The Daily Mirror reports there were "30 Jewish shoppers" huddled in the freezer two floors below the market during the hostage siege. All were safely evacuated. The four hostages killed in the market reportedly were killed by Amedy Coulibaly when he first entered.

Was the market attack aimed at solely at Jews? At the French in general? Could it have been neither, and a sudden desperation move aimed at freeing the Kouachi brothers and any store would have sufficed? As to the theory it was chosen because it was a Kosher market, not everyone agrees.

One woman who visited the Kosher shop described its manager Michel Emsalem as a 'kind' and 'patient' man. Latifa Benjamaa, 37, said: 'He is kind, nice and polite. He is not someone who cares about religion. I often went to shop there and I'm a Muslim,' she said.

She disputes the store was chosen based on religion.

French leaders say the market attack was the product of antisemitism. The recent increase in antisemitic attacks in France is resulting in large numbers of Jews deciding to leave France. If France, rather than its Jewish population, was the target of the market attack, the distinction should be made clear. I wrote about this a few weeks ago.

Roger Cukierman, the head of CRIF, a French umbrella group for Jewish organizations, for decades has taken the position that Jews have been in France for 2,000 years and would never leave, en masse. Last weekend, at a rally, he struck a different chord when he said (to applause by the crowd):

“Jews will leave in large numbers and France will fall into the hands of either Shari’a Law or the Front National.”

There's no question antisemitism has increased in France.

France's Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve stated a few days ago that "anti-Semitic acts and threats have increased by well over 100% in the first ten months of the year." He also advanced the figure of "more than 930 cases" that have been prosecuted in the first half of the year. For its part, the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH) noted in its latest report that there has been "a decline of tolerance [for Jews] between 2012 and 2013.

In that same post, I pointed out there were two new ISIS videos featuring fighters in Lebanon speaking in French.

ISIS released two videos last week featuring fighters speaking in French (in one, the fighter threatened to execute captured Lebanese soldiers and in the other, the fighter gave a recruitment speech, railing against nationalism. It's called "A Message to You, O Believers" or in French, "Recevez Ce Message."

Last month, ISIS released a video with three french fighters burning their passports and advocating the killing of Westerners. This week, ISIS released the first issue of its magazine in French, "Dar al-Islam" (available here.)

It seems that Jihadists have a problem with all of France, not just its Jewish population. The Charlie Hebdo cartoonists were not targeted for their religion. While al Qaida has said it directed the attack on them, it has not, as of now, said it also directed the attack at the kosher market. The market attack strikes me as having more of a "lone wolf" character to it. If the market attack was not chosen for religious reasons, there's no reason for France's Jewish population to consider leaving because of it.

[Added: New information indicates Coulibaly told the media only the Hebdo attack was planned in advance with the Kouaje brothers, everything from after that, including the killing of the police woman, he did on his own. There is also information attributed to the prosecutor that Coulibaly had "cased" the Kosher market the week before and he did tell the media his intent was to target Jews. Is this based on the statement of a family member of the market owner who says he as seen at the market a week before and noticed because he looked out of place?]

On a related note, when it comes to the question of how to respond to these attacks, I have some thoughts on how not to respond. First, I think those who take to Twitter to post Islamophobic rants are part of the problem, not the solution. They are just as bad as their opponents. Plus, they sound like imbeciles. Reading them makes me want to wash out my eyes.

Second, I think it is unfortunate that Western countries seem to get blinded by emotion whenever these horrific attacks happen. Instead of thinking calmly, the trend now is to ratchet up the ineffective airstrikes, threaten increased military intervention, restrict civil liberties and jail dissenters. The West still hasn't learned the most fundamental lesson of any war: Know and understand your enemy.

In treating ISIS and the other militant groups simply as terror organizations, rather than examining their beliefs, grievances, and goals, and capitalizing on cracks in their ability to get their message out and transport their recruits across the border, and in ISIS' case, examining the cracks in its ability to govern, and figuring out ways to demarginalize the economically and socially disadvantaged youth who are most susceptible to their propaganda, the West is just ensuring that these groups will continue to spread. Death by bombing or execution is not a deterrent to these groups. How many times do they have to tell us it's a privilege to die for Allah before we believe them?

No country has the ability to conduct a war that will last for generations. Another solution has to be found.

One more related topic: Was Hayat Boumeddiene, the girlfriend of the dead jihadist Amedy Coulibaly, with Coulibaly at the market? If so, how did she get past police to leave? Also, there are conflicting reports of who she had 500 contacts with the past few days. The prosecutor gave a statement yesterday, and despite every French media outlet covering it, their versions are different. Some say the prosecutor was referring to her contacts with Coulibaly and one of the Kouachi brothers; one says the reference was to her contacts with an accomplice of one of the Kouachi brothers, and another says her 500 contacts were with the wife of Chérif Kouachi. The wife of one of the Kouachi brothers is being detained. Is it Cherif's wife?

Added: Now the claim is that the prosecutor said Boumedienne was in touch with Izzana Hamyd, the wife of one of the Cherif Kouachi brother 500 times in the past year. (Interesting that TIME spells her name differently in the same article: "Boumeddiene" and "Boumeddienne.")

Paris prosecutor François Molins said that there had been regular telephone contact (over 500 calls a year) between Boumeddienne and Izzana Hamyd, Chérif’s wife.

Coulibaly started shooting when he ran into the market. Is it possible he picked the shop at random, on the spur of the moment, or in a panic, and didn't even think about what kind of a shop it was? I wouldn't be surprised. I also wonder how the Mirror knows all 30 people hiding in the freezer were Jewish. I doubt they all stopped for interviews. On the other hand, surely by now the hostages who were in the presence of Coulibaly have been debriefed by authorities. They would know if Hayat Boumeddiene was with him in the market or not. The fact that no one has definitively said she was there makes me think she was not there. Either way, considering the three men known to have been involved in the attacks are dead, if France wants more answers, it should instruct law enforcement on the importance of bringing her in alive. Another dead terror accomplice is of no value to anyone.

Added: See update at the top: Boumeddiene was not in France at all during the attacks. She had left for Turkey on Jan. 2 and is believed to now be in Syria.