the bounds of the law, and will do so
with clear and unambiguous legislation that won’t be cancellable through legal sophistry.”
Israeli leaders sent messages of condolence and support following the killing spree by two
suspected Islamist brothers in the offices of Charlie Hebdo.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat called his Parisian counterpart, Anne Hidalgo, on Thursday morning
and said, “The residents of Jerusalem understand and share in your pain.”
He added, “We must make sure that terror does not pay. The terrorists must be brought to justice
and everyone must understand that the savage attack in Paris was not an isolated event but part
of an international campaign of terror.”
As in terrorstricken Jerusalem, the key to overcoming terror is resilience on the part of Paris’s
residents, Barkat said.
“The support of the mayor of Jerusalem and the people of Jerusalem is very important to us,”
Hidalgo responded, according to a statement from the Jerusalem municipality. “I will share this
important message of support with the members of Paris’ City Council and with all of the residents
of Paris.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu roundly condemned the attack after meeting Thursday
morning in Jerusalem with Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende.
“Yesterday’s murderous attack on free expression clearly demonstrates the disdain of radical
Islam for the values we hold dear,” the prime minister said.
“We cherish freedom and tolerance; they worship tyranny and terror. And through this terror they
seek to impose a new dark age on humanity. We express profound sympathies to the government
of France, the people of France. We extend our condolences to the families of the victims and our
wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured,” Netanyahu said.
The shooters, he added, “are part of a global movement and this necessitates a global response. I
believe that with the strength of our resolve and the unity of our action, we can defeat this threat to
our common civilization. And what the battle against terror requires is courage, clarity and
consistency. Israel is being attacked by the very same forces that attack Europe. Israel stands
with Europe. Europe must stand with Israel.”
The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem decided to immediately send back to Paris the Israeli
ambassador to France, Yossi Gal, who spent the last few days in Israel attending a conference of
Israeli envoys to Europe.
“Upon his return, Ambassador Gal [will meet] with the leaders of the French government, with the
leaders of the Jewish community and will express Israel’s condolences [over] the despicable
attack in Paris,” ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon said in a statement.
The Paris attack also set off a ruckus between Hatnua leader Tzipi Livni and Jewish Home
chairman Naftali Bennett.
In comments Wednesday in response to the Paris attack, Livni called it “an attack on all the
nations of the free world, including Israel. You don’t talk with or appease terror. You fight an
uncompromising total war against it – here, in France or anywhere else in the world.”
Speaking at a gathering of students at the College of Management in Rishon Lezion, she insisted
that Israel faced diplomatic isolation because the Netanyahuled government failed to advance
peace with the Palestinians.
“It’s not enough to speak confidently about security. You have to know how to rally the world to
support the defense interests of Israel – this Netanyahu does not know how to do…. The fact that
the Palestinians are taking unilateral steps at the United Nations and are taking the IDF to the
[International Criminal] Court in the Hague flows from their understanding that Netanyahu is weak
in the world, that he can be defeated there,” said Livni.
Her comments were condemned by Bennett, who was next to address the gathering.
“Today there was a horrible attack in France in which a group of Muslims armed with rifles carried
out a killing spree in Paris because of a cartoon that purportedly insulted Islam…. Livni stood here
earlier and spoke about occupation, diplomatic isolation. So I ask: Why don’t you get on a plane to
Paris to [help them] solve their problems? Maybe you’ll manage the negotiations, offer them a
diplomatic horizon, because that’s the solution.”
Bennett compared Israel’s struggle with Hamas and Hezbollah to the wave of attacks by Islamist
terrorists in France.
“What do they want? A piece of land?” he asked of Hezbollah. “No. They don’t want us here. We
have to wake up and understand this.”