A French political leader stirred controversy by evoking ‘’the emotion of the Jewish community’’ rather than using the words ‘’national community’’ when he spoke about the decision of France’s Supreme Court to upheld an earlier ruling that the man who killed Sarah Halimi, a  65-year-old Jewish woman, in her Paris flat in 2017, will not stand trial.

The murderer, Kobili Traore beat up the victim several times and shouted “Allahu Akbar” before throwing her body out of a third-floor window and shouting “I killed the devil”.

The court  said the man, a heavy cannabis smoker,  committed the killing after succumbing to a “delirious fit” and was thus ‘’not criminally responsible’’ for his actions.  This means there will be no trial contrary to the wish of the victim’s family.

In an interview, Julien Bayou, the national secretary of Europe Écologie Les Verts (EELV), France’s Green party,  declared: “I understand the emotion of the Jewish community, but we must keep this principle: ‘We don’t judge fools’ (…) Justice is not revenge.’’

His statement was denounced on social media.  “It is the national community that was moved by the absence of a trial for Sarah Halimi’s murderer! Let’s defend our nation as one and indivisible. This is France, a France that some people never stop dividing and fracturing,” commented Valérie Pécresse, president of the Île-de-France region.

“There is a very strong emotion among all French people,” government spokesman Gabriel Attal declared on n Europe 1 radio.

Following his controversial statement,  Bayou tried to “clarify his thoughts”. He explained that he had reacted “as a man of law” by elaborating “on the legal reasons” that led the Court of Cassation to take this decision. “But clearly, this verdict shocked us all, obviously,” he said.

“When a Jew is attacked, it is all of France that is attacked. I spoke about the Jewish community in particular because Jews in France are particularly affected by these increasingly barbaric acts,” he said.

Amid outcry over the Supreme Court’s  ruling, French President Emmanuel Macron has urged a change in the law. “Deciding to take narcotics and then ‘going mad’ should, not in my view, remove your criminal responsibility,” he told daily Le Figaro in an interview.

“I would like Justice Minister (Eric Dupond-Moretti) to present a change in the law as soon as possible”, he said. ‘’I want to assure the family, relatives of the victim and all fellow citizens of Jewish faith who were awaiting this trial of my warm support and the determination of the Republic to protect them,” he added.

Jewish groups said the ruling  has made Jews less safe in France. Lawyers for Halimi’s family said they intend to refer the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

‘’This is a revolting, scandalous, offensive and unworthy decision,’’ said Serge Dahan, President of B’nai B’rith Europe, who called ‘’to denounce this judicial and moral defeat in the face of this antisemitic assassination.’’
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A “rally of anger for Sarah Halimi’’ to express anger over the court’s decision is scheduled to take place next Sunday at the Place du Trocadero in Paris. Rallies are also organized in several other cities in France and abroad.

​There are many definitions of the Yiddish word “chutzpah”: temerity, audacity, nerve, are chief among them.

Any of these definitions aptly fit the upcoming, and grandly-named, Paris Conference on Middle East Peace. Seventy countries will soon gather in the French capital to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and more likely than not, will propose—or perhaps will try to impose a solution to it.

Israel will not be in attendance, and for good reason.

French authorities, in introducing the idea for this conference seven months ago, said that they were “compelled to act” on the issue, which they presumptuously profess was necessary to bring the parties together. The conference spokesman says that discussions will center within three working groups, dealing with civil society, institution building and economic assistance.

This all may have been another exercise in “international conference futility,” as the Geneva peace conferences of decades past attest, had it not been for the passage of Resolution 2334 in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the speech of Secretary of State John Kerry outlining his “six principles” late last month.

Huge assemblages of diplomats from dozens of countries, some of which don’t even have relations with Israel, normally wind up letting off steam at these gatherings, and close with presumptuous declarations that either raise Palestinian expectations or frustrate Israel because they have never dealt with the rejectionism of the Palestinian camp.

But this time may be different.

Protestations coming out of Paris about not seeking to impose a settlement on the parties ring hollow. Armed with both the resolution and the Kerry declaration, the Palestinians, who will be attending the gathering, will seek to use the meeting to further isolate Israel. With friends like Sweden, which holds the presidency of the Security Council this month, mischief-making could very well be the order of the day.

The conventional wisdom is that the conference will endorse the Kerry principles, which placed the blame and onus on Israel for an absence of progress on a two-state solution, and send it on to the Swedish-chaired UNSC, for adoption. At that point, with the parameters not only enunciated by Kerry, but then backed by both the Paris Conference and the Security Council (how could the U.S. veto its own policy?), what would be left to negotiate?

It defies understanding how the French organizers, or any other parties, can still speak both of prejudging an outcome, as well as a serious return to direct negotiations.

Indeed, some Palestinian leaders rejected out of hand the Kerry parameters and called for negotiations within hours of the speech. Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee member Mustafa Barghouti dismissed three of Kerry’s points, saying that the refugee issue must still include the right of return, that the Palestinians would not recognize Israel as a Jewish state and that Kerry’s proposal for Jerusalem being the capitol of two states did not go far enough—presumably meaning that Israeli neighborhoods like Gilo and Har Homa would need to be evacuated in a final agreement.

In showing his hand, Barghouti underscores not just Palestinian rejectionism, but the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) incessant desire to wear down the international community and insist that it continue to attempt to marginalize and weaken Israel, both diplomatically and economically, until there is nothing left to talk about. Full diplomatic recognition of a Palestinian state could very well follow this conference. With that in hand, there would be no need for the PA to make any concessions. What next?  A PA invitation for Iran to send Revolutionary Guards to set up an operation in Ramallah or Hebron?

So is it any wonder that Israel has decided not to appear before this latest version of an international kangaroo court?
Where have the 70 countries joining this gathering been over the past decades, failing to strongly insist that the PA enter negotiations with Israel following offers made by a succession of Israeli governments of concessions ranging from custodianship of Islamic religious sites in Jerusalem (2000), evacuating settlements in Gaza (2005), further concessions on settlements in Judea and Samaria (2008) and most recently, a 10 month settlement freeze (2014).

The responses to these opportunities are well known: intifadas, rockets, incitement and utilizing the United Nations agencies to circumvent the very idea of a negotiated peace, at the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and now, the Security Council.

The massive amounts of time and energy the international community has wasted on these gatherings cannot be regained. Castigating Israel—and by all accounts that will be the end result of the Paris conference, notwithstanding whatever diplomatic language is used—is a non-starter. This is especially so now, when on every one of Israel’s borders there is chaos and uncertainly, ascribable not to the Palestinian issue, but to intra-Arab and intra-Islamic rivalries, mistrust and shifting ideological and strategic currents.

Security Council resolution 2334, and the Kerry speech, have already set back the notion—adhered to by many who back a two-state solution to the conflict—of directly negotiating its end.

Already, some diplomatic scholars and Middle East experts are suggesting ways to, if not rescind the resolution, then to at least mitigate its fallout.

As that unfolds, on into the new Trump administration in Washington, the PA should understand that its zero-sum strategy is also a non-starter. 

The Paris conference could send that message to the PA, but it won’t.  Those countries participating in these deliberations should do no more harm to this process.

B'nai B'rith International live tweeted U.S. President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, responding to items of particular interest to the organization's policy advocacy.

Read a recap of the tweets, below:

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Since the March 2012 attack in which Mohammed Merah killed three children and a rabbi at Jewish school in Toulouse, the threat of Islamic terrorism has not let up for Jews and the general public in France.

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B’nai B’rith International Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin told JNS.org that those outside of France and Europe should “call on leadership to really begin to address this growing menace” of Islamism.

“These threats are threats [not only to Jews but also] to the democratic fabric of post-war Europe,” and European leaders cannot go on much longer without well-organized efforts to deal with the problem, Mariaschin said.