An anti-terrorism rally in Paris drew more than a million people and world leaders from Israel to England to Germany on Sunday — but not one major US official.
“Paris is the capital of the world today,” French President François Hollande declared as even the Israeli prime minister and Palestinian president joined a chain of leaders linking arms in a historic display of unity at the head of the march.
Meanwhile, President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry were nowhere to be seen.
US Attorney General Eric Holder was scheduled to attend the rally, but even he was a no-show — despite having been in Paris in the morning long enough to tape a slew of TV talk shows.
The US ambassador to France, Jane Hartley, appointed by Obama in June, was the sole official representative for America.
The Obama administration’s solidarity snub came amid several revelations regarding the France terror attacks, including:
- A hostage in Friday’s kosher-grocery siege was killed trying to disarm terrorist Amedy Coulibaly, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said, citing a phone call with a “recovering” hostage, Celine Shreki. “She told me about the terrorist’s inconceivable cruelty and of the heroism of the young Jewish man who attempted to seize his weapon and shoot him. He was shot by the terrorist and died about 45 minutes later,” Netanyahu posted on Facebook. Reports have identified store worker Yohan Cohen, 22, as the victim who struggled with Coulibaly.
- The brothers behind Wednesday’s deadly attack on lampoon magazine Charlie Hebdo’s Paris offices received weapons training in Yemen and met with al Qaeda’s top leader there, Reuters said. Cherif and Said Kouachi, whose rampage left 12 people dead, spent two weeks in Yemen in 2011 and huddled with al Qaeda preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, a recruiter and bomb plotter killed in a suspected US drone strike in 2011.
- Video surfaced showing Coulibaly speaking in between the attacks, and French prosecutors say they have now linked him to yet another shooting — that of a 32-year-old male jogger on the outskirts of Paris hours after the Charlie Hebdo massacre. The runner was critically wounded. Coulibaly was killed by authorities in a standoff, as were the Kouachi brothers.
- Netanyahu urged Jews in France and across Europe to move to Israel to escape growing anti-Semitism, saying a “team of ministers” would meet this week to boost the plan.
“All Jews who want to immigrate to Israel will be welcomed here warmly and with open arms. We will help you in your absorption here in our state that is also your state,” he wrote on Facebook.
In the Paris rally, Netanyahu stood four world leaders away from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a front line of marchers that included British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
The crowd observed a minute’s silence before the march began.
It was unclear why neither Obama nor his top aides attended. He had nothing on his public schedule. Biden’s public schedule, too, was blank.
The White House declined to comment, but an administration source told CNN, “Security requirements for both the president and VP can be distracting . . . This event is not about us.”
A State Department official said Kerry had committed long ago to speak at India Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s entrepreneurship and innovation summit in India.
Early Monday, Kerry was apparently finished with the Indian summit and said he will travel to Paris this week for talks on countering extremist violence.
About 2,000 French police officers and 1,350 soldiers were deployed to protect the Paris rally.
The march was split into two routes for security purposes. Both began at the Place de la République and finished at the Place de la Nation.
Marchers waved French flags, cheered and sang the national anthem. One group held a large model pencil with the words “Not Afraid” on the side.
Solidarity marches were also held in cities including London, Madrid, Cairo, Sydney and Tokyo.
With Post Wire Services