There are police officers standing in front of European synagogues now. Also in front of Jewish schools. In front of Jewish restaurants.
It's barely something you notice anymore.
It's just the way it is.
The price.
In Malmö, you leave the kippah at home. In Paris, a Jewish family moves to Israel. In London, the mezuzah is removed from the doorframe. In Berlin, you avoid certain streets on certain evenings.
And apparently this has taken the political class in Western Europe by surprise.
That if you import multimillions of people in a short time, whose religious and cultural heritage has taught them to hate the Jew for a thousand years, then society generally becomes less safe to be Jewish in.
No one could really have imagined that?
That what people believe has consequences? That what they grew up with stays in them? That the strife and the hatred and the intergenerational conflicts they came from are dragged along?
They're researching that now. Writing reports about it. Holding conferences about it. As if it were a new and completely impenetrable phenomenon.
It's not new. And it's not impenetrable. It's just been forbidden to say.
We called it integration. We called it dialogue. We called it shared formation, democratic maturation, exchange of perspectives. Anything to avoid addressing it cleanly and unemotionally.
But everyone with half a brain knew perfectly well what it was.
Faith is not a private matter in cultures that don't know the concept of private matters. Religion is not decoration. It's what people raise their children by, marry by, choose friend and enemy by. It's not something you take off at the airport.
And those who said it out loud - they were called racists.
The police officers are standing there now.
The military will likely follow in the coming years.
No one could foresee it.
Except all those who tried.
Isn't it time to return to reality?
❤️🔥🪽
