France is facing a terrorist onslaught, with two fatal incidents in Paris on Friday, and at least four innocent people killed. Two days after two gunmen killed 12 in an assault at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the two suspects were shot dead by French security forces on Friday afternoon and the hostage they were holding was freed. Security forces simultaneously stormed the kosher grocery where another gunmen was holding hostages, killing him. Four of the hostages he was holding were killed, and four more badly hurt, according to initial reports. His female accomplice was said to have escaped. The Times of Israel is liveblogging developments.
Some French Jews ‘too scared to go to synagogue tonight’
On Army Radio, Shlomo Malka, a French Jewish official, says some synagogues are not holding services in Paris tonight.
“Not all the synagogues are closed,” he says, but some are.
Many Jews are too scared to go to Sabbath prayers tonight, he adds.
That “says something” about the mood of French Jews. “There’s a huge amount of fear,” he adds.
Hollande confirms to Netanyahu: 4 hostages dead; 15 freed
Prime Minister Netanyahu just spoke to French President Hollande.
Hollande confirms to him that four hostages are dead, and says 15 were freed from the siege at the Paris kosher grocery store. Several of them are said to be in critical condition.
Netanyahu offers any assistance Israel can provide. He calls for the international community to unite in the fight against Islamist terror. He says Islamic extremism has to be tackled, too, at its sources of funding, and also that its incitement efforts needs to be tackled and thwarted.
Israeli ambassador to France: Security bolstered in Jewish areas
Israeli ambassador to France Yossi Gal tells Channel 10 that security was bolstered in Jewish neighborhoods, Jewish businesses and at the Israeli embassy over the past few days after the deadly Charlie Hebdo attack that killed 12.
Earlier, Jewish stores were told to shut down as the hostage crisis was unfolding at the kosher market at Porte-de-Vincennes in Paris.
Police hunt for suspected female accomplice of kosher market gunman
French police are on the hunt for Hayat Boumeddiene, 26, who is suspected of taking part in the siege on the kosher grocery store in Paris. She is said to have escaped in the confusion as hostages ran out following the police assault on the store.
She is suspected of being involved in the killing of a policewoman in Montrouge on Thursday.
Anti-Semitism is at core of Islamic extremism, says ADL
The Anti-Defamation League’s Abraham H. Foxman issues a statement on the ideology behind the terrorism in France:
“The attacks on Charlie Hebdo and on a kosher store are linked by the perpetrators’ ideology, not just their acquaintance. Islamic extremism is a common enemy of Jews and democratic states. That message needs to be heard and internalized by governments and mainstream society.
“Anti-Semitism is at the core of Islamic extremist ideology, interwoven with its hatred of basic democratic freedoms, and continues to motivate adherents around the world. The packaging of anti-Semitic narratives has radicalized followers and influenced numerous international and domestic extremists with tragic results.”
Foxman adds: “The tragic loss of so many innocent lives in the past three days in Paris must lead to a more effective and comprehensive strategy by all democratic leaders to counter Islamic extremism. This strategy must ensure that heinous acts of terrorism will not succeed in curtailing the exercise of such basic democratic freedoms to proudly and openly practice one’s religion or express one’s opinions.”
WarSclerotic 
January 9, 2015 at 8:45 PM
Reblogged this on A Conservative Christian Man.