Glucksmann

A sensible article by André Glucksmann in Friday's Scotsman on the subject of French anti-Semitism, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's response to it:

This 10 per cent of Frenchmen who are of Muslim heritage are not monolithically violent Islamists in solidarity with the human bombs of Hamas - far from it. The preachers and the thugs who seek to bring the intifada to France and beat up the Jews are a tiny minority among this famous 10 per cent - which is reassuring. But this tiny minority allies itself with other currents of anti-Semitism in Europe - which is worrying.

A left-wing anti-Semitism rages on French campuses (and European, and American ones) that, under the pretext of anti-Zionism, turns the Palestinian into an emblematic figure. He replaces the proletarian from the recent past as a symbol of all the oppressed on the planet, spearhead of the struggle against imperialism, capitalism, globalisation, and so on. For the funky rebels, "Arafat Out of this comes the delegitimisation of a state that lets itself be ruled by a Nazi. Israel’s right to exist is thus called into question by numerous academics, militant environmentalists, anti-globalisation activists, or more simply by the paleo-Marxists searching in vain for the next revolution.

At the same time, a traditional anti-Semitism, shameful and repressed since the days of Vichy, Petain and the collaboration with the war-time occupation, is sneakily rearing its head again - in particular within the old establishment and among French conservatives. A few slips here and there reveal that the Quai d’Orsay sees Israel as a weed planted in the heart of the "Arab world". One can recall the outburst of a French ambassador to London, Daniel Bernard, about that "shitty little country ... Why should we be in danger of World War III because of those people?" This former spokesman for Francois Mitterrand’s foreign minister was cornered by the British press, but never apologised. His comments were not considered "unacceptable", as Mr Sharon’s are today. Mr Bernard finished his career as the French ambassador to Algeria, a choice posting, and a strategic one.

Paris would shed few tears were Israel to disappear, but that’s difficult to realise because of the alliance between Washington and Jerusalem. Here, anti-Semitism, the hatred for "perfidious Albion" and anti-Americanism, appeared long before Ariel Sharon, Tony Blair or George Bush.

Sadly, the reality of the day is that these three potent ingredients - the rogue Islamists, the rising global Left and the traditional anti-Semitism of European conservatives - are mixing together in a dangerous cocktail for the Jews.

The Islamists are warmly welcomed by the good souls of the anti-globalisation movement. It’s as if the politically-correct protesters had found in the home-grown intifadists a kind of proletarian avant-garde, an ersatz of the workers that they never won over. In the same way, the gangs from the poor suburbs appreciate the judicial and media umbrella guaranteed by the bien-pensants.

Far from being a mere ripple effect of the intifada, the rise of anti-Semitism runs in parallel to the wave of anti-Americanism that has hit Europe since 9/11 and submerged it since America went into Afghanistan and Iraq. And French diplomacy is leading the anti-American crusade. Since political France nearly unanimously judges the American and Israeli leaders to be outlaws, it isn’t surprising that the imitators of the martyrs of Hamas are like fish in water in a France that recognises two great enemies: Sharon and Bush.

There’s no need to panic, Mr Sharon. The time has not come for the French of Jewish descent to pack their suitcases "as soon as possible", and escape to Israel. France is not suffering through its Kristallnacht. But it is overcome with a tide of hateful and pretentious nonsense. These things happen once in a while in a democracy. It is every reasonable citizen’s duty, whether Jewish or not, to cure on the spot, in his homeland, this mentally contagious disease.