By Paul Michaud
One of the pillars of the French Jewish establishment,
Jo Goldenberg, whose family runs the French capital's
most celebrated Jewish restaurant, Chez Goldenberg,
has revealed that his vote in last Sunday's
first-round presidential elections did not go for
either of the two favored moderate candidates, Jacques
Chirac or Lionel Jospin, but for extreme right
candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Goldenberg's decision to make public his vote for a
man, National Front leader Le Pen, usually considered
as anathema to French Jews, was understandably
criticized by many community leaders, including one
who said that "at his age Goldenberg should think of
taking a long-deserved rest," but his position may
very well be symptomatic of a trend that's become
apparent in recent weeks in the French Jewish
community.
For many French Jews, especially those who migrated to
France from North Africa - Le Pen is a blessing in
disguise as his xenophobic declarations of recent
years have been aimed hardly at themselves, but almost
exclusively towards young Arabs and Muslims whose
parents hark from the Maghreb countries of Algeria,
Morocco and Tunisia.
They are considered by Le Pen and his electors as
being largely responsible for the crime wave that has
unfurled over France the past several months, and
which has been the central issue of the presidential
campaign, a theme which Le Pen has promised to develop
over the next two weeks as he prepares for his final
showdown with President Chirac on May 5.
Many French Jews hope that Le Pen, if ever he wins the
presidency - something considered highly unlikely -
could do as US President George W Bush and become a
stalwart defender of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In
large part because of the support of the US religious
right, 77 percent of Americans recently told pollsters
for Gallup/USA Today/CNN that in their estimation the
"real enemy" of the US was not Sharon but Yasser
Arafat.
Le Pen, who is himself largely supported by the French
religious right, could very well end up, if ever he
were elected, however unlikely, to come out in favor
of Sharon, a man against whom he has surprisingly
emitted little in the way of criticism in recent
weeks, unlike President Chirac who has repeatedly not
only reaffirmed French support for Yasser Arafat, but
also condemned Prime Minister Sharon's incursions into
Palestine.
Le Pen has never attributed France's present social
and economic problems to members of the Jewish
community, and it is this realization that perhaps
best explains the confused - indeed, subdued -
reaction by French Jews to Le Pen's second-place
finish last Sunday.
Most of the anti-Le Pen invective that followed
Sunday's vote has come indeed from the French left,
with marches against Le Pen that have taken place
throughout France in the past two days containing no
known Jewish organizations.
When spokesmen for the Jewish community have chosen to
take a stand on Le Pen, it has usually been quite
muted. For example, the remark made by Roger
Cukierman, leader of Jewish defense organization CRIF,
said simply that "for us the choice was clear." Like
other community spokesmen, he did not come down
strongly in any way against Le Pen.
Results from the Mediterranean coast, where Le Pen did
best in Sunday's first-round elections, would show
that his perceived denunciation of France's Muslim
population as being responsible for the country's
parlous state was largely heeded by all categories of
voters in that part of France.
It is not for anything that Le Pen's National Front
movement contains an important contingent of French
Jews who have taken the form of a movement called
"Jews for Le Pen". Most of them are dyed-in-the-wool
conservatives who see no problem with Le Pen.
From Ummahnews (Arab News)
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Terbitan : 30 April 2002
Ke atas
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