Prague, July 26 (CTK) – Europe starts to resemble Israel in that it is a constant target of terror, but it refuses to imitate Israel and consistently designate threat, Zbynek Petracek writes in daily Lidove noviny published on Tuesday, commenting on the latest series of terrorist attacks.
Last year, prominent Israeli journalist Ari Shavit wrote in the liberal paper Haaretz that the Arab humanitarian disaster is migrating from the Middle East to Central Europe, Petracek writes.
However, the EU, and mainly Germany, is only preoccupied with the question of whether it is adequately opening the door for the migrants, while it is time to open eyes, Petracek writes.
He writes that now that terrorist attacks happen almost every day, the gap between the stances of the elites, saying this has nothing to do with Islam, and the ordinary people is widening, which is a greater risk than the total number of the killed people.
The fact that the threat is accidental, that it does not only target selected goals, such as the New York Twins as a “symbol of Western arrogance,” but that it is omnipresent – in a pub, on train, in the street or a normal European town, is more important for ordinary people than the number of the victims and the attackers’ motivation, Petracek writes.
He writes that the elites of Europe see terror in what is ideologically based, while the acts of individuals are pushed aside as a mishap or the doing of a psychopath.
Of course, hysteria should not be the desired result, but there should be at least some effort to call things by their proper names, Petracek says.
The “Knife Intifada” has continued in Israel for almost one year now. Within it, unorganised individual attacks with cars, knives, scissors and also firearms are conducted. The perpetrators are often adolescents who have nothing in common with for example Hamas, not to say Islamic State, Petracek writes.
Yet, the attacks are considered a wave of terrorism by the Israeli society, he adds.
Europe, for its part, makes the impression of being obsessed with a search for IS links, Petracek writes.
He writes that the European elites are looking for the causes of the problems in the West alone, in its ill-fated past, egoism, Islamophobia.
But they would not allow for the thinking of Ari Shavit, who sees the roots of the problem in the West’s political correctness which frustrates calling things their proper names, Petracek writes.
It is comfortable to divide violence perpetrators into terrorists, or those inspired by the IS murderous ideology, and loons, and to consider all of them victims, Petracek writes.
They have either succumbed to indoctrination by criminals, or to a mental disorder. However, there is a snag, Petracek writes.
It has shown twice, in Nice and Munich, that the perpetrators of the “loony” attacks were preparing for them for up to one year. Should this mean that they planned to go mad in a year? Petracek asks and adds that the Europeans should better open their eyes.
