Notes from a French anti-Semitic heartland
By Daniel Ben Simon
"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, he is proud to call himself a French citizen. He has tried to downplay his Jewish identity, despite his conspicuously Jewish name, and when sent to cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he took pains to remain objective.
Yet for L., signs of resurgent anti-Semitism in France which became manifest after the eruption of the intifada in autumn 2000 have led to many changes. While Israelis have endured terror attacks, Jews in France have suffered periodic slurs and assaults, and have been singled out as bearing some sort of responsibility for Israel's policies in the territories. For the first time in his life, L. was compelled to take sides.
In the television station's editing room he heard media professionals casting blame on Israel. This troubled him, but he decided to keep mum, worried that any display of disagreement would be taken as proof of his bias as a Jew. Occasionally he discerned anti-Jewish sentiments in staff meetings held at his station and fear of being singled out as a Jews forced him to keep silent.
Throughout his life he had run away from his Jewish identity and now the Israeli-Palestinian dispute had backed him into a corner with nowhere to turn. His maneuvering room as a Frenchmen was suddenly constrained. In the past, nobody had bothered to ask him about his identity and religion, but in recent years Jews and Muslims in France have had to take sides, choosing one party in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or the another. Jews who tried to assimilate as French citizens find that they cannot avoid making a choice.
L., who worked as a "French correspondent from France 2," is now identified as a Jew. He has colleagues who think twice before sharing their views with him on political events.
"You might have returned Jews to the ghetto," L. told his Israeli visitors, "but you better forget about their immigrating to Israel. We know that Israel is the worst possible place for the Jews."
A woman with a solid place in the French-Jewish media sphere phoned friends in Israel this week to share some of her fears. She has had a tough time during the past two weeks. Last week, the emotionally disturbed wannabe anti-Semitism victim, identified as Marie Leblanc, dominated public discourse in France. Revelation that the story of the commuter train attack against her was fabricated astonished the French public, and undermined the self-confidence of the nation's Jews.
Once the outcry about the Marie Leblanc incident died down, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon caused a ruckus by declaring that French Jews ought to move to Israel immediately to avoid anti-Semitism.
"Have you lost your minds," the woman asked her Israeli friends. "Jews of France can decide on their own whether they want to immigrate to Israel. Were you to be acquainted with the climate which grips France, you'd understand our anger. We know that there is anti-Semitism in France - we can feel it. But we believe that the solution to the problem rests with the French government and only it can cope with the problem - not a foreign prime minister."
The woman continued: "Moreover, why does Sharon have the right to talk with American Jews about French Jews? We were very insulted that he spoke about us with others. If he has something to tell us, he should meet with French Jews and discuss matters with them.
"Jews with whom I'm acquainted are very worried," continued the woman. "It's not because Sharon noted that there's anti-Semitism in France. The problem is the vulgar way in which he made his point. It was such an indelicate way of discussing a sensitive issue. You Israelis must learn to speak in a more refined fashion."
French President Jacques Chirac spoke to the French on Bastille Day, July 14th. As is the custom, he appeared in the French media, and reviewed current events and problems. One slip of the tongue in these appearances hinted that something is amiss in the Republic. Asked about anti-Semitism, Chirac denounced the phenomenon, and underscored the danger it poses "to Jewish persons of our country and to Frenchmen."
Nobody in France has battled ethnic profiling in the country more than Chirac. Yet, with this slip of the tongue, he fell into the same trap that has ensnared fellow Frenchmen in recent years.
For many, Chirac's slip of the tongue recalled an infamous remark made by then Prime Minister Raymond Barre, after a bomb attack killed persons in the vicinity of Jo Goldenberg's kosher restaurant in Paris. "Some Jews were hurt," Barre told reporters, "and some innocent citizens" - as though Jews were to blame for being killed at a Jewish restaurant.
Barre, of course, apologized, but his remark reflected the French disinclination to fully absorb "foreigners."
There are Jews who live in France, and there are Frenchmen.
There are Jews, and there are "innocent persons."
And this Jewish Frenchwoman wants to rely on the French government for a "solution."
She is about as rational as white Rhodesians hoping for justice from Mugabe. Perhaps she is in denial about the last "solution" the French government arranged for the Jews.
How sad.
