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Posted on 10/03/2002 10:44:59 AM PDT by Bella_Bru
French legislator Pierre Lellouche never imagined that he would have to worry that his children might be subject to anti-Semitic attacks on the street, in school, and in the synagogue.
Speaking Wednesday at the biannual meeting of the World Jewish Congress in Jerusalem, Lellouche, who is a political scientist and a deputy in the French Parliament said that until recently he always saw himself as a Frenchman.
"To the extent I felt Jewish, I wanted this to be a private affair. "Without knowing it, I was applying to myself the famous motto of the French Republic, every right to the Jew as an individual, but no right as a nation."
But his views have changed in light of increasing anti-Semitism in France and around the world in the last few years. The number of anti-Semitic incidents in France has dropped recently thanks to a more aggressive approach by the French government, Lellouche said. But the threat is still very real.
"We have lost the battle of ideas," he said. People can feel good about being anti-Semitic because Jews are now seen as the aggressors, not the victims. The line between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism has been blurred.
Lellouche said he found the connection between anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism very interesting. He's worried about the way the United State's alliance with Israel is being cited as the root cause of anti-Americanism. "We have to fight the battle of ideas and to help the Muslims fight their own battle against these ideas. This fight can only be won by the Muslims," Lellouche said.
The congress's general-secretary, Avi Beker, told the assembly that there has been a slight decrease in anti-Semitism attacks in the last few months, but that there is increasing anti-Semitism in universities and among the intellectual elite in both Europe and the US.
The World Jewish Congress hopes to open a new European center in Paris next month to combat anti-Semitism. A draft proposal for the European Jewish Action Center will be presented to the congress today.
Some 100 delegates from 35 countries have come for the two day meeting. The congress will also focus on relations with the Diaspora and Jewish refugees from Arab countries.
Since demands for the return of Palestinian refugees is part of the debate over a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, it's important to look at it historically, Beker said.
There was a huge population exchange during the early years of the state. Beker said the number of Jews who arrived from Arab countries exceeded the number of Arabs who left the country.
While the Jews have been integrated into Israeli society, the Arab countries largely refused to integrate Palestinian refugees, said Beker. "It's time to shed light on the true nature of the refugee issue."
In 1973, the French Communist activist and literary critic Maurice Blanchot abandoned Leftist politics. His stated reason: that the developing anti-Zionism of the French left was rapidly becoming anti-Semitism. His best friend during World War II was the nonMarxist Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas - Blanchot and his friend experienced Nazi anti-Semitism in an up close and personal way (Blanchot was subjected to the psychological torture of a mock execution by firing squad because he was suspected of harboring Jews; Levinas spent two years in the camps).
They both sensed the resurgence of that attitude, and the Marxists cursed them and abused them for their treason to the Leftist cause.
Now, at the age of 97, Blanchot's suspicions are proved right.
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