Posted on 06/13/2004 10:40:48 AM PDT by UKIP
Jerusalem - The Jewish Agency is bracing itself for the immigration of tens of thousands French Jews into Israel as a result of a growing anti-Semitism in France, a spokesperson for the organisation said on Sunday.
Senior government officials including Immigration Absorption Minister Tzippi Livni, cabinet director Ilan Cohen and the president of the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency, Sallai Meridor, met last week "to work out how to come to the help of potential Jewish immigrants from France", Yaden Vatikai told AFP.
Vatikai said that a report compiled by the agency had found 30 000 out of France's 575 000-strong Jewish community were considering immigrating to Israel.
"We are multiplying our efforts to encourage in this case, particularly with an information campaign," he said.
Jews living in France say that they are victims of a growing tide of anti-Semitic crime.
French Justice Minister Dominique Perben said last week that 180 anti-Jewish acts had been recorded so far this year, including cases of assault, arson and verbal insults.
His ministry said no comparison was available with previous years because this was the first time that anti-Jewish acts were being recorded in such detail.
Vatikai said the situation for French Jews was becoming increasingly "difficult".
Thank you. I've long held the view that France has been an especially friendly country to Jews, and Jews have recognized that. And Paris even more so than France. It is disheartening to read the constant attacks on the French because of their playing host population to many Algerians who have brought over all their bad behavior.
Algerians who could never become French can hardly be the exemplars of French culture. Should France ever sink to the point that they are somehow put forth as such, it will be more a case of Jews living in a (new) hostile Arab land, than a case of French anti-semitism. If/when France goes Arab, it will be "Algeria North", not "France".
The French Vichy govt opened the doors wide for the Nazis, with virtually no resistance at all. There is a reputation of cowardice.
Fine. After Israel was formed, the Arabs kicked out over one million Jews from their lands in 1948, 70,000 went to France, mostly because of existing Separdic-Jewish centers, pushing the population up to 250,000 by 1950. As the French influence in North Africa waned, waves of French speaking Jews, subjects if the formerly French speaking French outposts there, ran to France to avoid the Muslims. After the 6 day war in Israel, another 16,000 Moroccan and Tunisian Jews ran to their Sephardic Jewish brethren. By 1968, Sephardic Jews were the majority of the Jewish population in France, immigrating largely and only because of war in their own homelands and because of the existing Sephardic Jewish community in France.
The "Flocking" of Jews to your idea of an egalitarian France is an interesting fantasy. The only reason for the rapid statistical growth of the Jewish population in France is not because Jews from any other place found it necessarily appealing, but rather it was a choice of last resort. They had the same language and similar cultural values and found shelter from conflict there. That is primarily why after those waves, we have seen no more "flocking" since the 1980's. This had nothing whatsoever to do with French Arab Jew hatred.
THEREFORE, it seems clear to me that up until the present, France has been seen as a desirable locale for Jews to relocate to
ERGO it seems to me that French Jews are planning to leave in the many thousands; almost as quickly as they came. As, there is a large Sephardic population in Israel, there are already a couple of thousand Jewish emmigre's from France to Israel in this year alone. There is a planning commission in Israel already being set up to prepare for large waves of French Jews in the next couple of years in the 10's of thousands or more.
So why are we yapping about the French as if it is their fault? We blame the French because for more the first time in less than a century, Jews are attacked and afraid for their lives in France. You say it is only the Muslims? I say that the French turn a blind eye to it for as long as they can. I say the French Judges do nothing to the perpetrators of the attacks. I say that many thousands of Jews there are leaving, planning, or have already left. I also so it because I know many expatriate French Jews personally and have the "gory details"
The Mexicans aren't attacking Jews in universities, theaters, and on the streets of Los Angeles in mobs. They aren't burning synagogues, or have Mexican clergymen teaching that Jews are the sons of pigs and monkeys in Mexican class rooms.
When they start doing that, then you can make a valid comparison. Until then, yes- I blame the French too.
I not only know well and am saddened by many of the opinions of my fellow American Jews, but I am surrounded by such opinions even in my own family. I truly believe, as do most Jewish FReepers, that liberal Jews are completely misguided and actually are straying from the spirit of the Torah.
Jewish people got mixed up in the liberal causes of the 60s (dramatic oversimplification for purposes of semi-brevity) and they unfortunately have a strong herd mentality. Unfortunately, one commandment of Judaism is to gently scold or shame people from wrongdoing, and that became a habit or personality strength of many Jews -- it gets used against Jews who stray from liberalism by the liberal Jewish "elite." Many of these Jews are "cultural" Jews and do not attempt to practice the religion, but will ostracize conservatives as though their hands were powdered with anthrax.
We Jews who try to do our best to act as G-d would want WHOLLY appreciate what Christians have done for Israel and for our lives and freedoms in America. Believe me.
I only wish that our voices were louder than the others. They are slow to come around but they are coming around. There are more and more groups of conservative or Republican Jews, and the more people break off from the foolishness of the bloc mentality, the more courage it gives to others.
It is hard to be "out of the closet" as a conservative Jew, but it is getting a lot easier! Conservative principles really do follow the Bible more than liberal ones do.
As for Israelis in France, many Israelis cannot find economic opportunities in Israel. Others feel a religious duty to revitalize Jewish communities. Finally, there are Jews fleeing the troubles in Israel.
Unfortunately, the French aren't doing much about the violence. Anecdotal evidence is even worse.
Fortunately, Netanyahu is implimenting Thatcherism.
My 2 cents...Id love to hear GWB give asylum to any Jew in all of Europe. And name countries too! I worry greatly for the Jews of Europe. The future of Europe is not good in so many aspects...time to leave.!
WoW, 30,000 French socialists or worse immigrating to Isreal, damn.. Just what they need.. A surrender monkey with a yamika is still a primate, right ?.
There are 5M Muslims in France, and there were about 500K Jews. Seems to me that, clearly, immigration of was encouraged in previous decades, for whatever policy reasons and motives. Now the numbers of Muslims have reached a critical mass, and Jews find themselves in danger. The US ought to take a lesson. At this point, a prudent French Jew would look to move to Israel.
Of course the French turn a blind eye. They are not only allergic to courage, they are allergic to work. An acquaintance returned from Dijon after five months of being a student, with the small but interesting observation--"The French can be quite pleasant when they are not at work. But they hate to work, and that's when most tourists experience the French."
I see a great many "ain't it awful" threads about European antisemitism. As most FR's are quite convinced that Euros tolerate Islamic violence against Jews, I don't quite see why the point needs to be driven home, again and again. We know. We believe. We are convinced.
The real problem is that Jews face a Euro-style president in John Kerry. He'll oppose Israel and world Jewry by attrition--slow leak, slow bleed. Yet the elite among Jewry support Kerry--I find this the case when I do research on donation.
It would really help if liberal Jewry would open their eyes to their own danger. It would help tremendously for there to be a pro-Israel and pro-Jewish leadership among the Jews (mostly liberal) themselves. Looking around FR for hints of antisemitism, like mining for gold, like poking at a sore tooth--won't help at all.
There is no such thing as a "French Arab". You can't be both French ethnicity and Arab ethnicity.
"French of Arabic descent"
There have also been other times in history where Jews felt that France would be more tolerable. Your observation is not unreasonable at all. Nor for that matter are Hermann's. Hermann's questions and observations, do seem to pop up quite a bit on threads like this. In that context, they seem to form a consistent drum beat of calculated criticism. In that context, is indeed, unreasonable.
I don't quite see why the point needs to be driven home, again and again.
I suppose that long time FReepers do get tired of repeated posting of issues that are dear to them. Sort of like "Oh, not this again". But then, given the increased popularity of Free Republic and the knowledge that what we say here, many times, is read and repeated by numerous others it may well bear repeating.
As for Kerry, yes, unfortunately many Jews support him. He very well could pose a future danger. Believe me when I say that I agree that they (liberal Jews) seem to close their eyes to it. Most Conservative Jews here at FR are active on the threads that are fighting Kerry. They want his defeat as much as any. Of course Jewish FReepers do post on issues that are near and dear to them as well. Apparently to the consternation of some.
The constant appearance of some FReepers to nay say, Jewish FReepers on posts of antisemitism is condescending and patronizing; even when trying to seem above the fray. They seem to be dishing a little dirt themselves.
No, you mean Arabs squatting in France.
>>This is like noticing Mexican anti-semitism in the US
Where did you get this? Are there lots of Mexican guys stabbing Jewish school children in LA or something? If so do you have a source?
LOL! Correction duly noted...
Perhaps, but at least in Israel they won't have to worry about their fellow countrymen.
Jews in Germany and elsewhere throughout Europe during the 1930s were well off, educated, privileged. Today, France is a breeding ground for anti-Semites, as are America's colleges and universities.
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