Thursday, January 15, 2015
01/15 Links Pt1: French PM Issues Blistering Denunciation of Antisemitism
From Ian:
‘We Haven’t Shown Enough Outrage:’ French PM Issues Blistering Denunciation of Antisemitism
It was an electrifying moment: in a voice crackling with anger and pain, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls denounced the rise of antisemitism in France before the country’s National Assembly yesterday, pointedly observing, “We haven’t shown enough outrage.”
Valls was speaking following the funerals of seven of the victims of last week’s Islamist terrorist attacks in France, in which a total of 17 people, including four Jews trapped in Friday’s siege at the HyperCacher market in eastern Paris, were murdered in cold blood.
Though his speech covered a wide range of issues, and included an emotional plea to recognize that France is “at war with jihadism and terrorism…not against Islam and Muslims,” Valls was determined to highlight the threat posed by antisemitism, declaring: “I say to the people in general who perhaps have not reacted sufficiently up to now, and to our Jewish compatriots, that this time [antisemitism] cannot be accepted.”
The address brought to mind the impassioned “J’Accuse” letter, penned by the great French writer Emile Zola in 1898, in response to the antisemitism displayed by the French government during the infamous trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish military officer who was convicted and publicly humiliated on fabricated charges of treason. In that letter, Zola spoke with disgust “of the hunting for the ‘dirty Jews,’ which dishonors our time.”
When Valls asked with anger, “How can we accept that cries of ‘death to the Jews’ can be heard on the streets?” the echoes of Zola’s words were unmistakable.
In his speech, Valls was explicit that the “first question that has to be dealt with clearly is the struggle against antisemitism.” (h/t Guest)
France envoy to JPost: Jewish crisis has 'nothing to do with Israel and the Palestinians'
In a modern synagogue in the capitol on Tuesday, alongside members of Congress, Obama administration officials and hundreds of deeply troubled Jewish Americans, France's ambassador to the United States apologized for his country's conduct last week.
"We failed," Ambassador Gérard Araud told the audience. "We have not done enough. It's obvious."
Araud, once France's envoy to Israel, said he was "ashamed" at the prospect of his Jewish compatriots fleeing France out of fear, after the latest anti-Semitic attack in his homeland on Friday claimed the lives of four Jewish shoppers at a kosher supermarket.
"We have to consider that we are at war," he said, warning that the very soul of France is at stake. "The first line of democracy is the journalists and the Jews."
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday night, Araud expanded on the dimensions and targets of that war.
France's challenge, he said, is delineating between criticism of the Israeli government and a growing, radical opposition to the existence of Israel as a vehicle for hatred against the Jewish people.
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/0115-links-pt1-french-pm-issues.html#.VLk7n-l0ywV
