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Anorak News | EU Foreign Minister Cathy Ashton sees bloodthirsty Jews in the Toulouse murders

EU Foreign Minister Cathy Ashton sees bloodthirsty Jews in the Toulouse murders

by | 20th, March 2012

EU Foreign Minister Cathy Ashton says the murders of four Jews – including three young children –  at a Jewish school in Toulouse is just “what is happening in Gaza”. But did she really equate the two?

Ashton chooses her examples of child murder and death. She placed them in context.

Hamas is delighted at what it perceives. YNet notes:

“Ashton’s declarations are worthy of appreciation and support due to Israel’s attempts to pressure her,” a senior member of the terror movement, Izzat al-Rishq, said on his Facebook page.

Ashton panics. The FT writes:

Almost 24 hours after the speech was given, Lady Ashton’s staff corrected the transcript of the speech on her website to show that in addition to citing Gaza among her list of sites where children have been killed, she also mentioned Sderot, the Israeli town near the Gaza Strip which has been the target of rocket attacks fired by Palestinian militias. Although EU officials removed a video of the speech from an EU website, people who watched it said Lady Ashton had indeed referred to “what is happening in Gaza and Sderot”.

What she said was:

We are gathered here because we have recognised the potential of the youth of Palestine. Against all the odds, they continue to learn, to work, to dream and aspire to a better future. And the days when we remember young people who have been killed in all sorts of terrible circumstances – the Belgian children having lost their lives in a terrible tragedy and when we think of what happened in Toulouse today, when we remember what happened in Norway a year ago, when we know what is happening in Syria, when we see what is happening in Gaza and in different parts of the world – we remember young people and children who lose their lives. Here are young people who are asking not to be leaders of the future, but to be taken seriously as leaders of today. And it is to them that we should look and to them we should listen and it is to them that I pay tribute.

So. The deliberate murder of Jews in Toulouse is the same as the situaion in Gaza and Israel? Murders are going on in Gaza? There is suffering. But murder? Is that what’s she’s saying?

Is shootings re Gaza quite different to mentioning Gaza re shootings?

The Sun has this photo of three men who they say the French police are looking for in connection with the massacre of Jewish children and the black and North African French soldiers.

The BBC adds:

Three soldiers expelled from the army in 2008 for neo-Nazi activities have now been cleared of any involvement in the shootings. The three were members of the same parachute regiment in Montauban as the soldiers killed in the attacks on 11 and 15 March.

Earlier, Mr Gueant said inquiries had taken place “regarding soldiers who were kicked out of the army and who might want to seek revenge”

The Elders of Zion write:

To begin with, while she mentions children’s lives who are lost in accidents – like the Belgian bus tragedy – she seems to place those killed in Gaza in a different category. She puts it in present tense, as if they are being murdered daily, in the same way she describes Syria; she is not framing it as kids killed because their leaders decided to pursue a policy of genocide against the Jews of the Middle East but as kids who are being targeted by…those awful bloodthirsty Israelis.

She would no doubt disagree vehemently. She probably thought that she was just talking about how tragic it is when children’s lives are lost, no matter what the circumstances. But even if you are being charitable and think that she was not referring to Gaza as a Israeli policy targeting kids, it is still a hugely offensive statement.

A bus accident is a tragedy. The deliberate murder of children, as in Norway and Toulouse, is an outrage. To compare the two is to cheapen the lives of those whose lives were lost because of hate.

Has Ashton done wrong? Her spokesman says Ashton’s words have been “grossly distorted”.



Posted: 20th, March 2012 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink