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Posted on 05/05/2002 11:33:46 PM PDT by LarryLied
France's Jewish community, Europe's largest, welcomed the defeat of extreme right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in the presidential election on Sunday but warned that his score was worryingly high nonetheless.
''The French people have rejected the danger represented by Jean-Marie Le Pen, champion of the anti-Semitic, racist and xenophobic extreme right,'' the 600,000-strong Jewish community's main representative body, the CRIF, said in a statement.
Le Pen, who once called the Nazi gas chambers a ''detail'' of history, secured 18 percent in a runoff against Jacques Chirac, the conservative incumbent. That was marginally higher than Le Pen scored two weeks ago in a shock first-round vote.
The CRIF said Chirac's victory ''should not conceal the concern represented by the still overly large number of people who lost their way.''
Similar concerns were voiced in the United States.
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League that fights religious, ethnic and racial discrimination, said it was disturbing to see Le Pen nearing 20 percent.
''The good news is that he was defeated. The bad news, the sad news, is that one out of five French voters ignored the fact, or it didn't matter, or they liked they fact that he was a racist, a bigot, an anti-Semite,'' Foxman said.
Most French left-wing parties called on their supporters to back Chirac, like it or not, to shut Le Pen out.
Referring to French parliamentary elections taking place in June, the CRIF said there should be ''no compromise'' with extreme rightists. Le Pen's anti-immigrant National Front is expected to field a large number of candidates.
PROUD TO BE FRENCH
German-born Beate Klarsfeld, who lives in Paris with her husband Serge, a French Jewish Nazi-hunter, welcomed Sunday's vote, saying a Le Pen breakthrough would amount to a return to the days of the pro-Nazi Vichy regime of World War Two.
''Bravo for France! This vote shows the French people do not want to return to the past and do not want to be ruled by despicable people nostalgic for the Vichy regime,'' she said.
Her son Arno, a lawyer who campaigns with his parents, added: ''I am very proud to be Frenchman tonight.
''Contrary to what one hears abroad, France is not a racist country and its people have shown again that they know how to rally together when there is a danger threatening them.''
Le Pen's firebrand anti-immigrant rhetoric fuels fear among both Jews and Europe's largest Muslim population, which is mostly of North African origin.
A row broke out among French Jews last month when it emerged that some had voted for Le Pen in the first round on April 21.
Michel Zerbib, editor at Jewish radio station Radio J, said up to five percent of Jewish voters were estimated to have voted for Le Pen in the first round, most of them people living in blue collar areas with big Arab populations.
One explanation was that their vote was directed against the Muslim community of around five million, following a wave of anti-Jewish violence apparently linked to the conflict in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians.
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Well, only 20% of them do.
I fail to see how empowering the Muslim Immigrants can be a good thing for France's Jews.
How many of the current crop of anti-Jewish acts in France have been perpetrated by Le Pen supporters?
Most of what I have heard lately is mindless ranting and hysteria. Rarely does the media actually quote anything the man has said, and even more rare do they give large pieces of his speeches. Instead, his opponants resort to undemocratic means of defeating him, such as labelling him something and then refusing to debate with him. If the man is really that much of a whack job, why not let him display it to everyone by putting him in the spotlight. The answer is that I have heard he gives very good speeches and can debate well. I suppose Chirac and the media doesn't want his voice to be heard...for people's own good, of course.
Sorry, but from those things that have come directly from Le Pen, he doesn't seem entirely like a whack-job. Some of his measures seem a bit extreme to me, but many of them seem very sensible.
At any rate, the people of France have chosen. They remain, to me, a pathetic people: only in France would the electorate have to chose between an alleged fascist and a scandalous loser. As they say, people get the leadership they deserve.
Tuor
I just wish the press would quit insinuating that anti-Semitism is flourishing among the European French people, instead of pointing out up front who the true anti-Semites are, the Arabs, and oddly enough, as it appears some of the Jews as well. Another thing, the press is strangely quiet about all the attacks on non-Arabs living in France by the Arabs there. They like to portray the Arabs as victims.
Typical parochial emotionalism.
It was in America's best interest for Le Pen to get at least 30%.
That would have knocked down the Trotskyites, communists and socialists for a generation. They are the ones always running to international organizations such as the UN and attempting to infringe on our national sovereignty. And they don't operate alone, they get other internationalists to push and push and push with them.
The fewer of those types in power anywhere, the better for America.
But you don't care about that. 600,000 Jews in France were offended by Le Pen. That is more important to you than the interests of over 260,000,000 Americans.
Abe Foxman would be proud.
Btw...Le Pen's real sin in the eyes of Foxman was not his comment about the Holocaust. It was that Le Pen said Jews used communism and race (multiculturalism) to tear down Christianity and France. Only place I saw that reported was by Eric Margolis in the Toronto Sun. Every other article repeated the Holocaust "detail of history" quip he made. Wonder why that was. . .
France's empowered Muslims do not consider the Nazi Gas Chambers to be just a detail of history but rather something to be celebrated and emulated.
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