In November, after the Islamic State attack in Paris, the U.S. secretary of state distinguished it from the attack the previous January on the magazine Charlie Hebdo. The more recent one, he said, was “absolutely indiscriminate,” while the older one at least had a “rationale.” He pointedly omitted any reference to the murderous jihadist assault, two days after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, on the kosher supermarket in Paris. And now, writes Elliott Abrams, Kerry has done it again, with an official statement on the anniversary of the earlier attacks that mentions the targeting of journalists and cartoonists but says nothing about the targeting of Jews:

Kerry’s magic here: he made the Jews disappear. Once again he refers only to Charlie Hebdo and “journalists around the world.”

But on January 9, one year ago, four hostages at the kosher grocery were killed. They had been shopping before the Sabbath began, on a Friday afternoon.

It should not be too much for our secretary of state to take notice of them, too: people who became victims because they were Jews. The Paris attacks in January 2015 were not attacks against journalists and others; they were attacks on journalists and on Jews who were killed because they were Jews. That Kerry continues to make them disappear is disgraceful.

The former Israeli chief justice Aharon Barak recently warned that the country could be headed toward civil war due to Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to fire the head of the Shin Bet, and the opposition thereto. To Amichai Attali, such comments are both “out of touch with reality” and irresponsible—as are those of Barak’s political opponents:

Yes, there is tension and stress, but there is also the unique Israeli sense of solidarity. Who exactly would fight in this so-called civil war? Try finding a single battalion or military unit willing to go out and kill their own brothers and sisters—you won’t. They don’t exist. About 7 percent of the population represents the extremes of the political spectrum, making the most noise. But if we don’t come to our senses, that number might grow.

And what about you, leader of [the leftwing party] The Democrats and former deputy IDF chief, Yair Golan? You wrote that the soldiers fighting Hamas in Gaza are pawns in Netanyahu’s political survival game. Really? Is that what the tens of thousands of soldiers on the front lines need to hear? Or their mothers back home? Do you honestly believe Netanyahu would sacrifice hostages just to stay in power? Is that what the families of those hostages need right now?

Israeli democracy will not collapse if Netanyahu fires the head of the Shin Bet—so long as it’s done legally. Nor will it fall because demonstrators fill the streets to protest. They are not destroying democracy, nor are they terrorists working for Hamas.