All You Need to Know About the French Riots

As is often the case, Mark Steyn nicely sums up the real source of the problems in the French riots:

For half a decade, French Arabs have been carrying on a low-level intifada against synagogues, kosher butchers, Jewish schools, etc. The concern of the political class has been to prevent the spread of these attacks to targets of more, ah, general interest. They seem to have lost that battle. Unlike America's Europhiles, France's Arab street correctly identified Chirac's opposition to the Iraq war for what it was: a sign of weakness.

At this point it looks like things are going to get worse before they get better. There are an awful lot of people who can't find jobs in the weak Socialist French economy, and with nothing better to do, the frustration may drive this thing for a long time.

UPDATE: There there's this (from Political Diary):

"We have found our thrills: playing with riot police in the evening. As long as the police come and provoke us in the evening, we'll bring out the Molotov cocktails, stones, petanque balls, planks. In the day, we sleep, go see our girlfriends, play video games. And in the evening, we have a good time: At 9 p.m., we go and fight the police" -- a 22-year-old French rioter quoted by Agence France-Presse.