Stalking Jews

"There are those in Europe that are quick to condemn every building of an apartment in Jerusalem, but do not rush to condemn, or condemn with weak condemnations, the murder of Jews here or in Europe itself."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

The Daily Beast

"There was a young woman, with blood on her head. She was still holding a brochure in her hands. She appeared to be a tourist. A little further inside, there was a gentleman sprawled out. A firefighter was palpating his carotid, but I think he was dead."
Witness Alain Sobotik, Brussels, Belgium

"We are dismayed because we are in the presence of the first anti-Jewish attack in Brussels since the Second World War. It is difficult to think at this point that this wasn't an attack."
Maurice Sosnowski, president, Committee for the Coordination of Belgium Jewish Organizations

Belgian authorities wasted no time in calling the attack what it most obviously was: a racist act of anti-Semitism. Shocking, yet a reflection of the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Europe. Wait, not only Europe, but globally, where a sense of constraint, held lightly on the conscience of many, appears to have lost its restraint in the last while.

A gunman was taped on closed-circuit video striding into the Jewish Museum of Belgium. Within the entranceway, he hauled out a Kalashnikov rifle, firing at four people, then turned about and exited. Police are looking for a second suspect involved in the attack, but they have not gained any leads to the identity of the gunman.

Caught on film, but his face concealed, back to the camera. A minute, 60 seconds was all it took to kill four innocents.

Getty Images -- An emergency response worker checks the bodies of two victims

"We call on the whole population to help identify this person", appealed deputy prosectur Ine Van Wymersch, posting three videos and still photographs of the attack on the federal police website. An Israeli couple and a French woman, along with Belgian man were shot. The fourth victim died in hospital, later.

The killings were reminiscent of those carried out in Toulouse, France, in 2012, when three Jewish schoolchildren and a rabbi were shot to death outside a Jewish school, several days after three French soldiers had been shot. Shortly after the Brussels attack, two Jewish men leaving a synagogue in Paris late on Saturday were also violently attacked. One, struck with brass knuckles in his eye was left severely injured.

In Belgium and in France, security authorities have pledged to increase police presence at Jewish houses of worship and community centres.

Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo stated that his nation stands united with its 40,000-strong Jewish community. He spoke with Israel's Prime Minister "to express the deep solidarity of Belgium with the Israeli population", mourning the death of two of its citizens. Leading Mr. Netanyahu to later state that Mr. Di Rupo represented the "only European leader who called me about this matter."