By Ira Sharkansky
JERUSALEM — The most recent attack on Nice may go down as the French version of 9-11.
But it ain’t so simple.
And it’s competing with Turkey, Orlando, Dallas, and Baton Rouge for top billing on world worries.
The killer of Nice seems to have been operating on his own, against a background of personal distress. He was a Muslim, perhaps affected by the fanatics, but not associated with an organization.
Yet the Islamic State is claiming credit for the attack.
So France, with some 5 million Muslims, must worry about deranged individuals as well as what may be accomplished by attacking the Islamic State and other militias in the Middle East.
A 17 year old Muslim was killed by police in Germany after attacking train passengers with an ax.
The French extended the emergency provisions put into effect in response to previous attacks, and have called up some reserves. Officials are pondering what else.
France and other European countries, the United States and Israel are stuck with substantial Muslim populations.
They won’t go away. They will not be subject to draconian measures of separation and excessive supervision.
Some would argue about the meaning of excessive.
For many politicians, including the man working in the Oval Office, any connection with Islam must be dealt with with the utmost delicacy, perhaps silence until one is absolutely certain of motives that cannot be made certain.
Americans willing to see such things may see parallels between the problems associated with European Muslims, American Muslims and African Americans.
It’s hard to discuss such things while maintaining the norms of political correctness.
Most of those populations are decent, hard working and anxious to get on with their lives.
However, substantial numbers have not been integrated into prevailing norms.
The histories and present conditions are different. Troublesome Muslims are most prominently those who are religious fanatics, inclined to violence to advance their visions of what should be.
Most troublesome African Americans are neither religious nor fanatics, but more simply outside the mainstream with respect to their education and norms. They present a sad picture of what is arguably left over from slavery and the failures of Reconstruction and Civil Rights. The indices are high poverty, low or virtually non-existent education, and a high level of criminality and suffering from criminals. Much of American violence is Black on Black.
A host of social programs since the 1960s have not reached them. Some individuals have done well, then slipped back into the morass of what is labeled the underclass.
The African Americans who killed police in Dallas and Baton Rouge suggest something new and potentially dangerous: intense anger, focused on a key institution of society, along with a high incidence of African Americans with military training.
At least in one case there may be a connection with Black Muslims, a movement whose individuals may match the fanaticism of other Muslims, even if they are not fully welcome under the theological tent, if there is such a thing, of the Islamic establishment.
The French are not likely to get any closer to dealing with who knows how many incensed Muslims among a population of five million than the Americans are with respect to many more millions of African Americans.
There are politicians who not only profit from occasional reminders of the downside, but do what they can to incite those who might follow them.
The list includes Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders, and Donald Trump.
Coping is the name of the game, as it is in other matters that qualify as insoluble.
Be careful. Stay away from obvious trouble. And be lucky not to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Does Israel do better than the US and Europe?
Arguably, yes, but its problem is easier.
Key to what the government can do is the large majority of Jews, mostly a generation or two from the Holocaust or flight from Arab lands, with a high incidence of military experience.
Overt ethnic profiling is more apparent here than in the US or Europe. The covert kind, more often deadly, is learned and practiced by the American police, no matter what the President says.
Israel’s Prime Minister could tell the voters on the day of the most recent election that Arabs were busing their people to the polls, and that Likud supporters must get out and vote.
That produced international criticism from Jews and others, as well as from anti-Bibi Israelis. He later said that he did not mean it as racist, and apologized if he was misunderstood. But he said it, and it helped his party.
No less hypocritical are the condemnations of Israel coming from the US, European and other governments, which do less well in coping with the failures of their own societies.
The US stands out as a country that has not done well with the provision of European-level social services to lower income and poorly educated Whites as well as Blacks.
If those programs are available to Muslims in Europe, they have trouble competing with the incitement coming from radical and charismatic religious leaders.
Americans and Europeans are a long way from dealing with Islamic extremists.
Americans may have plugged the holes in airports, to the misery of travelers. But dithering as to whether Fort Hood, San Bernadino, or Orlando was Islamic suggests how far they are from mastery.
Americans and Europeans contribute their bits to the fight against the Islamic State and other nasties, but along the way add to the enmity of Muslims at home.
There is no shortage of Muslims concerned, writing, and talking against extremists, but they, too, have proved impotent.
Muslims can expect to suffer from non-Muslims as well as the crazies among the Muslims.
Likewise African Americans in the US.
It ain’t fair, or just, but it shows no signs of abating.
Anyone with a great idea is invited to respond.
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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University. He may be contacted via ira.sharkansky@sdjewishworld.com. Comments intended for publication in the space below MUST be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the United States.)
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