A columnist in the Qatari daily Al-Sharq indicts the Russian mafia and intimates its "ties" to Israel. "It is likely that the downing of the plane in Moscow (sic) and the operation against the school in Beslan," he writes, "were part of the struggle that the Putin government is waging against the (Russia) mafia, which has ties to Israel."
We might think this is merely the work of nuts on the fringe, but it's consistent with the barrage of propaganda painting Israel as the "little Satan," acting as surrogate for the "big Satan" across the sea. Millions of Muslims echo these newspaper columnists, condemning the Beslan atrocity not because it was evil but because it is self-defeating and counterproductive, provoking the anger of the civilized.
It's certainly true that violence against Jews can hurt others. Turkey is home to 30,000 Jews, the largest community in any Muslim country. When suicide bombers trained by Al-Qaida targeted two synagogues in Istanbul, they killed six Jews - and 54 others who were Muslims, Christians and followers of other religions (or of no faith at all).
There's a rush in the media - both abroad and here at home - to separate mainstream Islam from the Islamist terrorists, but in the Middle East few Muslims bother to make such a fine distinction. "The painful truth is that the acts of violence and barbarism occurring at present are nothing but the natural consequence of generations of Muslims having been misled and force-fed speeches (filled with) hostility and hatred for others over the course of decades, which deepened the backwardness and the ignorance in the Islamic world," writes columnist Suleiman Al-Hatlan in the daily Al-Watan in Saudi Arabia - where, if we're lucky, we may be watching the beginning of a great awakening.
Jews throughout the world will celebrate their New Year this week, and the sound of the shofar becomes a clarion call to the entire world to hear the message that terrorism against Jews is terrorism against humanity. Ten Russian children, fighting for their lives in a Tel Aviv hospital ward, can testify to that.