Weirdly, watching videos of the riots in Paris following a soccer game gave me a peculiar sense of optimism about the manic antisemitism sweeping the world right now. That’s because I was in Paris in 1982, during another outburst of antisemitism (although not such a fiery one).

As always with my posts, a little background is helpful, and this background starts in Lebanon, after WWII, when the occupying French withdrew. Beirut, as perfectly situated on the Mediterranean as it had been since Phoenician times, quickly became a profitable trading hub.

There was a dangerous moment in 1958 when Muslims tried to overthrow the elected Christian government, a situation saved only when Eisenhower sent in the Marines. However, as a general matter, during the 1960s, Beirut was a wealthy and peaceful banking and tourist hub, often called the Riviera of the Middle East.

Unfortunately for the Lebanese who were living the good life, there was a constant influx into Lebanon of Muslim Arabs who refused to live in Israel. More than 100,000 fled there in 1948, and many thousands more came after 1967. The 1067 invasion brought in militants affiliated with Yassir Arafat’s (and the Soviet Union’s) “Palestine Liberation Organization.” They took over Southern Lebanon, using it as a base from which to attack Israel and destabilize the Lebanese government.

Israeli troops in southern Lebanon in 1982. IDF content; free to use.

Eventually, the Muslims in Lebanon’s south were able to trigger a civil war that threw the prosperous Mediterranean country into bloody and impoverished chaos. Through it all, though, the PLO never lost its primary focus, which was the end of the Jewish state and the genocide of the Israeli people.

It was this last that saw Israel, in June 1982, invade southern Lebanon with the declared intention of clearing out the PLO to free northern Israel from non-stop attacks. (I’d actually been in northern Israel in 1980, and missed by two days being at the heart of a missile strike out of Lebanon.)

In the summer of 1982, while Israel was still fighting in Lebanon, I traveled to Paris. The antisemitism was over the top. You didn’t need to speak French to understand the graffiti, all of which was hostile to the “juifs” (Jews). People—not just Muslims but everyday Parisians—were wearing keffiyehs, and there were posters of the PLO’s flag all over the place. It was very unpleasant.

If I remember correctly, the world generally disapproved of Israel invading the sovereign nation of Lebanon, never mind that Lebanon had ceded its southern territory to the PLO, which had created a mini-kingdom dedicated to Israel’s destruction. Even then, before today’s aggressive leftism became ascendant in the West and Muslims poured into Europe, the nascent hostility was there.

I still remember watching ABC News with my parents that summer (hosted by the always-subtly-hostile-to-Israel Peter Jennings), and seeing an interview with an Israeli soldier. He explained (and it made sense to me) that when there’s a cancer, you must cut it out before it kills the host body, and that this is true even though the surgery causes localized harm. The PLO in Lebanon, he said, was a cancer and Israel’s incursion was the necessary surgical excision.

Once Israel completed its mission and withdrew, staying out of the headlines, the aggressive antisemitism in the West ended, too. The Jew hatred remained, but the heat was temporarily gone.

(As for the PLO, it continued its fight in Lebanon, including killing 241 Marines at the barracks in Beirut, but was eventually routed, leading to another interval of peace and prosperity in Lebanon before Hezbollah moved in.)

So, 43 years ago, Israel incurred the world’s wrath for daring to clear out the genocidal maniacs north of its border, and then, once it achieved its goal, Israel had a respite from the spotlight, especially because the same genocidal maniacs turned their weapons on the rest of the world.

Fast forward to Paris today. The Union of European Football Associations Champions League had its final game, and Paris won. The team’s supporters stoked themselves for victory by celebrating...not Paris, but Gaza and Hamas, even as they demonized Israel with the genocide canard:

Paris Saint-Germain football fans at the Champions League final showed their solidarity with Palestine and called for an end to the Israeli genocide in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/e09LAXt7ml

— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) May 31, 2025

On the biggest stage on the biggest night the Champions League the winners PSG stand with Palestine, there message:

“STOP THE GENOCIDE IN GAZA” ???????? ???????? ????

pic.twitter.com/l40W1anf8W

— JonnyUtd (@Fx1Jonny) May 31, 2025

As always, following a sports victory, fans took to the streets. However, this was different from the usual “We won” celebration. Instead, it quickly morphed into an “Israel must die” rampage, with “migrants” (i.e., Muslims) burning and looting, eventually killing two and leaving 192 injured:

NOW - 2 people are dead, 192 injured and 559 arrested in Paris as migrants riot and loot after PSG wins UEFA Champions league. pic.twitter.com/4lZbBbjC8Z

— Boarding School Bully Press (@BullyPress) June 1, 2025

???? Chaos in Paris after PSG’s 5–0 Champions League victory in Munich
-559 arrested (491 in Paris)
-264 cars torched
-692 fires reported
-22 police & 7 firefighters injured
-2 dead (stabbing & scooter crash)
-Emergency lines overwhelmed

Celebration turned riot ????????#PSGINT #Paris pic.twitter.com/wjcUymftiV

— GlobeUpdate (@Globupdate) June 1, 2025

Islamists and "Free Palestine" movement destroyed Paris.pic.twitter.com/WCIiIi4Em7

— Vivid.???????? (@VividProwess) June 1, 2025

And while I don’t know if this really is the official Israel position or just words from a wise wag, it’s a perfect response to France’s abasement before Gaza, hostility to Israel, and appeasement of the violent, anti-Western Muslims in its midst:

Israel’s response to the Paris riots:
France cannot expect peace while denying independence and a state to its Muslim citizens.
It’s time for a two-state solution: one French, one Muslim. pic.twitter.com/wZO2D0by5i

— daniel ????✌️ (@LionsOfZion_ORG) May 31, 2025

In fact, Gaza will soon be free of war, because it’s losing so badly. It can surrender through a ceasefire or just lose. (And do remember that Gaza always held the keys to the war’s end: Release all the hostages, living and dead, and stop firing rockets into Israel. It refused to do so, for Hamas preferred the PR benefit of dead Gazans.)

I predict that once Gaza is brought to heel, Israel, having achieved its military aims, will once again retreat to being a side issue, still despised, but no longer front and center in the public’s mind. As for Europe and the Ivy Leagues, they’ll still have to reckon with the Pandora’s box they opened when they gave free rein to the toxic combination of leftism and Islamism. Whether they can fight back remains to be seen.