French Jewish Defense League activists demonstrating in Paris, 2011. (Ligue de Defense Juive)
PARIS (JTA) — With scooter helmets in hand, a man called Yohan and six buddies stroll around Paris’ 20th arrondissement. The seven look much like a typical group of French students — until they locate a group of Arab men they suspect of perpetrating an anti-Semitic attack the previous day.
Using their helmets as bludgeons, members of France’s Jewish Defense League, or LDJ, set upon the Arabs and beat them. Several of the Arabs attempt to escape in a blue sedan, but the LDJ members pursue the vehicle, causing it to crash into a stone wall.
The attack last August, filmed by a television crew shooting a documentary on LDJ, was one of at least 115 violent incidents that critics attribute to the group since its registration in France in 2001 — a year after the eruption of the second intifada in Israel and the sevenfold increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the 12 years that followed.
“Now they know the price of Jewish blood,” said Yohan, the nom de guerre of Joseph Ayache, one of LDJ’s young bosses.
An offshoot of the American Jewish Defense League, which was founded in New York by the ultranationalist Rabbi Meir Kahane in 1968 and which the FBI considers a domestic terrorist group, LDJ stages violent reprisals to anti-Semitic attacks.
The group, which numbers about 300 members, is now on a collision course with France’s Jewish establishment, which has condemned its activities and threatened a lawsuit.
French authorities have ignored calls to ban LDJ, though in Israel the Kach movement, also founded by Kahane, has been outlawed.
The French government’s apparent acquiescence may have inspired LDJ to ratchet up its deterrent potential by showcasing its activities following the murder of four Jews in Toulouse last year by a Muslim extremist.
The aftermath of an attack by French Jewish Defense League activists in 2009 on a pro-Palestinian bookstore in Paris.
LDJ traditionally had shied away from media attention. But in the weeks after the killings, which was followed by a 58 percent increase in attacks on Jews in France over the year before, LDJ for the first time allowed a television crew to tag along on a number of guerrilla operations.
In addition to the helmet assault, Ayache was filmed calling for revenge killings in posters he and his group posted around central Paris. When a police car neared, Ayache told officers that he and his friends were working on an art project. The police officers wished him a pleasant evening and drove away.
Ayache also was filmed attempting to storm a performance of the anti-Semitic comedian Dieudonne.
“Since when is it illegal to run?” a brazen Ayache told the police after they detained him.
Another sequence shows Ayache firing a pistol at a shooting range.
“We’ve noticed the Muslim community believes LDJ is some vast machine that operates with impunity and help from Mossad,” said an LDJ spokesman who goes by the alias Amnon Cohen. “It’s not true, but it’s not a bad thing if they are scared. It’ll make them think twice.”
LDJ’s growing assertiveness has further strained the group’s already tense relationship with the CRIF, the umbrella body of French Jewish communities.
In April, CRIF’s former president, Richard Prasquier, said he would sue LDJ for defamation for posting a photograph on its website depicting him with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The caption accuses Prasquier of “pardoning [a] killer.”
LDJ, meanwhile, has accused CRIF of being undemocratic, obsolete and ineffective.
“We operate outside and independently, and that creates opposition within the establishment, which is run by men and women who mean well but don’t know the painful reality of the Jewish rank and file in Paris’ suburbs and poor neighborhoods,” Cohen said.
Protesters rallying in Paris for the outlawing of the French Jewish Defense League, 2009.
“There are hundreds of French and Belgian Muslims fighting in the Syrian civil war. When they return, do you think they will be scared of a couple guards trained by the community?”
CRIF declined to comment.
Earlier this month, LDJ announced that its “soldiers” had put a young Arab in the hospital with a coma, “a rapid and effective response” to the man’s attack on Jews at Saint-Mande, just east of Paris.
The announcement drew calls to ban LDJ. As criticism mounted, LDJ retracted the statement and denied any involvement in the violence.
Cohen told JTA the person who published the “false statement” had been removed from the group and that the violence actually resulted from a drug deal gone sour. A spokesperson for the Saint-Mande municipality confirmed that account.
Still, the events at Saint-Mande resulted in a public row between LDJ and CRIF, which on June 4 blamed LDJ for the violence at Saint Mande and for subsequent calls “to take revenge against the Jews.”
Cohen said CRIF is looking for a “scapegoat” to distract from its failure to prevent attacks on Jews through outreach and education. He also denied the group engages in violence, despite ample evidence to the contrary.
Besides the television footage, a French court last week sentenced LDJ activist David Ben Aroch to six months in prison for an attack he staged with another LDJ member at a Paris bookstore owned by a pro-Palestinian activist.
Aroch’s accomplice, Jason Tibi, was sentenced to four months for the attack at Librairie Resistance that sent the two victims to the hospital for days.
It may have been a real-life demonstration of what one masked LDJ boss recently called “treatment a la Israel” during a speech at a secret training camp in France.
The filmed address was the introduction to a LDJ propaganda clip titled “Five cops for every Jew, 10 Arabs for each rabbi.”
@ Max:
Hey Max missed you, your the green chili in my life.
Europe is poisoned – Jews get out while you can. The French are a nation of bigots – the muzzards will make frog soup of them – they deserve everything that is coming to them.
Ribbet! Ribbet! The Eiffel Tower will be converted to a mosque.
Freedom Fries! Freedom Mustard!
Hitler had drawn up plans to exterminate the Poles and the French after he was finished with the Jews. Too bad we didn’t let him finish the job. Anyway now the muzzards will finish it for him.
Ribbet!
As weapons, helmets are not good enough – they need to get serious. It is a war for survival, not helmet sports.
And don’t get filmed, stupidos!
@ yamit82:
Sorry I was so “out of sorts” and not my usual sweetself. Coyotes woke me up in the middle of the night. Sounded like pups playing, yip yip yip.
Good for the French JDL but time is running out for the Jews of Europe and France’s clock is a bit ahead of the rest of the EU.
@ NormanF:
Are you Stormin Norman from JJ ofLA
yamit82 Said:
like Rahm Emanuel the ballet dancer? What happened with Lebanon and Gaza? The USA armed force are a joke,firing the General and replacing them with gays and prenant girls.
i guess Iam pissed off, not lady like
Had a talk last week with Annie Oakely about exterminating the male race,except for a few breeders of course.
@ NormanF:
@ honeybee:
Nothing rattles christians and muslims more than Jews with guns. It screws up their supremacist theologies. They have gotten used to 2000year old stereotypes they helped to create and project.
The problem is that after so long too many Jews began to believe all the negative stereotypes others placed on the Jews and began behaving like what others expected of them to behave. Jews have a long and proud warrior tradition.
The Romans created christianity as an antidote to Jewish militarism. Our Wars with Rome virtually bankrupted the Empire.
yamit82 Said:
scalp dance is after the battle!!!!!!!! I put chili in my chopped liver!!!!!!!!!!!
“When the time comes they will be taken care of just as you will be.”
“Israel has long fingers.”
honeybee Said:
But I LOVE chopped liver 😉
honeybee Said:
The Torah recorded for posterity the song of Moses and Israel as the Egyptians drowned in the Red Sea. Yes, collective punishment against the Egyptians, even the Egyptian maids and servants perished because they were happy with the oppression of the Jews.
“‘Then did Moses and the children of Israel sing,’ this is what is meant by the verse (Psalms 9): ‘The L-rd is known by the judgment He executes.’ This speaks of Egypt who G-d smote at the Red Sea.” and “‘Then did Moses and the children of Israel sing.’ This is the meaning of the verse (Psalms 93): ‘Your throne was firm from then.’ Even though You exist from time immemorial, Your throne was not made firm and You were not made known in the world until your children sang. When You stood at the sea and we sang before You with “az” (then), then were your kingdom and throne made firm.”
Don’t knock singing and dancing~~~~~ compare to Indian ceremonial dancing.
Everything in it’s Time. Kohelet – Ecclesiastes – Chapter 3
” Everything has an appointed season, and there is a time for every matter under the heaven.”
A time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot that which is planted.
A time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break and a time to build.
A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time of wailing and a time of dancing.
A time to cast stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.
A time to seek and a time to lose; a time to keep and a time to cast away.
A time to rend and a time to sew; a time to be silent and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.
CuriousAmerican Said:
Why what are these “smooth cheeked” Frenchies gonna do!!!!!!!!!!!! Their forebearers couldn’t keep the German at bay!!!!!!!!!!
Why are the French military uniforms brown?
@ yamit82:
What am I chopped liver,ignoring me. Devilon is alway gonna punch someone. CA is just a puta, no vale la pena.
M Devolin Said:
He is just baiting us; I respond for others not him. It would be an enotional and spiritual high if we could beat the shit out of him though. 😀
Judges 16:28
And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the (Palestinians ) Philistines for my two eyes.
Kahane (HY”D) was right! Avenge But One Of My Two Eyes
yamit82 Said:
So what in my experience Jew don’t back each other up.
yamit82 Said:
That’s not pissed-off, that’s singing and dancing
CuriousAmerican Said:
Don’t threaten us christian. Never confuse our stinking excuses for leaders as reflections of us peons. When the time comes they will be taken care of just as you will be.
I got news for you Islam Separately or Christendom Separately far outnumber us Jews but we do have some potent equalizers today. Get one thing straight missionary there will never be another Auschwitz, we will take you all down before that happens.
Remember christian; a Jewish Hero by the name of Samson!
His message is every bit as true today as then.
Avenge But One Of My Two Eyes
One pissed off Jew is worth a million of you worshipers of wood and stone.
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Read all comments to this video clip:
It is a White supremacist movement is probably nationalist but does not say as much in it’s manifesto probably due to the anti- nationalism of Europe and Europeans today.
Read all comments to this blog post.
Left or right they are all against the Jews.
Ted, how long will you allow this piece of shit “Curious American” to post on this site? I thought this blog was for the purpose of discussing matters regarding the Jewish people and the State of Israel. I’ve not been informed it should be a place where anti-Jewish vultures like Curious American can land and bait Jews. Read the Good Doctor’s post above. Do you not perceive the anti-Semitism in his statements?
I’d love to smash his fucking face in.
“…or it will not go well for you.”
Go f### yourself, Good Doctor.
@ M Devolin:
thanks Michael.
CuriousAmerican Said:
I doubt that you are “just curious”. Would I care if a pro nazi book store were bombed, there is no difference? Those who support the arab libels against the jews are inciters to genocide and therefore deserve any fate which a killer deserves. you might remember I said the same about rachel corrie and her family. If you support Hitler I want you dead.
CuriousAmerican Said:
first, you must stop with the anti jewish prejudice which is always indicated by your application of double standards, false analogies and pretend equalities. Second, it is difficult to overlook the continuing practices of many Christian groups which indicate their continuing support of jew killers even if not engaged in it directly themselves. Both secular and christian europe persist in supporting jew killers.
Was this guy involved in any attacks on Jews? Did he do anything, other than selling books which are pro-Palestine?
Just Curious.
Arabs may take longer to organize, but they will.
Stop with the anti-Christian prejudice; because if you do not make friends with the Christians, the Arabs will; and ultimately, they vastly outnumber Jews.
Co-ordinate with some Christian groups like Generation Identitaire or it will not go well for you.
Well done, Mr. Ross. Shabat shalom, everyone.
Doctor: Here’s Why Mohammed al-Dura Really Died
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/169402
Thank you Phoenix. My best wishes to you and yours also.
Please don’t despair: It ain’t over till the fat lady sings.
@ M Devolin:
dear michael,
i always look forward to reading your comments on this site.
the sad truth though, as far as the jdl in france and elsewhere, is, that they are met with resistance from the very ones whom they try to protect/avenge. yes, they are needed, unfortunately in every corner of the world where there is a jewish community. however, and THIS is the sad part, where they are needed most… is in israel!!!
for they are being hunted down by their own people!!! the very ‘jewish’ establishment that is shamelessly enabling the muslim and christian enemy to take over the land and state,
just finished reading a book written by barry chamish…it is absolutely chilling and mind numbing. 🙁
my best wishes to you and yours.
When will establishment Jews and “let’s just get along” Jews wake up to the fact that evil can not be appeased. There are times when evil has to be confronted and fought. And certainly this is the case in France..and elsewhere.G-d bless those brave French Jews who realize this.
Iron sharpens iron. Tit for tat. It has been my experience that a real good smack in the head is the best deterrent against anti-Jewish hatred. Left hook, right cross, swift kick to the balls before he goes down. This is the only language anti-Semitic reptiles like the Good Doctor understand. Take away the nits and you have no lice.
Kol Hakavod!
As Yamit can tell you, the cowardly French Jewish establishment is just as afraid of proud Jews as the Jewish establishment was back in the day when Meir Kahane inspired Jewish activism against anti-Semitic bullies and thugs.
Jewish blood is not cheap! The only thing Arabs understand is Jews are going to make sure they back off. All of this is pretty good work if you ask me and Jews have a right to defend their lives.
@ Andy Lewis:
Took the words right out of my mouth…
Good.