Le Pen e gli ebrei francesi ovvero:"Il nemico del mio nemico è un mio amico(o quasi)"

[Dragonball (POL)]

Da Ha'aretz:

Tuesday, April 23, 2002 Iyyar 11, 5762 Israel Time: 22:00 (GMT+3)
Le Pen's triumph: a message to Muslims to keep quiet
Roger Cukierman, president of CRIF, the Representative Council of Jewish Organizations in France, talks about the significance for Jews of the rise of Jean-Marie Le Pen
By Yair Sheleg


Even before ultra-nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen's startling success in the first round of France's presidential elections, Roger Cukierman, president of CRIF, the Representative Council of Jewish Organizations, was grudgingly willing to note an awkward fact. Though he was not exactly pleased by the situation, Cukierman believed that Jews in France and Le Pen shared a common interest. "The very fact that Le Pen is an outspoken opponent of Muslim immigration to France sends a message which helps contain the violence which has come from this immigration," the French Jewish leader says. Cukierman adds quickly: "Of course, I'm not forgetting that Le Pen is also the king of anti-Semitism, and our great enemy. At any event, since he won't be a member of the next government, this so-called `common interest' lacks meaning."
(Insomma un colpo al cerchio e uno alla botte.)
Cukierman made these comments last Tuesday, five days before the election, during a solidarity visit to Israel arranged by CRIF leaders, together with heads of France's Keren Hayesod branch. After the announcement of results from the first round of balloting in the presidential elections, which showed that Le Pen had raced past incumbent Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, Cukierman was more emphatic in his analysis about beneficial consequences of the right-wing extremist's ascent. At least in the short term, Le Pen's success can have positive impact on Jewish-Muslim relations, and anti-Semitism, the CRIF president suggested.

"Le Pen's success is a message to Muslims to keep quiet, because he is known as someone who has always been opposed to Muslim immigration," Cukierman said after the first election results were disclosed. The meaning of Le Pen's success, he added, "is that the next government will have to put great emphasis on the struggle against [all forms of] violence ... including violent anti-Semitism."

Not hatred - interests

Cukierman, 65, is a professional banker. More precisely, as chairman of the "Edmund de Rothschild" group, he is a very senior figure in the banking sphere. Perhaps because he speaks as someone who comes from a world of precise accounts, he tends to use hard-hitting, direct formulas, and shuns roundabout phrases which might characterize the discourse of a scholarly, French-Jewish intellectual.

Thus, for example, when Cukierman analyzes Europe's problematic relations with Israel, and tries to explain why they differ so strikingly from Israel-U.S. ties, he does not rely on theological references to long-standing Christian hatred of Jews. His explanation contains little of the abstract concepts which intellectuals adore. Instead, Cukierman speaks about simple interests. "Europe's inclination toward the Arab side," he explains, "derives from two simple interests. One is the current, large presence of Muslims in Europe's population. In France, for example, some 10 percent of the population is Muslim. The second is oil. America has a greater reserve of independent energy sources, and so it allows itself a wider measure of support for Israel."

"Yet at the same time," the CRIF leader adds, "there can be doubt that there is a factor of public opinion that is fashioned by the media. The media are not influenced by the Arab electorate, nor by oil tycoons. Media are based on images; and images of Palestinians - what can you do - are a lot `better' than those of Israelis. They can supply pictures of a pregnant woman being held at a checkpoint, or of held-up emergency medical teams, or of Arafat sitting by candlelight. These are pictures which Israel cannot deliver."

An important issue raised by Europe's current position on the Israel-Palestinian conflict involves the intensive treatment of the Holocaust on the continent during the last decade. Campaigns designed to restore Jewish property, or secure compensation for property confiscated during World War II, fostered a wave of articles, public discussions and official reports about the Holocaust. The question is, of course, how can this surge of interest in the Holocaust be related to the anti-Israeli position adopted by Europe. Is there an odd contradiction between these two trends?

Cukierman believes that extensive treatment of the Holocaust issue set the stage for Europe's current position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "For example," he says, "after he was elected to his first term as president in France, Jacques Chirac issued, in 1995, his historic declaration of contrition for the Vichy regime ....Then came investigative reports [on Holocaust issues] and expressions of contrition by the [Roman Catholic] Church, physicians and lawyers. In this way, the French nation came to believe that it had fulfilled its `duty' toward the Holocaust, and no longer needed to feel guilty. "

Backtracking somewhat, the CRIF leader suggests that the sheer passage of time, rather than recent discussions about the Holocaust, might be behind shifting European views of Jewish issues. He explains: "The Holocaust happened 60 years ago; and here are the Jews proving nowadays that they too act brutally; and thus the Jews are no longer in a situation wherein they can preach morality. The passage of time has apparently taken its toll; and so were it not for the campaign to restore Jewish property, Europe would stop feeling guilty and `return to normalcy.'"

Two conditions must come about, Cukierman says, before the current wave of anti-Semitism can be stopped. "If an end comes to the war in Israel," he says, "it will be easier to attain peace between Jews and Muslims in France. The second thing is that the Muslims, who are very strong, need to organize their power in a constructive political fashion. This hasn't happened up to now."

Regarding this second point, Cukierman touts the organization he now heads, CRIF, a representative umbrella council of Jewish organizations, as a worthy role model for Muslims. "We have spoken with political leaders in France about the need to pressure Muslims, and urge them to establish constructive political organizations," Cukierman explains. "They should establish an address for dialogue. The government is, in fact, trying to encourage them to create such a leadership structure. The problem is that right now they're talking about a leadership which would be based in the mosques. This would be an exclusively religious leadership.

[Incidentally, modern Jewish organizational life in France began on a purely religious basis - the religious Consistory system dated back to the Napoleonic period, whereas the political CRIF organization was established only in the aftermath of World War II. Y.S.].

Cukierman says:"We are worried that this would be a fanatic leadership, since the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood controls France's large mosques. If that's the way it is, it would be better for them not to organize at all. Hence we proposed to President Chirac and Prime Minister Jospin that a leadership group selected in the mosques ought to be supplemented by a more moderate, intellectual leadership. It remains to be seen whether this will happen."

Critical of leftists

Elections for the mosque-based leadership are scheduled for May 26. Cukierman fears that "both Chirac and Jospin [he spoke prior to the disclosure of the first round vote results, Y.S.] will accommodate themselves to such a leadership. On the other hand, it might be better to have some sort of leadership structure, even a fanatic one, so long as there are leaders, and an apparatus for dialogue."

In the absence of a Muslim organizational structure in France, Cukierman says, "a few moderate declarations have been made by some important, non-radical imam preachers, such as the chief imams of Paris and Marseilles. But the vast majority of statements, even ones which contained denunciations of terror, had all sorts of problematic comments that ruined everything. For instance, there were declarations that appeared to repudiate violence and anti-Semitism - after making such denunciations, the speakers went on and attacked Jews harshly."

Cukierman does not hold back criticism of leftist members of France's Jewish community, including one of his predecessors at CRIF's top post, Theo Klein, who refused to take part in a large rally organized by the French Jewry two weeks ago, to protest double standards in responses to anti-Semitism, and express support of Israel. These leftists chose to stage a simultaneous rally which was limited to opposition of anti-Semitism.

"I said [at the time] that while France suffered from anti-Semitism, there had not been a single Jew killed in these incidents, whereas 125 people were killed in Israel in the month of March alone. Thus, I felt that decency compelled us to express support for Israel. The fact is that our constituency voted with its feet: About a third of French Jewry, some 140,000 people, took part in this rally. Only 1,000 people turned up for the left-wing demonstration."

Cukierman admits that the wave of anti-Semitic incidents has stirred real worries about the future of Jewish life in France. "If the war in Israel continues, I anticipate that we will have a problem [in France], unless the Muslim community turns into a constructive force," he says. At any event, he doesn't foresee a wave of immigration to Israel: "At least not for the time being," Cukierman says. He explains: "We are very well integrated in France's population, so I don't anticipate a wave of aliyah [immigration to Israel] at this stage. In any case, the Jewish leadership does not intervene in this question."

By this definition, Jewish leaders in France deal exclusively with their community's "internal matters." Cukierman feels so securely integrated in French society that when the first tremors violence against Jews and Jewish institutions started in France, in synch with the beginning of the intifada, he and his Jewish colleagues were utterly convinced that the incidents lacked a distinctive anti-Semitic character. The incidents, they explained, were part of a general wave of violence carried out by Muslim immigrants who are not integrated in French society. Even today Cukierman continues to speak of "a wave of general violence in the state, in which we are involved [as victims]." He clarifies that "we have a `bonus' of violence directed specially against us, as Jews."

Cukierman makes a point of formulating his demands from French authorities as one who speaks not in the name of an attacked minority, but rather for "citizens of the Republic." No doubt, this choice of words reflects his sense of complete integration in French life.


Immaginavo una posizione,magari + "sotterranea",del genere,daltronde Le Pen,che NON mi piace comunque per moltissimi aspetti,ha sostenuto pubblicamente Sharon e Israele,e gli ebrei francesi,dopo gli attacchi antisemiti ad opera esclusivamente arabo-islamica,non dico che sostengano Le Pen,ma sotto,sotto sela stanno un po' ridendo pensando alla strizza(n.d.r. paura) che avranno preso i magrebini dal risultato elettorale di Le Pen.
Pertanto sicuramente gli ebrei sosterranno Chirac (come farei anchio a malavoglia),pero' penso che siano "segretamente soddisfatti" del "messaggio" mandato agli arabo-islamici nel primo turno di ballottaggio dall'avanzata di Le Pen.

[pietro]

Lucido articolo che mostra assai bene quanto sia utile un Le Pen ai sionisti , comunque lo metti e lo capovolgi fuzniona sia da bau-bau antisemita che da razzista antiarabo.Un Capolavoro .Geniale.

[gribisi]

Aspetto di vedere un' inchiesta seria, con i numeri di quanti (coglioni) ebrei votano Le Pen.
Per il momento vedo solo propaganda.