A survey made in May 2005 found 95% of French non-Jews willing to consult Jewish doctors, 92% ready to work for a Jewish boss, 87% amenable to welcoming a Jewish son-in-law or daughter-in-law into the family, and 81% prepared to elect Jewish presidents (France has had two, and a Jewish prime minister, since 1936; one Jewish president, Léon Blum, served twice).

In a poll taken circa 2001, 91% of French Jews declared themselves “happy” or “very happy” to live in France. The CRIF (French Jewry’s political arm) believes that fear of anti-Semitism is NOT the primary motive behind emigration to Israel (aliyah). If the present pace of aliyah were maintained, France would be depopulated of Jews only in 222 years.

A two-year survey(2003-2005), funded in part by the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah and conducted by twelve sociologists who fanned out all over France, reached these conclusions: that French anti-Semitism
is “fragmented” and shallow, that it stems mainly from the far-right (Le Pen), that Jews are the best-protected French minority, and that when their socio-economic needs are met, French youths of North African extraction renounce anti-Semitism. (Those of you who read French may wish to consult this study, titled La Tentation Anti-Sémite, by Michel Wieviorka).

Guillaume Weill-Raynal, a French-Jewish lawyer and author of Une Haine Imaginaire? [Are French Jews REALLY Hated?], draws the following conclusion from his meticulous examination of French mainstream reporting: “French media have neither ignored nor excused violence against Jews in the slightest manner.” In their books and interviews, Elie Barnavi, Israel’s ex-ambassador to France, and Shlomo Ben Ami, the former Israeli former minister, give almost uniformly high marks to French mainstream media coverage of issues affecting Israel.

For perspective, the albeit gruesome murder of Ilan Halimi needs to be set aside the recent killings of Alan Berg and Yankel Rosenbaum by American anti-Semites. In its 2005 survey, the B’nai Brith finds one in seven Americans blatantly anti-Semitic. Thirty-five per cent of all hate crimes in New York City are directed against Jews. That is roughly double the percentage of anti-black, anti-Latino, and anti-gay crimes committed in NYC. Reluctant to rake the anti-Semitic muck nearest them, the American mainstream media fail to report the firebombings of U.S. synagogues and the Indiana Holocaust Center. The non-Jewish U.S. press is silent when the president of the theological seminary of American Protestantism’s largest denomination pronounces Judaism a “tumor”. Instead, U.S. reporters fixate on France, and paint the French anti-Semitic. That is both a lie and a smear.

U.S. reporters also slander the France of the past, by omitting bottom lines. Defended by the Left, Dreyfus was ultimately freed, and promoted. Only one Frenchmen in two hundred actively collaborated with the Nazis. An astounding 74.6% of French Jewry survived the German occupation. The historian Asher Cohen (in his book Persécutions et Sauvetages) has established that the rescued owe their lives to the heroism of French non-Jews.

France has long supported the State Of Israel. During the Suez War, French fighter pilots helped to destroy Egypt’s air force. “While Americans were serenading Arab potentates”, writes the French journalist Eric Dior of that period, “French Leftists were exalting Zionist pioneers”. From 1958 to 1981, however, successive Gaullist régimes rebuffed Israel. But since 1981, French left-wing governments and even the heirs to the Gaullists (like Chirac) have mainly smiled upon the Jewish state.

A word about French minorities. In a study of four countries, the Jewish anthropological historian Emmanuel Todd has shown that France integrates its immigrants more swiftly and thorougly than America, Britain and Germany. The current difficulties in French immigrant enclaves are chiefly the product of unemployment reaching forty per cent. Radical Islam has little influence on French North African youths, few of whom frequent mosques.

Thank you for your patience with my outpourings. I hope that you have found them useful.

But it does.

Especially since Steyn is reliable f*cking liar, and Amp was saying that maybe we’d need to see the actual survery question.

That’s all.

Don’t Godwin the discussion, please, with ‘blacks are less intelligent’ comparisions. The point Amp made was simple — Israel is a ‘terrorist threat’ vs. ‘hotbed of conflict’ — not a minor quibble at all.

Because the irrational Arab hatred of Jews and Israel predates the occupation of the West Bank. The occupation or non-occupation of the West Bank hasn’t changed the destruction surrounding countries try to rain down upon Israel.

Lets turn it around. If I said that Muslims (unmodified by hedging or limiting factor) were the leading threat to peace in the world today, it would theoretically be possible to parse that in a way that didn’t indicate prejudice. It would also be somewhat more accurate than suggesting that Israel were the leading threat. But on a statistical basis you would be a fool to do so. A vast majority of people who would say that aren’t being so sharp-knife-edge nuanced. Which is Steyn’s point. In theory you could find a person who would say that Israel was the leading threat to world peace who was not also anti-semitic. But almost all of the people who would actually say that are. It is probably possible in theory to find someone who might say that blacks are statistically less intelligent than whites (which by the way I am offering by example only, not because I believe the statement to be true) who was also not racist. But if you heard someone say that you could suggest that they were racist and you wouldn’t get any argument from me. I certainly wouldn’t spend time making up hypothetical ways for them to get off the hook from that statement.

Ihave an unfortunate habit of looking in on Indegayforum.org now and then — one of their commenters solemnly intoned, on this very issue, that Leftists need to end their love affair with Radical Islam…

Funny, are there any pictures of leftists holding hands with Saudis?

Not quite right — Amp’s statement was more nuanced and skeptical that what you quoted, since this followed directly on your snip above:

“…It’s hard to say for certain without knowing exactly how the survey was worded.Why couldn’t someone simultaneously oppose antisemitism, but also believe that the most likely hotspot to directly or indirectly cause WW3 is the Israeli occupation of the West Bank? The two views are not mutually exclusive.”

Just sayin’

Nononono. There are people who already hate arabs and they’re looking for excuses and justifications.

I live in France right now, but I’m not really integrated into French society, um, at all, so my impressions could be partially in error. My impression is that a lot is done on an official level to combat anti-semetism and these efforts seem to be successful.

It is also my impression that darn little is done on an official level to combat anti-arab and anti-african prejudice and some politicians are prone to calling the residents of the burbs “scum.” Arab rioting was officially blamed on rap music, not on police harassment, prejudice or anything else the rioters invoked. As an american, there were several things that struck me about the riots last november. One was the very low number of injuries and death, it was almost all limited to property destruction. Another was the “native” french I talked to saying “they are born in france, they are french” which was 100% sincere and which I support, but this same logic is applied to preventing government statistical research or affirmative action programs, while meanwhile people with arab-sounding names don’t get calls back when they apply for jobs. The final interesting thing was the rioters saw themselves as part of a proud french tradition of dissent. We are the new 1968, they said. So both the rioters and the “native” population saw them as entirely french.

The government here did NOTHING to address their concerns, as far as I could tell. Those riots were secular, btw.

I’m bringing this up because I think arabs and africans in France are really getting shafted. And when people talk about anti-semetism, they’re pointing at these shafted folks. People tell them to integrate, but won’t give them jobs. Stories circulate about scary arab and african youths on the metro with pitbulls. Someone very seriously told me that they will throw their pitbull at you. Yeah right. It’s all bogus.

Anti-semetism is completely wrong, of course and should be stopped. However, I feel like some folks in attempting to address that end up scapegoating an already marginalized community. Arabs are the alien other.

Phoebe Maltz’s (self-described “Francophilic Zionist”) coverage of anti-Semitism in France is precisely what I would have written if I were as intelligent as Phoebe Maltz. From earliest to latest, here, here, and here. The latter is particular appea…

Then I read how these crimes against Jews are used to justify the dreadful policies of the Israeli government and that’s a different pain.

I do believe that anti-semitism is on the rise in the world but one crime does not justify another. And Jew does not = Israeli.

I don’t think that is very similar to Steyn’s point at all. That is a fair criticism of many unfair statements about antisemitism, but not this one. If you truly believe that Israel is THE LEADING threat to world peace you have a warped view of the world–and your error probably has to do with antisemitism.

BY: FERN SIDMAN

The gang that kidnapped, tortured and brutally murdered Ilan Halimi, 23, had threatened several prominent businessmen, lawyers and a well-known humanitarian activist, a French newspaper reported Saturday. The daily Liberation reported that the group behind the murder, which authorities have linked to anti-Semitism, tried to extort money from a founder of Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders. Also targeted were the director of the Arte TV channel, a Paris lawyer and the head of a supermarket chain, the newspaper reported, citing police officials.

Police investigating the murder of Halimi earlier this month have made several arrests. The suspected gang leader, was arrested Wednesday in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and France is seeking his extradition. Fourteen people have been placed under investigation - a step short of being charged - in the case, and two more people were detained Friday for questioning.

[...]

This may be the first act of Hamas terrorism directed against a Jew outside of Israel, but clearly it won’t be the last. Everyday, we are being saturated with the anti-Semitic diatribes of an Iranian President named Ahmadnajed, of Hamas leaders and leading intellectuals. We can no longer deny it. Anti-Semitism is in full swing. It can only get worse.

[The original post quoted the entire article, in full, without making any other comments. I've cut out most of the article, and added a link to the full article. --Amp]

Steyn also has a history of using any blunt weapon available to thump Islam - in this case, it’s the possibility of an increase in anti-Semitic attacks. I somehow doubt that he would have been quite as interested if Christians were the potential perpetrators. It’s a bit like Bush suddenly discovering a “feminist” side when talking about the Taliban’s misogyny.

Please tell me that you’re not saying that a commitment against Jew hatred leads to hatred of Arabs?

Amp,

While I don’t think your critique is necessarily off, I think it that statistics can’t always tell the whole story. The fact is, for example, that Israel even at the height of the intifada was a very safe place, and there was only one week where a person had a higher chance of being injured in a terrorist incident than a car accident. However, sports teams refused to travel there, tourists stopped coming, downtown areas and clubs hit massive slumps and the economy was shattered. So what’s the truth? The statistics or how they are experienced? And how many individual anecdotes/feelings equal a phenomenon? I’m afraid that your approach to measuring the effects of hate would lead to pooh-poohing racism and bigotry everywhere.

Also, just to note, Israel is not the only place to which French Jews emigrate. The United States and Canada (especially Montreal) are also popular destinations.

Officially, the response was about 21764782391649 times what you’d see to a hate crime in the US.

Anti-Semitism used to be a major problem in Europe and it’s not entirely stamped out in France, but it’s only tiny fringe groups that promote it and they run the risk of going to jail. The major problem now is anti-arab prejudice. Ironically, the arguments in favor of this prejudice is that all those arabs are anti-Semitic. You know, all of them.

Erm, the first line of your link says that 60 million is the entire population of France.

Jews in France (total population: 60 million) ““ the biggest such community in Western Europe (600,000-700,000, half of them living in the Paris area)…

See?

[Geez, that'll teach me to write late at night when I'm tired! Thanks for pointing out the error - I've fixed it. --Amp]