Accusations of anti-Semitism are not Macron’s main concern

Emmanuel Macron has chosen to mark the first anniversary of Hamas’ murderous attack on Israel on October 7 by criticizing their response. In a radio interview, the President of France announced that “the priority today is to return to a political solution, to stop supplying weapons to the struggle in Gaza.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the comments shameful and said it was a “shame” to call for an arms embargo on Israel.

Last year, 1,600 French Jews emigrated from France to Israel

Prominent French Jewish writer and philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy said Sunday he was “saddened and shocked” by his president’s comments, especially given their timing.

In the 365 days since Hamas filmed itself raping, torturing, and murdering 1,200 Jews, including forty-two French citizens, France’s response has been guided by fear. Macron admitted this less than a fortnight later. “If we manage this situation poorly, this could be an element of division,” he said on October 19, while discussing the situation in Gaza with some young people. “We are all French, we cannot import this conflict.”

The president then pointed out that France has the largest Jewish community in Europe, “and we also have many young people of the Muslim faith.” What Macron did not say was that France’s Jewish population is about 500,000, while there are more than six million Muslims.

Macron knows that France is no stranger to witnessing the consequences of conflict in the Middle East. There were large-scale demonstrations in Paris in 2006, when Israel and Hezbollah fought each other in what was known as the ‘July War’. On that occasion, several thousand people marched through the French capital, holding photos of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and waving banners bearing slogans such as “Israel, the true Nazi face” and “Zionist barbarism, Nazi barbarism.”

In 2014, anti-Israel demonstrations in Paris turned violent. Several police officers were injured and a synagogue and a Jewish business building were bombed in a Jewish suburb as demonstrators rioted in response to the fighting in Gaza.

This year, anti-Semitic attacks in France have increased by almost 200 percent; Crimes committed included attempts to burn down two synagogues and the rape of a 12-year-old girl in a Paris suburb.

An estimated 1,600 French Jews have emigrated from France to Israel in the past year, an exodus that has been underway since an Islamist shot dead three Jewish children in Toulouse in 2012.

They feel not only physically threatened, but also ideologically abandoned by a large part of the political class, especially Macron. As Bernard-Henri Levy said on Sunday, contrast his attitude towards Israel with his belligerent support for Ukraine after it was invaded by Russia.

Last November, Macron did not participate in a march against anti-Semitism in Paris, an absence criticized by many, including the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions. Macron responded by saying that his “role is rather to build the unity of the country.” The Council also condemned his latest comments, accusing him of “playing the game of Hamas and Hezbollah.”

What scares Macron is what frightened his predecessors at the Elysee: the prospect of an uprising in the banlieues

What scares Macron is what frightened his predecessors at the Elysee: the prospect of an uprising in the banlieues. It happened in the fall of 2005, after police fired a tear gas canister near a mosque during a riot in northern Paris; it happened in 2014 during fighting in Gaza; and it happened in June 2023 after a French-Algerian was shot while driving his stolen car through a police checkpoint.

The riots that followed were nationwide and lasted several days; the violence reportedly only ended when the North African drug cartels, which control many of France’s inner cities, intervened. The disturbance was fun while it lasted, but it started to turn bad for their business.

These are the lost territories of France, a term first used in 2002 by historian Georges Bensoussan in his book of that title. He described the rise of a parallel society in which anti-Semitism was widespread and French society was despised.

Bensoussan was scathing about Macron’s absence from the march against anti-Semitism last November, contrasting with François Mitterrand’s presence at a similar rally in 1990. France’s then-president showed solidarity with the country’s Jews after the desecration of a number of Jewish graves. . Those blamed for the desecration were far-right extremists linked to Jean-Marie Le Pen’s Rassemblement National.

Anti-Semitism in France now comes from a different source: a toxic alliance between Islamists and the far left. A poll earlier this year found that 92 percent of French Jews believe La France Insoumise is anti-Semitic. This did not stop Macron from calling on people to vote for them in the recent parliamentary elections as a means to defeat Marine Le Pen.

The reality in France today is that much of the country’s policy, both at home and abroad, is influenced by fear of the consequences of the crisis banlieues. It’s a matter of keeping the peace at all costs. It is better to anger Israel than to anger the inner cities.

This article was originally published on The spectator‘s UK website.