The results of the French polls, pending the second round which will take place on Sunday 7 July, leave us with great dismay in the country’s Jewish communities.
Il Gathering National Of Marine The Pen e Jfrom there Bardella, withhis far-right allies, ha I collectlto 33.14% of the vote, a percentage that could lead to 255-295 potential seats. The New Popular Front of the leftwhich includes various parties including France Insubordinate Of Jean-Luc Melenchon, reached 27.99% and could obtain a number of seats between 120 and 140. Ensemblethe alliance macroniana, stood at 20.04% (90-125 seats). Followed by THE Republicans/right-wing centrists with the UDI and other moderate right-wing parties at 10.74% (35-45 seats), the small ecological and regionalist parties with 2.0% (10-14 seats) and the other left-wing parties or dissidents of the Popular Front with 1.5% (11-12 seats).
The result proposes thea situation that was not unexpected, as even French Jewry had hypothesized. In the days preceding the vote, the philosopher Alain Finkielkrautalready the victim of an anti-Semitic attack in 2019 during a yellow vest demonstration, declared to Corriere della Sera to be “very worried and unhappy”, identifying on the left the “programmatic” anti-Semitism of Melenchonwhile on the right, the RN, Despite has dissolved the bond with Petain and with the collaboration of the Vichy Republic“it must be fought anyway […] pwhy does he choose Russia against Ukraine and therefore against Europe, with all that it represents?”. Second Finkielkrautanti-Semitism in France is strictly linked to immigration and “all’islamo-gauchismo”, so much so that in a possible run-off between the candidates of the two extreme fringes he declared that he would vote for the RNeven if “with death in the heart”. Similar concepts are also found in the contribution proposed by another Jewish philosopher from beyond the Alps, Bernard-Henri Lévy, who, on the eve of the vote, are The Republic, writesit goes that “France rebellious it is an anti-semitic party”, evoking some statements made by its members against the Jews. In addition, he specified that he still hoped for the defeat of the RN.
The poisoning of the anti-Semitic climate in France represents a phenomenon ongoing for decades, with the largest Jewish community in Europe already the victim of terrible episodes. The kidnapping and fatal torture at Ilan Halim in 2006; The 2012 attack on the Jewish school in Toulousewhere 7 people were killed, including 3 children; the terrorist attack all’Hyper Cacher of January 9, 2015, with 4 deaths; l’assassinior anti-Semitic in 2017 of thethe 65 year old jewish woman Halim. Sensational events and known to most,representing solo a tip of an iceberg that has expanded after October 7, 2023, when anti-Semitic crimes have further increased, as another emblematic fact from just a couple of weeks ago testifies: the rape, in the name of his religion, of a twelve-year-old Jewish girl by three teenagers. On this anti-Semitism disguised as anti-Zionism the left has been indulgentwithout adequately condemning il mOctober 7th Sacrifice. He had spoken about it to Shalom last March too David Khalfa, co-director of the North Africa and Middle East Observatory of the Foundation Jean Jaurèswho had analyzed on the one hand the ambiguity of the French left towards Israel and the Jewish world, noting on the other hand how “anow the Gathering National presents itself as a responsible party, of a republican nature, with a protective function against anti-Semitic hatred, especially against Islamist hatred, ma its ideological references are antithetical to an authentic republican culture”.
Sunday’s result has therefore increased the dismay, so much so that, as reported by someoneHeaders come il Jerusalem Post, the chief rabbi of the Great Synagogue of Paris Moshe Sebbag expressed doubts about the future of Jews in France and urged young people to emigrate to Israel or other countriesaccording to a trend that has been underway for several years. He echoed it Ariel Kandelgeneral director of the association That’s it which deals with facilitating thealiyah from Francewho declared to the Times of Israel that the verdict of the ballot boxes represents “a further step” towards a possible emigration of the French Jews.
A complex and discouraging picture, well summarised by the words of Sebbag. “Jewish groups have called on French Jews to vote for the center, which has been supportive of Israel, but under which the problem of anti-Semitism has proliferated. Many Jewish families ashkenazite here since before the Second World War they could not think of voting for the GatheringNational, however the left has been anti-Semitic in recent times”he said Sebbag. “Jews are in the middle because they don’t know who hates them more”.
