Posted on 04/02/2002 9:10:54 AM PST by RCW2001
France Says It Must Not Be Arab-Jewish Battleground | |
Last Updated: April 02, 2002 12:10 PM ET |
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By Rebecca Harrison PARIS (Reuters) - France must not become a battleground where Jews and Muslims re-enact the bloody Middle East violence, national leaders said Tuesday after a series of attacks on Jewish targets in the country. Unknown arsonists tried to burn down a building at a Jewish cemetery in Strasbourg Monday night, following attacks on synagogues and a Jewish butcher's shop over Easter weekend. Right-wing pro-Israeli activists clashed Tuesday with Palestinian supporters waiting at a Paris airport for militant French farmer Jose Bove, deported from Israel after visiting Arafat in his besieged office. "Showing solidarity over the Middle East conflict is one thing. But it's totally unacceptable that this leads to conflict between communities, that some blame Jews for what is happening there, and others Arab circles," Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin told RTL radio. President Jacques Chirac decried the violence after meeting a delegation of Jewish students. Police quickly stepped in to break up the fighting at Paris-Orly airport but the pro-Palestinian group continued to chant: "We are all Palestinians" and "Fascist Zionists." In Germany, a gang of seven or eight men attacked two American Jews walking on one of Berlin's smartest streets on Sunday after visiting a synagogue. In Brussels Monday, unknown assailants hurled firebombs at a synagogue. BATTLEFIELD ANNEX? The French daily Le Figaro voiced concern about rising tension between France's Jewish community -- Europe's largest -- and its four to five million Muslims, suggesting the country could become "an annex of the battleground in the Middle East." Jewish leaders in France said the attacks might signal a fresh wave of anti-Semitism reminiscent of the Nazi era. Israel's ambassador to France said young Arabs were behind recent anti-Jewish attacks that were directly linked to the worsening Middle East violence. Tuesday Israeli troops with tanks invaded more West Bank towns after a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings. "I am worried about all these acts," ambassador Elie Barnavi told LCI television. Some Jewish leaders say violence against Jews in France has shot up since the start of the Palestinian uprising against Israel 18 months ago. They accuse the French government of turning a blind eye to what they call organized terrorism. "The French government is very good at speaking out against right-wing extremism. But it has laryngitis when it comes to anti-Semitism," Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center monitoring neo-Nazi activity worldwide, told Reuters by telephone from the center in Los Angeles. The European Union's European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia said it had recorded a rise in attacks on Jewish communities in Europe, but said this followed the September 11 attacks and was unrelated to Middle East violence. In January, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior said France was "the worst western country for anti-Semitism." Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made similar comments. Saturday, the day after Israeli tanks surrounded Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, thousands joined pro-Palestinian protests across France, one of the first western nations to advocate an independent Palestinian state. (Additional reporting from Brussels and Berlin) |
Tom Schmancy responded:
Not quite true since their numbers were very few. The significant influx of jews into the US was at the turn of the last century. Later after jews gained politcal and financial power they were able to create a zionist state through their power in the US and Britain.
Economic power. As opposed to the Oil companies or companies trading with Arab countries?
Everyone has a lobby, but you only see one lobby. Interesting.
In my opinion, their power has tainted and corrupted the foreign policy that our founding fathers wanted, neutrality.
Would that be the Democrat-Republicans who wanted to intervene on the side of the Revolutionary French or the Federalists who fought a quai war with them?
Was it Jefferson who helped arm Simon Bolivar and fought the Barbary Pirates or James Monroe with the Monroe Doctrine, decalring US control over the hemisphere. Perhaps it was Madison and the Hawks who tried to conquer Canada in 1812.
The truth is that the Founding Fathers were split on foriegn policy. Also, many of those who supported neutrality did so because the US was weak and could not risk fighting the Great Powers. Today we are the Superpower.
On september 11th we paid the price for our international bias when The World Trade Center (not The American Trade Center) was attacked.
Was that the bias to prop-up Arab regimes and give them arms against Israel or the support for Israel? The Us has played both sides.
Our founding fathers warned us, and if we continue to ignore what they've said (which Bush and the internationalists are wont to do) we'll surely suffer the consequences.
Please see above about the Foudning Fathers.
Tom, are you new or just a retread?
Not all are, but a large majority are. I'm married to one of the few Republican/Libertarian ones. My sister-in-law is also Republican, but she's a Messianic Jew (Jews-for-Jesus) married to a Baptist Christian, so I'm not sure if she counts. All the rest of my in-laws are raving Democrats, though
Follow the money. The fate of the Palestinians, one way or the other, will not line anyone's pockets
But whoever replaces the House of Saud, will be in control of trillions of dollars in oil assets...
Speaking of funny, haven't the French surrendered yet?
Be Seeing You,
Chris
MUSLIMIFADA
By the way, our being a superpower will only last for so long. Have you ever heard of the term "imperial overstretch"?
True. That is one reason why I support a strong Israel checking the Arab countries. If Israel does it, the US doesn't have to.
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