Lay off France, Chirac tells Israeli PM Sharon

PARIS, May 11 (Reuters) - French President Jacques Chirac warned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Saturday of repercussions if Israel continued what Chirac called an "anti-French campaign" maligning France as anti-Semitic.

"The president objected strongly to the anti-French campaign currently being waged in Israel in an attempt to present France as an anti-Semitic country," spokeswoman Catherine Colonna said after Chirac telephoned Sharon.

"This campaign is unacceptable and cannot continue without repercussions," Chirac told Sharon, according to Colonna.

Chirac, re-elected in a landslide victory over extreme-right National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen last Sunday, phoned both Sharon and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Saturday.

He told Sharon that an anti-French campaign was being waged in Israel "at a time when the French people have massively demonstrated their rejection of racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism", Colonna said.

France, home to a 600,000-strong Jewish community which is the largest in Europe, as well as around five million people of North African Arab origin, has had tense relations with Israel, which regards France as pro-Arab.

Relations between the two countries were strained further by France's growing criticisms of the policies of Sharon, who in turn was reported to have talked in recent months of "a dangerous wave of anti-Semitism" in France.

Last month, French Jews were subjected to vandalism at a Jewish cemeteries, arson attacks at synagogues and other institutions, and beatings, following Israel's military offensive in the West Bank.

For some reason because the Algerians are French citizens, I still can't feel that France is anti-Semetic as a country.

My mother has lived there for years, and I lived there as a little kid. The Algerian problem has been terrible for years. I know it's very unfashionable to say there are any differences between people, but they really do seem to think and operate differently than the European French. The European French have been very unhappy from Day 1 of the Algerians settling in France. After 40 years, they still haven't mixed, and their culture is distinct still from that of the French. They still are very religious Muslims, whereas the French are very Catholic, although these days they are not as religious as they used to be. But when it comes to relationships, food, music, psychology, everything, they live totally differently than the French.

My mother feels terrible about what is happening to the Jews because she feels they are wonderful citizens and wonderful people; Jewish people just don't go around beating up people and killing for fun as the Arabs there do. They are good people and are much more French than the Arabs. So, since the regular French and the Arab French are so very different, it just doesn't seem logical to me to call France anti-Semitic, especially when the Arabs there hate the French and the Jews equally!! And us too, I'm sure.

Thanks, DB, for your informative reply.

I certainly see the distinction, and I understand the distance between those who are citizens and those who are truly French.

Still, French citizens are a French responsibility and one I think Chirac must accept. Just as we must face the same responsibility for those of our citizens who use racism and religion as the basis of their hate and cruelty.

I appreciate the discussion very much and I've learned from it.

Take care, with best wishes…

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