Free Republic

Political scandals are not unknown in France and are well documented, but the list of well known politicians, including former presidents and prime ministers, accused in recent years of financial misdeeds or corruption is growing. In the present French political system, the president is a powerful figure: the head of state with supreme executive authority and command of the armed forces, with the ability to choose the prime minister, regarded as a symbol of the French nation. Directly elected by universal suffrage, not by an electoral college, for a term of five years, presidents cannot be voted out of office...

French president Emmanuel Macron today launched a furious English language attack on heavily armed Israeli security guards for following him into a French church in Jerusalem. The 42-year-old head of state erupted in anger after officers broke diplomatic protocol by walking into Saint Anne's, in the city's Old Town, on Wednesday. 'Everybody knows the rules,' Macron shouted. 'I don't like what you did in front of me. Go outside!' It was an echo of a similar row his predecessor Jacques Chirac had at the church in 1996. Video playing bottom right... Click here to expand to full page When an...

Jacques René Chirac, a champion of Europe and fierce opponent of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, has died. The former two-term president was 86. Chirac spent half a century in the public eye. Before he was president of France, he was the mayor of Paris, he also served two terms as prime minister and represented his rural district in the French parliament for nearly 30 years. "My countrymen, I love France passionately and have put my whole heart, energy and force into serving her and you," Chirac said when he left office in 2007. "It has been the engagement of...

A Bush aide's blunt words New adviser pulled no punches in his magazine pieces By Peter Baker Updated: 5:39 a.m. ET June 13, 2006 WASHINGTON - Bill Clinton is a "virtuoso deceiver" and Hillary Rodham Clinton a "true chameleon" guilty of "self-serving behavior, comparative radicalism, and dubious personal morality." Al Gore is a "mad dog" known to "foam at the mouth." John McCain is given to "showboating." And Jacques Chirac, Nelson Mandela, Gerhard Schroeder and Kofi Annan are all "feckless fools." Says who? President Bush's new chief domestic policy adviser. While most White House aides carefully trim their public commentary,...

"What do you want from my life," groused L., a top journalist with France 2 Television, during a meeting with French-speaking Israelis who visited its main studio last year. The morning of the visit, the French newspaper Liberacion published a Jewish Agency prediction of large-scale immigration of French Jews to Israel. The journalist had trouble keeping his composure. His parents immigrated to France from Algeria in the early 1960s, soon after its independence. Algerian Jews who had French citizenship immigrated to France and settled without much problem. L. is a case in point. As a leading correspondent for France 2,...

Against the backdrop of continuing hate crimes against French Jewry, France's Broadcasting Authority had banned Hezbollah's Al-Manar viciously antisemitic and anti-Israel TV (see right and below) for violating French anti-incitement laws. Earlier this week, French Broadcasting Authority announced that it had reversed its ban thereby giving Al-Manar the license to continue broadcasting into France and elsewhere in Europe via French satellite television after the Beirut-based mouthpiece of the terrorist Hizbollah organization allegedly agreed not to broadcast any hate programming. The Wiesenthal Center has protested to French Broadcasting Authority President Dominique Baudis (click here to read) and we urge you now...

Many French citizens have traveled in Israel as part of their annual holiday, but this week a few hundred of them landed at Ben Gurion Airport—forever. Three flights arrived from Paris and another one made its way from Marseilles. On the aircraft were new immigrants who said they were fulfilling a dream. “I feel I’ve arrived home; making aliyah is a dream come true,” said Sabrina Kozirov, 40, who came from France with her husband and two teenage daughters. … Kozirov said, “The situation in France had become unbearable. There is a large Muslim community and harsh political criticism of...

The "New" French Anti-Semitism By Don FederFrontPageMagazine.com | August 23, 2004 Earlier this month, Jews were attacked at Auschwitz. Their assailants weren’t Arabs, Germans, Poles or members of another group historically associated with anti-Semitism, but Frenchmen – the children of liberty, equality and fraternity.The incident was part of a growing trend. Despite the protestations of President Jacques Chirac, European anti-Semitism has a French address.The Jews – students from the U.S., Israel and Poland – were touring the museum at the death camp that’s come to symbolize the horrors of the Holocaust. One of them, Tamar Schuri, had an Israeli...

About three months ago, the French Jewish (it is unfortunately important to mention her religion) singer Shirel was performing at a gala attended by, among others, France’s First Lady Mrs. Bernadette Chirac. Upon entering the stage and during her song, Shirel was welcomed by young Muslims sitting in the first rows yelling, “Dirty Jew. Death to the Jews. We’ll kill you.” If this were not disgusting enough, the loud silence of Mrs Chirac speaks volumes about the condition of French Jews today. It is not then surprising that recent Court decisions confirm this increasing trend of official hostility to Jews....

French Weekly: “Jewish Extremist” Plot to Kill Chirac 13:44 Aug 28, '03 / 30 Av 5763 (IsraelNN.com) Le Canard Enchaine', the oldest French weekly publication, famous for biting satire and for uncovering political scandal, has reported that “extremist right-wing Jewish elements from Israel and Russia” are attempting to influence French “right-wing extremist elements” to assassinate French President Jacques Chirac. These unnamed Israeli and Russian “extremists” seek to kill Chirac for his “far too pro-Arab” stance, as the weekly alleges, quoting anonymous police officers and state attorneys.

PARIS — Americans were busy electing the leader of the free world this week, but French Jews had a different foreign dignitary on their minds: Yasser Arafat. The Palestinian leader arrived in France last week, after President Jacques Chirac eagerly accepted Arafat's request for access to medical treatment. Chirac proudly framed the decision as an example of French humanitarianism, but local Jews were more cynical in their take on the situation. "This is another example of France sucking up to the Arab world," said Sonia Fellous, an expert on Hebrew manuscripts at the prestigious state-funded CNRS research center in Paris....

PARIS, Feb 15 (AFP) - The assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri was a deliberate blow to France, whose president Jacques Chirac was a personal friend and has sponsored UN moves to end the Syrian occupation, Paris-based commentators said Tuesday. While the French government refused to point a finger of blame -- adhering publicly to Chirac's call for an international investigation into the murder -- analysts and Middle East specialists were less circumspect about who they thought was behind it. "I have not the shadow of a doubt that Syria is responsible," said Antoine Basbous, president of the...

BEHIND THE HEADLINES In shadow of anti-Semitic attack, French Jews meet to discuss future By Philip Carmel PARIS, June 1 (JTA) — A little more than 100 yards from where French Jews had gathered to debate the community’s future lay the latest reminder of just how precarious that future is. Participants entering the main synagogue in Creteil, a southern Paris suburb with a large Jewish population, were greeted with news that has become all too familiar since the Palestinian intifada began in September 2000. At around 10 o’clock the previous night, a large Jewish grocery store literally a stone’s throw...

Peace, Peace, but There is No Peace by Naomi Ragen (February 14, 2003) I have been watching the news from all over the world. Millions of people demonstrating in favor of allowing Saddam Hussein more time to develop his weapons of mass destruction. And of course, CNN, in its European edition, is leading the “rah rah” anti-Americanism. Hundreds of thousands in Sydney. A million in New York City. In Rome. In Great Britain. And anyway, CNN tells us, the scars from the Twin Towers are already “ beginning to heal.” Oh, really? And I wonder, where were all of these...

French President Jacques Chirac rejected Monday Israel's request to add Hezbollah to the European Union's list of terror organizations. Chirac told Foreign Minister Shimon Peres that the Hezbollah had a political-social branch that fulfills a "social mission in Lebanon." Chirac said that it is not clear whether denouncing the organization will benefit Israel, because such a denouncement would strengthen Hezbollah and weaken the central government in Beirut. During his meeting with Peres, the president raised the "anti-France campaign" he says is being held in the United States, presenting France as an anti-Semitic country. Peres said that there has been a...

*********URGENT FROM THE AP*********** PARIS –– British Prime Minister Tony Blair fails to persuade France to join coalition ready to take quick action against Iraq.

France is to hold a top-level meeting on fighting anti-Semitism following the firebombing of a Jewish boys' school. President Jacques Chirac will meet Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and three of his top ministers on Monday before receiving Jewish leaders. Nobody was injured in the fire at the Merkaz Hatorah school in Gagny, north of Paris, early on Saturday. Attacks have been linked to Muslim youths angry about Israel's tough policies against Palestinian unrest. Highly vigilant "The French republic cannot tolerate any anti-Semitic act," Mr Chirac said in a statement. "More than anywhere else, school must be a place of tolerance...

French investigators said Monday they were skeptical about claims of responsibility for Sunday's attack on a Paris Jewish center by an unknown Islamic group. The group, Jamaat Ansar Al-Jihad, issued a claim of responsibility Sunday evening on the Islamic Web site known for militant Islamic comment. The message said the attack was "in response to racist acts by Jews in France against Islam and the Muslims and the desecration of Muslim cemeteries by Jews". "It is also meant ... as a simple response to the racist and savage acts by Jews in Muslim countries like Palestine and other Muslim and...

An Islamic internet site operating from Paris reported early Monday that a radical Muslim organization was behind the fire in the Jewish community center in Paris on Sunday, Army Radio reported. Arsonists burned a Jewish community center in eastern Paris before dawn Sunday, leaving behind graffiti with anti-Semitic messages such as "Jews get out," police said. French officials condemned the fire, while opposition leaders called on the government to take action in response to the latest anti-Semitism acts in France and not just to use verbal condemnations, Army Radio reported. No one was hurt as flames tore through the center...

To: French Consulate in Los Angeles Dear French Nation: Shalom! As a Jew, I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart. I would like to thank your President Jacques Chirac for saying that Israel needs to be convinced that peace is better than war. Never mind that peace (shalom in Hebrew) is the most common word in Jewish prayers. That it is endlessly repeated in synagogues, when greeting or taking leave, when getting up or going to bed. Never mind that shalom (peace) is mentioned 77 times in the Torah, and 275 times in the Jewish...