Israel is sending information to the French government, which is discussing an initiative to prevent foreign financing of bodies that harm the security of French citizens.
The discussion came in the wake of the attack last week by two Da’esh terrorists on a church in Normandy. The terrorists slaughtered an 84-year-old Catholic priest on the altar of his own church as he was celebrating Mass, forcing a fellow priest to video the ordeal.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, meanwhile wrote in a lengthy article in the Journal du Dimanche (the Sunday Journal), that France has throughout its history and geography maintained “very strong” ties with Islam, the “second-largest” religion in the country.
“Millions of French Muslims live here without necessarily identifying themselves as an Arab-Muslim culture,” he noted, adding that because of this specific French connection, plus the country’s centuries-old connection to Christianity and its long Jewish presence that it has been targed by Da’esh (ISIS) terrorists.
“A terrible poison is spreading,” he warned. “Many Muslims in France are taken hostage by the fundamentalism Salafism, the Muslim Brotherhood who use their worship as a banner, a weapon against others.”
“We were all shocked by the vicious terrorist attack in France last week. I have heard about a French government discussion on preventing the foreign financing of bodies that harm the security of French citizens,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in opening remarks at the start of the Israeli cabinet meeting Sunday.
“This sounds familiar to us. We are also disturbed by such donations to organizations that deny the State of Israel’s right to exist,” he said.
Some two dozen leftist organizations in Israel have been found to receive more than half of their funding from foreign governments. All of them have actively worked to either tear down the government or to incite the population against government policies.
“I have requested a preliminary inquiry,” Netanyahu said. “In this inquiry we found support from European countries — including France — for several organizations that engage in incitement, call for a boycott of Israel and do not recognize the State of Israel’s right to exist,” he said. (ed: italics added for emphasis)
“We will complete the inquiry and submit the findings to the French government. We will discuss this with them because terror is terror everywhere and incitement is incitement which, apparently, encompasses the world, governments must be as united as possible in dealing with them.”