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        New York Stands in Solidarity with the Free Press in France

And also with the two Paris Police officers killed in the Charlie Hebdo attack

These Scenes are at the door of the French Consulate in New York

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Paris Terror Reflects Deeper Malaise

The appalling attack on the offices of a satirical magazine in Paris by Islamist militants which killed twelve, was a deliberately focused and targeted hit not only to stun and intimidate a free press but a free society as well.  In recent months France has seen a spate of attacks not only on the media, but on Christmas markets, and Jewish synagogues.  Ten journalists, among them cartoonists, and two police officers died in the fusillade which President François Hollande called a terrorist attack “of exceptional barbarity.”

Charlie Hebdo, a satirical left-wing weekly, is hardly a mainstream French publication.  The journal has used a broad brush to criticize and satirize all aspects of French society, religion and politics.  It has often published irreverent cartoons on Islam, vulgar depictions of Orthodox Jews and mocked the Catholic Church as well.   

Political cartoons still form a vital and vibrant part of the French political discourse, much more so than in the USA.

The publication courts controversy by choice. Yet the heinous attack, recalling threats against a Danish newspaper a few years ago for satirical cartoons against Islam, is in no way remotely justified.   The jihadi terrorists were the emissaries of hate.  This was not senseless violence but targeted barbarism.

Mainstream French Muslim religious groups have soundly renounced the violence.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon labeled the media massacre at Charlie Hebdo a “horrendous, unjustifiable and cold blooded crime...it was also a direct assault on a cornerstone of democracy--on the media and freedom of expression.”

Christophe Deloire of the French media watchdog Reporters without Borders stated,  “This terrorist attack marks a black day in the history of France.”

Now the gruesome staccato of violence follows a predictable tone: Horror, Outrage, Rationalization, and Forgetfulness.  In other words, the initial horror stemming from an attack spurs righteous outrage.  But before long, rationalization seeps into the mix, the soufflé rises with moral relativism, and the matter is quickly blurred.  That is until the next attack.

Over the past year there has been an uptick in violence from radical Islamic factions; some are formal groups, others are lone wolf operatives.  The common thread is an assault on a tolerant society, which while initially stunned by the action, soon falls into a pattern of rationalization as to why it actually happened.  

Syria’s civil war has served as a catalyst for some of the troubles as much as did the sanguinary conflict in Algeria in the past.  Syria has become a magnet to foreign fighters, thousands from Western Europe, who have flocked to the Middle East to fight the authoritarian Assad regime. 

The two suspect Kouachi brothers who attacked the magazine fit a predictable pattern; though born in France of Algerian origin, the brothers were involved with radical mosques, having supported fighters going to Iraq to join Al Qaida, going in and out of prison, only then to simmer in the quiet hatred and disenchantment with Western society.  

Increasingly we see the development of a religious/ideological/fantasy template for many disenfranchised European Muslim youths who are supporting or joining the “International Brigades” in the Middle East.  The fighters range from the fantasists, to the crackpots, to the deadly serious.  This fraternity of jihadis has become a cult of intolerance and death. They represent a fringe trying to hijack a religion.

Many of these radicalized Europeans who return to Western Europe are filled with the white heat of hatred not so much for flawed Middle East lands, but rather for the comfortable and secular European societies where they live.  France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the USA have seen this morbid backlash.

While the violent minority carries out such attacks, there has been a growing climate of Islamic militancy in France, reflecting political disenchantment.

Then there’s a spark.  The Gaza conflict this past summer provided the political ignition point where pro-Palestinian protests saw simmering anti-Semitism and equally anti-French sentiments spill over into the streets of Paris.  In Sarcelles, a suburb of Paris, Jewish businesses and a Synagogue were attacked to the polite aversion of the public’s attention.   

Importantly there were vigils across France and Europe in support and solidarity with the free press.  The majestic bells of Notre Dame cathedral have signaled a respectful remembrance with those who have died in this latest outrage.  

Days later, three million people, among them forty world leaders, marched in France   in support of the free press and to honor the seventeen people killed in the attacks.  

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls stated succinctly, “ We face an unprecedented terrorist threat.”   Given this grim reality we express solidarity with the Free Press and Solidarity with France.   The threat has not yet past.  

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Solidarity with the Free Press--the Fourth Estate!

Solidarity with France!

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Looking Ahead at 2015--What Will it Bring?

It’s time once again to peer into the crystal snow-globe to try to decipher and predict what we may expect ahead in 2015.  After a dangerously tumultuous past year, the dust has yet to settle on a score of crises ranging from the man made chaos of the Middle East to the medical Ebola emergency in West Africa.  

Tragically an arc of crisis spans the Middle East/South Asia while Syria and Iraq remain in the epicenter of the conflict pitting Islamic extremism against some sort of secular rule.  Syria’s civil war continues unabated with over 200,000 killed in a battle between the authoritarian Assad regime and an sectarian opposition of largely fundamentalist and jihadi groups.  

Millions of Syrians have become refugees and ten million more displaced persons in their own country.  The conflict churns on, the humanitarian toll grows, while the chances of an enduring political settlement seem slim.  

Europe has seen its share of crisis too.  Over the past year, armed conflict, not seen in the fifteen years since the end of the Balkan wars, has now returned to Ukraine. The tug of war between the central government in Kiev and a gaggle of Russian supported separatist militias has brought armed conflict to the doorstep of NATO.

The Ukraine crisis is far from over.  Significant German diplomacy to defuse the crisis has helped, but Putin has not yet blinked.  Bringing Ukraine into closer alignment with the European Union is politically prudent though putting it on the path to NATO membership is decidedly problematic.

U.S./Russian political ties have reverted to a Cold War-lite posture and American and European sanctions have done little to quell Moscow’s neo-imperial ambitions.  Yet, do we wish to follow the self- fulfilling narrative of deteriorating U.S. relations with Moscow?  

The wild card in the Russian equation is not so much Western pressures prodding Vladimir Putin as much as the downward spiral of petroleum prices which have robbed energy rich Russia of its cash-cow.  Russia faces recession.  Ironically, Putin may be stopped not by Western diplomacy, nor military posturing, but by the invisible hand of the markets.

In North America the big issue will be giving the long-awaited green light to the economically necessary Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to American Gulf ports.  Whether Obama vetoes what is expected to be Congressional approval of the

Keystone pipeline, remains uncertain.  

The geopolitical scene exhibits challenges to a dangerous power vacuum created by the Obama Administration’s political myopia and rhetorical hubris. And the world slouches ever so confidently into deeper mediocrity and the risky consequences of wider instability.