Fifty Years of French Intellectual Bias against Israel

IMRA ^ | 12-28-02 | An Interview with Simon Epstein

[Radix]

What have the French ever done for Israel besides L'affaire Dreyfus?"

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[wife-mom]

"French Intellectual" is an oxymoron, IMO. What a waste of words.

[Sparta]

Ah, zee French. Have they surrendered yet?

[Artois]

What's up with the neo-con bias against France?

[Artois]

Israel did not exist at the time of L'affaire Dreyfus, so France did not "do anything" vis-a-vis Israel at that time. Certainly, what was done to Dreyfus was an outrage, but then again Zola in penning "J'accuse" and the effect it had on the conscience of the French is another side of that coin

Believe it or not, there is no obligation of every nation in the world to "do something for Israel". As radical as it sounds, one could propose the astonishing idea that America is not obligated to do anything for Israel, either.

That said, France has indeed done quite a few things for Israel; for starters, in assisting Israel in the acquisition of nuclear weapons.

[Artois]

For one who is interested in the history of western civilization, that's a rather flippant attitude to one of the ancient heartlands of the West.

[Sparta]

The France of today is not the France of 150 years ago. Today's Frenchmen for the most part, due to socialism and the weakening of her Republican ideals, can't carry the water of the Frenchmen who stormed the Bastile, fought at Waterloo, or even fought at Verdun or Dien Bein Phu, who were led to their deaths due to their leader's incompetence. If today's Frenchmen were called upon to sacrifice all, like at the Battle of Camerone(sp), I don't think most would. And that is a tragedy.

BTW: I've been posting pro-French articles lately. Re: The French intervention in the Ivory Coast.

[Artois]

I would basically agree with you, although the malaise of the French probably is mirrored in many other modern Western societies...

[PoorMuttly]

Brigitte Bardot bit my sister.

[Sparta]

That unfortunately is true. Even here in America to a certain extent.

[CARepubGal]

Was she looking for cheese at the time?

[PoorMuttly]

Upset when she didn't find any. French actresses can be nasti.

[CARepubGal]

French bites can be nasti indeed.

[PoorMuttly]

Cheese-eating French actress sister moosebites, particularly so. Especially the Jerry Lewis-loving anti-semitic kind.

[CARepubGal]

Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey bites are bad ones no doubt.

[Artois]

I think Jerry Lewis-loving and anti-semetic is a contradiction in terms, since Lewis happens to be Jewish.

On another note, Bardot is hardly a cheese eating surrender monkey. She is a true daughter of France, who has been outspoken against the Islamicization of her homeland- to the extent that she has prosecuted under France's absurd thought-crime laws.

[PoorMuttly]

The worst. I didn't even want to think about it.