[Jpost] The flames in Paris are not just physical. They are the burning embers of decades of self-delusion.
Another night, another fire. Paris – once the city of light, love, and liberal pretensions – found itself engulfed again in the dark flames of violence. The occasion? Not some tragic provocation or political upheaval, but victory – a national triumph in the form of Paris Saint-Germain’s long-sought Champions League win.
A moment that ought to have united the nation, that ought to have been met with pride and patriotic celebration, instead saw the streets of the French capital descend into chaos.
Two dead, nearly 200 injured, and over 500 arrests as hundreds of vehicles and shops were vandalized or torched. This is what celebration now looks like in Western Europe’s major cities. This is what civic pride has become: a pretext for carnage, a football trophy transformed into a funeral procession for the remnants of order.
We know the pattern by now. The predictable ritual: The media quickly reaches for its euphemisms: “unrest,” “youths,” and “tensions.” No identities offered. No ideologies examined. Just a vague fog of explanation, as though cars spontaneously combusted in joy, and riot police were provoked by the sheer exuberance of street dancing.
LONG WAR FROM WITHIN
But beneath the smoke lies a truth we dare not name: This was not an accident of exuberance, nor the mischief of marginalized boys letting off steam. It was the latest outburst in a long war on Western civilization from within – waged not only with bricks and fire but with ideology. An ideology that sanctifies destruction, that frames grievance as virtue, and that labels any effort to restore order as “oppression.”
At the heart of this ideology is the unrelenting cult of jihadism – not just in its armed form, but in its cultural and psychological manifestations. The belief that violence is holy when directed at the West. That rage is righteous when wrapped in the banners of identity or injustice. That civilization must apologize before it can defend itself.
What was visible on the boulevards of Paris was not merely hooliganism. It was a theater of menace and a message, again and again: we do not love your country, we do not respect your traditions, and we will desecrate your symbols – even your victories – to remind you of your weakness.
The flames in Paris are not just physical. They are the burning embers of decades of self-delusion. Of leaders who refuse to admit that mass immigration without integration comes at a cost. Of intellectuals who insisted that all cultures are equal, even when some glorify martyrdom over mercy. Of a press that will bend over backwards to avoid saying what every citizen knows in their gut: that a portion of Europe’s imported population does not want to coexist but to conquer.
We are told to believe – to chant like catechisms – that Islam is peace, that jihad means struggle (as if all struggles are noble), and that the only problem lies in our own misunderstanding. We are instructed to believe this even when chants of “Allahu akbar” accompany the destruction of Jewish shops in Sarcelles or when synagogues require police protection every Shabbat in cities that once prided themselves on tolerance.
And so here we are again. A celebration turned siege. A football win drowned out by sirens. France will, no doubt, convene its usual roundtables. The interior minister will issue the perfunctory condemnations. President Emmanuel Macron may light a candle. And within a week, the names of the dead will fade – until the next “spontaneous” outburst rears its head.
But a deeper reckoning is needed. It is time to stop pretending that the threat is abstract and that extremism floats in the air like a virus. The ideology behind this violence is coherent, even if it is depraved. It is taught, shared, and incubated – in certain mosques, in certain online forums, and in homes where children are taught to hate the country that feeds them.
It is spread in lyrics, in sermons, and in whispers that Europe is weak, that the infidel will fall, and that the future belongs to those willing to burn for it. And it is enabled by our cowardice.
THE WEST'S MORAL CLARITY
The West is still home to immense strength, intelligence, and moral clarity – but it must choose to use it. It must stop apologizing for defending its own way of life. It must demand loyalty from its citizens and expel those who openly declare allegiance to enemies of the state. It must prioritize national security over ideological purity and begin to recognize that sometimes, peace comes only when evil is made to fear consequences again.
In the end, Paris is a mirror – not just for France, but for the whole of Europe – that reflects what happens when we swap vigilance for virtue signaling and borders for blind faith. It is a city that once resisted tyrants and revolutionaries, that gave the world the Enlightenment, and that stood tall against Nazi occupation.
Today, it battles a new threat: one that carries no uniform but plenty of flags, that uses smartphones instead of guns, and that wages jihad in the name of liberation while shackling the West with its own guilt.
The time for reckoning has come. If we do not confront this culture of destruction now, we will wake up one day to find there is no culture left to defend.
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