Germany: Fortress-like security measures to protect Jews are an illusion

J Posr:

“It is a sad reality that a large part of Jewish life for years has taken place behind bulletproof glass, barbed wire and security access controls,” [Berlin Jewish community spokesman Ilan] Kiesling said.

He added that the recent attacks in Paris and Copenhagen, in which Islamic terrorists killed five Jews, have created a new situation leading to “great insecurity” among community members.

Parents registering their children for Jewish kindergartens and schools “wish to be informed of the exact details of security measures,” Kiesling said. The community is working with the police and the Berlin Senate administration to “strengthen the security of our institutions,” he added.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday, “We are glad and thankful that there is Jewish life in Germany again. And we would like to continue living well together with the Jews who are in Germany today.”

In his Die Welt column titled “More protection for Jews means less dignity” on Thursday, Henryk M. Broder, a leading German expert on contemporary anti-Semitism, criticized the fortress-like security measures to protect Jews as an illusion.

“It will not become better. It will become worse. Toulouse was the prelude to Brussels and Brussels led to Paris. Copenhagen will not be the final station. The list of attacks will become longer,” wrote Broder.

In 2012, a French-Algerian Islamist killed four French Jews in Toulouse. Two years later, a French Islamic State fighter used an automatic weapon to kill four people, including two Israelis, at the Brussels Jewish museum.

Broder wrote, “What we are now experiencing is not a renaissance of Jewish life in Germany and Europe, rather the end of an experiment,” adding “Murderous anti-Semitism is not unique to Germany. It belongs now to Europe like the imported Islamism which enables anti-Semitism.” More.