Coverage of the Failed Bombing Attacks Continues

1. "In Ex-Convicts' Bomb Case, Steps and Missteps, on Tape"; By Michael Wilson; A1, A24
   
2. "Suspects in Terror Bombing Plot: Drug Arrests and Prison Conversions"; By Al Baker; A24
   
3. "Interfaith Understanding Wins Out, and a Plot Loses"; By Clyde Haberman; A25
   
4. "In Riverdale, New Anxieties, and a Resolve to Carry On"; By Lisa W. Foderaro; A25
   

Regrettably, unavoidably, one must note how poisonous anti Semitism has infected the black community during the last several decades and how that impacted the perpetrators of Wednesday night's failed attack. According to the accounts published, these were broken men who found vigor in the prospect of murdering Jews.

Clyde Haberman’s piece on interfaith dialogue is the cheesiest. Its equivalences are regrettable, as it gives the impression that Jews and Muslims feel equally threatened, one from the other. Threats from Muslims toward Jews are real, evidenced by attacks across the globe. Threats from Jews toward Muslims, while not non-existent, are a fraction of the former.

Placing attention on adolescents’ efforts to reach interfaith understanding indirectly exempts adults from that responsibility. Although the youth work is important and foundational, a much more important and difficult conversation needs to take place between Muslim and Jewish adults, wherein Muslim anti-Semitism is laid bare.