Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was blatant on Saturday about his support for France in the wake of the tragic terror attacks that took place over the weekend. There was a total of six places that ISIS terrorists bombed. Two restaurants, a well known concert hall, a bar, and a stadium where French President Hollande was in attendance of a soccer game between Germany and France. Over 150 people lost their lives with many more wounded.
Netanyahu made a public statement on Saturday in support of France: "I have been arguing for years that Islamic terror is attacking Israel and other countries because it simply wants to destroy us," and that an, "attack on any of us needs to be seen as an attack on all of us."
Netanyahu added that Israeli intelligence and security agencies had been ordered to supply France with every assistance that it needs, specifying that, "We are not exactly a marginal player in this field, and the information that we have we are sharing with France and other relevant countries, not just over the past day. It's an important part of the cooperation against the terrorism of the Islamic State and of radical Islamic terrorism in general."
The Prime Minister railed on acts of terrorism, defining them as, "a systematic and targeted assault on innocent civilians. Nothing justifies the terrorism. We always need to condemn it, always need to fight it."
It has been reported that France was warned by Senior Iraqi intelligence officials the day before the attack took place. But French officials claimed that Iraq officials were not able to provide a day or time. French officials said that they get such threats on a regular basis, and so the lack of detail prompted a dismissal of the warning. Iraq officials are denying said lack of detail.
Some of the detail that they claim to have included was that, "Paris attacks appear to have been planned in Raqqa, Syria - the Islamic State's de-facto capital - where the attackers were trained specifically for this operation and with the intention of sending them to France."
The attacks have prompted French President Francois Hollande to issue a three month state of emergency across the country. This particular decision will cover the UN climate change conference that is supposed to be taking place on November 30. The state of emergency includes a curfew in Paris.
Hollande publically stated on Friday that, "Two decisions have been made: a state of emergency will be declared, which means that some places will be closed, traffic may be halted, and searches may be conducted throughout Ile de France. The state of emergency applies throughout the country.
The second decision I have made is to close the borders. We must ensure that no one enters to commit any crimes and that those who have committed the crimes that we have unfortunately seen can also be arrested if they try to leave the country."
Though there are some who have purported that the terror attacks may have been related to an attack on the Paris climate change conference, it should be noted that the Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change specifically states that those of the Islamic religion believe that global warming, "is human-induced" and that it is also believed that the universe came about by evolutionary means over billions of years.
It didn't take long for ISIS to levy a warning that the attacks in France were only the "first storm" of many others it had in mind. They released a statement which appeared to be a warning to the world on Saturday and an effort toward some psychological warfare: "Let France and those who walk in its path know that they will remain on the top of the list of targets of the Islamic State. The smell of death will never leave their noses as long as they lead the convoy of the Crusader campaign, and dare to curse our Prophet (Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) and are proud of fighting Islam in France and striking the Muslims in the land of the Caliphate with their planes - which did not help them at all in the streets of Paris, and its rotten alleys. This attack is the first of the storm and a warning to those who wish to learn."
But even in the midst of this evil, there are some in France who have refused to let the psychological babble cause them to fear, and are also refusing to allow a root of bitterness to develop. There have been reports of taxi drivers who had turned off their meters and were providing free transportation to those who were stranded during and after the attacks, as well as after the state of emergency had shut down much of France's public transportation system. There are also people who are opening their homes to stranded individuals and providing them with a free place to sleep and free hot meals until they can return to their own homes.
