Dominique de Villepin, the French Foreign Minister, has an op-ed in a recent issue of Ha’aretz. This piece of garbage, purporting to defend France’s relationship with Israel and the Jews in general, simply reeks of insincerity. It would behoove M. de Villepin not to say things he doesn’t mean, especially when publicly available facts contradict them.
Now I’m not one to simply bring back old wrongs or favors at an inappropriate time. For instance, I always thought it pretty stupid to say, “Well, we saved the French in World War II, so now they have to support us on Iraq.” But for the love of God, please don’t use historical incidents to justify your position when they rather clearly contradict it. I refer specifically to de Villepin’s claim that
I am sure he knows what happened in the Dreyfus affair: how a government cover-up framed an innocent Jewish army captain for treason, how hordes of French shouted not merely “death to the traitor”, but rather “death to the Jew”. I don’t bring this up as any kind of proof of French anti-Semitism. Rather, I bring it up to show his use of this example as completely disingenuous.
My next favorite de Villepin claim is:
Does he not realize that the French president, the wonderful Monsieur Chirac, claimed that concerns about anti-Semitism in France were “riduclous”, and that American Jewish groups’ criticisms of the growing anti-Semitism problem in France were being directed from Jerusalem (ahem - sound familiar?)? To claim that anti-Semitism is not a significant problem in France, after synagogues have been burnt, rabbis have been attacked, and the Dreyfus monument has been defaced, is ignorant at best.
Interesting. Is that why France to this day refuses to consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization? Is that why, when former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin called Hezbollah such an organization, Chirac gave him a stern lecture about “undermining France’s foreign policy”? And certainly it is not only Chirac who has demonstrated a lack of commitment to Israel. De Villepin himself, who raves about the new “road map” in this article, continues to meet with Arafat, despite the clear new focus on bringing Mahmoud Abbas to the forefront of the Palestinian leadership. This is the same Arafat who is responsible for countless terrorist attacks against Israel and Israelis, who incited the Intifada, who has directed the murder of hundreds of Jews. Yes. Keep telling me how you love Israel, and you share a real bond with the Jews. Make sure at the same time to keep voting against Israel at the UN. Just out of curiosity, how many resolutions critical of Israel has France voted for? How many resolutions critical of the Palestinians. I bet I know which number’s bigger.
And finally we have this little gem:
Please don’t insult us. Don’t talk about the Holocaust (can you say Vichy?) and then compare our “injustice, oppression and exclusion” to the treatment of the Palestinians. I imagine even those Jews who are furious about the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, and would demand an immediate Israeli pullout would still be offended by the implications.
As a Jew (and a French citizen, incidentally), there are certain things, historically, for which I’m grateful to France; Napoleon’s freeing the Jews from the ghettos, for instance. However, just as historic wrongs don’t themselves justify criticism of modern performance, past generosity does not excuse modern (mis)behavior. I do not like the “Uncle Leo” attitude many Jews, such as my parents, have about anti-Semitism in the world (“I bet that cook is an anti-Semite.”) Yet it is disgusting to have to read dishonest shit like this. Don’t piss on my head and tell me it’s raining.