The Enlightened Despot

From Mark Steyn:

Here’s another example of an odd phenomenon. A French Jew was stabbed Thursday night. That’s not the odd phenomenon, but merely par for the course in la république française these days. What’s odd is the way the Herald Tribune feels obliged to sign on to the French government’s wholly false equivalence:

Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has condemned the “revolting attack” in the suburban town of Fontenay-sous-Bois and says authorities are working to find the perpetrators.

The ministry said in a statement Friday that the attackers shouted anti-Semitic threats at the man as they stabbed him four times with a knife in the Thursday evening attack…

Alliot-Marie has said France has experienced a clear increase in anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim attacks since Israel began an assault against Hamas in Gaza on Dec. 27.

As I wrote here, would it be too much for a French reporter to ask Mme Alliot-Marie to provide a single example of an “anti-Muslim attack” since December 27th?

Now, one gets the sneaking suspicion that Steyn is asking this question because he thinks that there are no such attacks. But this is a holiday weekend, so let’s be charitable and take his question at face value: would it have been hard for the French reporter to ask for an example? Obviously not. And, for extra-credit, a follow-up question: would it have been hard for Alliot-Marie to provide such an example? Nope, not if he had 30 seconds and access to google:

Paris prosecutors have opened an investigation into allegations of violence against three youths of north African origin by suspected members of a hardline pro-Israel group, officials said Tuesday.

The violence allegedly took place Thursday outside a Paris high school where suspected members of the Jewish Defence League were handing out leaflets.

The anti-racism group MRAP wants French authorities to punish those responsible and ban the “far-right” league that is “banned in Israel itself.”

Saying that there have been racially motivated attacks on both Jews and Arabs is not an equivalence at all, so it can’t be a false equivalence. It’s a fact.