When I turned to the Opinion page in yesterday morning’s Wall Street Journal and saw the heading of Bret Stephens’ article, I jumped up and slammed the table so hard, my dear husband spilled his coffee over the front of his shirt. Most mornings he doesn’t need my help to spill his coffee, but this morning I was the cause of his mishap.
“Yes!” I exclaimed. “Perfect!” Finally someone’s gotten it!”
The heading, you see, read “Packing time for France’s Jews.” And my instinct was to understand this in the most intuitively rational way possible: France’s Jews have got to start packing heat. They are being set upon by thugs, the French police are useless and the French judicial system is worse. The French liberal press sides with the attackers. The French government votes overwhelmingly to recognize a terrorist Palestinian state. Hey, sometimes it gets to where you need to take the matter of your protection into your own hands.
Of course, this is not what Bret’s article was about. Rather, it advocated yet once more what has become an almost universal “word to the wise” — GET OUT NOW!
But why should they when the answer is so much simpler.
The last ten years have seen a horrendous increase of anti-Jewish violence in Western countries, with the exception of the U.S. Upticks in Germany, Sweden, Britain, amongst others. A veritable surge in Canada. Yes, our neighbor to the north, our cultural twin, in all ways except one. Canada, like Europe, does not have a Second Amendment.
I don’t believe for one moment that the U.S. has been particularly successful where other countries have failed — in integrating its Moslem population. Visit Detroit. Listen to the bile preached by Louis Farrakhan. Talk to Jewish students on college campuses across the country.
But we do have a Second Amendment. A few years back I was walking on a street in Key West wearing a Star of David around my neck. A car full of Middle Eastern looking men (not Israelis, I don’t think) pulled up beside me and one of them threw a bottle of water at me. Today, I can walk anywhere (at least in Virginia) wearing my Star of David — provided my two 100-pound German Shepherds are walking with me. They are an overt symbol of my ability to protect myself. The fact that I might be packing heat is a powerful, if implicit, symbol that I can do so.
Jews in France should let it be known that they intend to carry a weapon for defensive purposes. Jewish communities everywhere should raise money for their legal defense when they get arrested. I believe that they will get a very sympathetic hearing from French juries. They might even start an unstoppable trend. After all, who wants to be a victim?
Which brings me back to the coffee I caused my husband to spill on himself yesterday morning. I made him another one, along with his favorite breakfast of French toast.
