Ashton's dangerous comparison

Ashton's dangerous comparison

Boaz Bismuth

This week, Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, compared the murder in Toulouse to the murder of children in Gaza. Child-killer Mohammed Merah said Wednesday during his negotiations with the police over turning himself in to the authorities that he had indeed committed the heinous crime – shot three children at close range – to avenge the deaths of children in Gaza. It is hard to believe, but just look at the similarity between the remarks made by a European foreign minister and an al-Qaida linked Jihadist.

Ashton can make excuses until she is blue in the face, saying that her words were misconstrued – she said the words. She made that unthinkable connection that only a despicable disgusting murderer could make, and did make.

True, Ashton only made a comparison while Mohammed Merah committed murder, and there is an enormous difference. But Ashton’s remarks were dangerous. Not only is she a foreign policy chief, she is also a senior representative of one of the four members of the Quartet, which strives to mediate fairly between Israel and the Palestinians.

Mohammed Merah’s neighbors voiced shock on Wednesday over his act that “linked two things that aren’t at all connected.” Richard Prasquier, the president of the umbrella organization of French Jewish groups CRIF, said on France’s TF1 evening news that he was astonished by Ashton’s outrageous and offensive comparison. Perhaps Ashton imagines Israeli soldiers infiltrating Gaza schools, chasing students and shooting them at point blank range in the head, because that, Ms. Ashton, is what happened on Monday in Toulouse.

Many in France hoped that the extreme radical Right was behind the Ozar Hatorah school shooting, and not a jihadi who interprets the Quran in his own way. But what can we do? It was a young man of Algerian descent who saw a connection between killing children in Toulouse and the goings on in Gaza.

An EU foreign policy chief who sounds like an al-Qaida operative is not such a good thing. Feel free, Ms. Ashton, to learn a lesson from this.

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=1605