The Long, Bloody Trail That Led to the Charlie Hebdo Massacre

The writing was on the wall for the grizzly massacre at the French satirical weekly, Charlie Hebdo, and the subsequent, deadly hostage-taking at a Jewish supermarket in Paris. The tragedy now unfolding is heartbreaking for anyone who still believes that Europe is an open society protecting everyone's human rights. Its roots run deep though and should not shock anyone. The scene, after all, was already set by Europe's complacency and denial of the rising tide of Islamic radicalism and anti-Semitism.

In Europe, a culture of impunity — fed by prejudice and double-standards — reigns over the anti-Semitism that has accompanied the rise of radical Islam over the last few decades. Europeans who are shocked by today's attack should revisit statistics of mounting anti-Semitism since the beginning of the Second Palestinian Intifada in September 2000, when synagogues were firebombed across the Continent, and verbal abuse, violent attacks and public incitement against Jews have become commonplace again.

Europeans should remind themselves that a cartoon depicting Israel’s then-prime minister Ariel Sharon eating a child, published in The Independent on Holocaust Memorial Day, won the 2003 prize for best political cartoon in the UK. Since then, Israeli leaders have variously been depicted in Nazi uniform or as Roman Centurions crucifying Yasser Arafat, in a rehash of the Christ-killer accusation.

They should recall that it took more than three years for the French government to task the Ministry of Interior to produce a report on anti-Semitism in France. Duly published in February 2004, the report was chastised and dismissed by many intellectuals and Islamic commentators for its supposedly pro-Israel slant.

They should remind themselves that Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old French Jew, was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by Islamic radicals in Paris in January 2006. They should refresh their memories about the Hamas and Hezbollah flags brandished at anti-Israel demonstrations in Brussels in January 2009, when mainstream politicians marched alongside Islamic radicals comparing Gaza to Auschwitz.

A recent European Union court ruling delisted Hamas as a terrorist organization but European governments cannot agree to list Hezbollah’s political wing as a terrorist organization, despite the group's July 2012 attack on EU soil in Bulgaria that killed five Israelis and a Bulgarian.

They should recall that the same year, radical Islamists murdered Jewish school children in the French city of Toulouse.

It took five years for the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights to formulate a working definition of anti-Semitism because of sustained opposition from the same circles to linking the rising anti-Semitism to anti-Zionism. Under sustained assault, the EU eventually withdrew the working definition in 2013.

It is time to stop feeling and start thinking what it means that today, in January 2015, police authorities in Paris have ordered all Jewish shops shut early. It's time to consider the significance of the fact that today Paris's central synagogue will be closed on the Sabbath for the first time since World War II.

This week’s tragedies are only the latest acts in a terrible drama. Europe's liberal culture has for too long sought to downplay anti-Semitism as legitimate grievance that only occasionally goes too far, and to excuse radical Islam on grounds of socio-economic disadvantage and post-colonial guilt. Those columnists, intellectuals, academics, and leaders who changed the subject and spoke of Islamophobia so as to appease the intolerant have now reaped the whirlwind of their moral and political cowardice.

Europe has tolerated anti-Semitism in its midst for too long. It's long past due for Europeans to begin showing zero tolerance to intolerance.

Ottolenghi is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where Weinthal is a research fellow. Follow them on Twitter: @eottolenghi and @BenWeinthal.