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The French Connection

By Jo-Ann Mort, The American Prospect. Posted August 15, 2006.


Why America's prickliest ally is so crucial to forging a solution in Israel and Lebanon.

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What a difference a war makes. The Bush administration, long dismissive of multilateral diplomatic moves, especially with "Old Europe," worked closely with France to bring a diplomatic resolution to the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Now, it looks like these efforts may pay off, with an initial agreement at the U.N. for the U.S.-French sponsored resolution, and acceptance by the warring parties.

If the U.N. agreement holds, this will be due in no small part to Israel's acceptance of the U.S./French document, which partly stems from the Israeli government's realizaton that they need to move in another direction if they are going to achieve their aim of squelching Hezbollah. The Israeli street began to turn last week, with the Peace Now movement beginning demonstrations against the war for the first time. The movement's leaders had overwhelmingly supported Israel's initial response -- to defend the country's international borders. But the growing sense of optimism that a diplomatic deal might help achieve the goal of securing Israel's northern border against Hezbollah attacks have combined with concerns about both the damage exacted on Lebanon itself and the prospects of a drawn-out war that could take hundreds of Israeli casualties. So the peace camp had been pushing the Israeli government to accept a diplomatic deal. And as the process moves forward, France (and the European Union) will be a key player.

The American right may not like France, but the country can and will make a difference in the region. Though France is widely recognized as a friend to the Arab world, it also has the largest Jewish population on the European continent -- 700,000 strong. It's a community that, in the last few years especially, has experienced a growing engagement and attachment to Israel (a development likely related to widely publicized incidents of anti-Semitism in France). During the Second Intifada (2000-2004), when American Jews thought twice about flying to Israel for vacation due to security concerns, French Jews didn't have the same qualms. In 2002, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made an infamous comment imploring French Jews to leave France en masse to move to Israel, to be safe from anti-Semitism. Sharon made that comment to a group of American Jewish leaders, ensuring that it got terrific play in the U.S. press and fueled anti-French sentiment here. But it infuriated the French Jewish community. Even though more French Jews have indeed moved to Israel in recent years, most only come for visits and are quite content (as they told Sharon then) to live in their home country and work through the problems there.

Their numbers fill the hotels along Tel Aviv's beach strip, and more and more of them have bought second homes. Today, Tel Aviv hotels feature menus in English and French and French TV along with CNN on the cable boxes. French can be heard as readily as English and Hebrew in cities like Tel Aviv, Netanya, and elsewhere.

French Jewish community leaders have asserted themselves almost as forcefully as the American Jewish leadership, pushing their government to engage with Israel. Shortly after the war with Hezbollah broke out, I happened upon two back-to-back solidarity missions at a Tel Aviv hotel, one comprised of American Jewish leadership and the other of French Jewish leaders. Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz addressed the French gathering. (The majority of French Jews today have ancestry from North Africa, including Morocco, which is where Peretz himself was born). And it was not surprising to see Bernard-Henri Levy recently writing about his wartime visit to Israel in The New York Times Magazine; Levy and other major French-Jewish intellectuals are engaged with Israel, and usually align with the peace camp.


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Jo-Ann Mort is co-author of Our Hearts Invented a Place: Can Kibbutzim Survive in Today's Israel?. She is an officer of Americans for Peace Now, affiliated with Israel's Peace Now movement.

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More than a little ashamed...
Posted by: Colin on Aug 15, 2006 4:02 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As a British person, that is.

This is one of those stories that never gets analysed over here. The fact is that 5 - 10 years ago it wouldn't have been the French the American's needed to get onside to get their bits passed through the security council. It was us British that used to be the middle men between the US and the EU. Now all that (genuinely precious) influence has gone.

Why? Because, like the rest of the world, everyone in the EU sees Britain as a little yankee lap dog whos word means absolutely bugger all. We've gone from being potential brokers of world peace to relying on the French to do the brokering while we just create the climate that caused a situation where you need a broker in the first place.

I still can't bring myself to say that I would like to be French but I'm closer than I ever have been to those words passing my lips.

Thanks Tony B. Much appreciated...

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» RE: More than a little ashamed... Posted by: FauxPorteno
helped
Posted by: rsaxto on Aug 15, 2006 4:29 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The French did indeed help broker peace in Lebanon. Now lets see if the French can follow through with keeping the peace and keeping the US from becoming the trigger for WW III.

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Some History on the French connection
Posted by: wawa on Aug 15, 2006 4:31 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
during my June 2005 interview with Mordechai Vanunu, the Whistleblower of Israel's WMD program, he informed me of some history re:the French connection to Israel.



excerpted from just released "KEEP HOPE ALIVE"
Chapter 11: 16 Days in Israel Palestine

Vanunu speaks:
“Did you know that President Kennedy tried to stop Israel from building atomic weapons? In 1963 he forced Prime Minister Ben Guirion to admit the Dimona was not a textile plant as the sign outside proclaimed but a nuclear plant. The Prime Minister said, “The nuclear reactor is only for peace.” Kennedy insisted on an open internal inspection. He wrote letters demanding Ben Guirion to open up the Dimona for inspection.

"The French were responsible for the actual building of the Dimona. The Germans gave the money; they were feeling guilty for the holocaust and tried to pay their way out. Everything inside was written in French. when I was there, almost twenty years ago. Back then the Dimona descended 7 floors underground….

"In 1955 Perez and Guirion met with the French to agree they would get a nuclear reactor if they fought against Egypt to control the Sinai and Suez Canal. That was the war of 1956. Eisenhower demanded that Israel leave the Sinai but the reactor plant deal continued on. Kennedy demanded inspections. When Johnson became president he made an agreement with Israel that two senators would come every year to inspect. Before the senators would visit the Israeli’s would build a wall to block the underground elevators and stairways. From 1963 to ’69, the senators came but they never knew about the wall that hid the rest of the Dimona from them. Nixon stopped the inspections and agreed to ignore the situation.

"As a result, Israel increased production. In 1986 there were over 200 bombs. Today they may have enough plutonium for 10 bombs a year. Who knows?”-Vanunu

public service message from the
.org
WeAreWideAwake

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So, is it OK to 'like" the French again?
Posted by: sirossisofliver on Aug 15, 2006 8:05 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It has never ceased to amaze me, of late that the sanctimonious Amerikan "Patriots" (especially the WalMart, NASCAR, knuckle-dragging "W" crowd) villify the French.....and conveniently (or ignorantly) forget the indespensible aid they provided us during the Revolutionary War and War of 1812;.....the awe-inspiring fatalistic bravery of the Free French Resistance (without whom, there would never have been a viable-much less successful, "second front" in Europe in 1944)....and the fact that the "Lady in New York Harbour" is in fact, French!

Yes, DeGaul was a self-agrandising asshole.....but he's long dead....Get Over It!

Hmmm.....I think it's about time for a big celebratory dish of Pommes Frites, washed down with a cold, crisp bottle of Chenin Blanc!

Vive La France!

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livopete
Posted by: livopete on Aug 15, 2006 8:48 AM   
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What those of the Amerocentric World view seem unable to fathom, is that following the trusteeship of France (mandated power by the League of Nations after WWI) Lebanon gained its independence in 1943. Under the British the Palestinian's gained nothing but the unwanted immigration of persecuted jews from eastern europe. It started long before World War II and note that the jewry of Palestine did not want them as well! All the Palestinian's received for their Mandatory's stewardship was the wrath of the Zionist usurpers prosecuting their claim of ownership of lands held by the Semetic peoples for over two millenia! Yes boy's France still has some street cred out there. You guys have none.

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» RE: livopete Posted by: FauxPorteno
» RE: livopete Posted by: livopete
If we had listened to Chirac in '03...
Posted by: Bic Pentameter on Aug 15, 2006 9:39 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
..we might have avoided the war altogether. But he had the audacity to tell the truth after our dear leaders had lied through their teeth and sworn to it before the world.

And like liars and assholes do everywhere when countered by the truth or a voice of reason, we vilified the insolent snob and started serving 'freedom fries'.

It was either that or prove that he is really gay - you know, the all-american stand-by for dealing with threats to our personal security.

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It's a shame the way the US government and their "interest" cronies
Posted by: maxpayne on Aug 15, 2006 4:30 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
use the French and then dispose of them.

By the way, even though the rightwing lunatics in the US claims to be no fan of the French, they have no problem with the French system of guilty until proven innocent version of INJUSTICE. And what about these same rightwing lunatics pushing for privatization and high national "consumption" and sales taxes ? America was not built to pull another "King George" !

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By the way, A reviewer of Thomas Frank's "What's the Matter with Kansas?" pretty much nails it best
Posted by: maxpayne on Aug 15, 2006 4:31 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
We hate them "liberals" but we vote for politicians who love their evil ways !, June 17, 2006
Reviewer: Jeff Jones (Shreveport, LA) - See all my reviews
I notice that a lot of Frank-hating rightwingers who plagiarize other people's articles and call them their reviews just to try to trash Frank are failing ! There are lots of interesting questions that Thomas Frank helps us baffled voters take a sharp look at and I'll start out by naming a few:

1. "Conservatives" supposedly hate the French but why do they love to preserve the French quarters in New Orleans while at the same time bulldozing houses of the same poor people regardless of race who voted them into power ?

2. Why do Tom Delay and most of the GOP waste taxpayers' money on expensive French restaurants despite their loud proclamation of hating the French?

3. Why is it ok for Arby's to poison people with French dipped sauces despite their hypocritical "Support the Troops" magnet selling?

4. Why do people keep voting for politicians who lie about saying they're against the Hollywood elite but keep giving them tax breaks or even extending existing ones all the while taxing the rest of us with so-called "fees" that are no better than the taxes we were against? I thought "conservatives" were against porn but they sure have a hell of a knack to give Paris Hilton more tax breaks !

5. Why do voters keep shouting no to frivolous lawsuits but keep electing politicians who allow Big Business to file the biggest lawsuits against the lower and middle class?

6. Why do we hate the IRS and yet we keep voting for these same rightwing politicians who promise to do away with the IRS but then give them the power to rape us voters come tax time despite the fact that we're the same voters who trusted these same rightwingers to do away with the corrupt IRS?

7. Voters are sick and tired of illegal immigrants taking away our jobs but why do we keep voting for the same rightwing politicians who defund or delay funding for border security or for that matter reward Big Business and Wall Street for flooding the country with illegal immigrants for the purposes of socializing "cheap" and ILLEGAL labor ? (Hint: Tancredo and Sense-less-brenner pushed for CAFTA, NAFTA, and other "free" trade agreements while also voting to defund or delay funding for border security !)

The answers to these questions and more all lie in Frank's well put analysis of the backwards mentality of a faux revolution invented by these fake "conservatives". Just look at the decades of broken promises by these same rascals and ask yourself what makes you think they'll ever fulfill it. Their real goal was never to clean up the corrupt culture mess but to use it as a side distraction against the American people to give money to their friends.

And Hurricane Katrina sure showed these true and ugly colors or else they wouldn't be saving the French quarters while bulldozing homes of the lower and middle class.

Frank is also correct that Democrats have been blissfully ignorant by copying the GOP's money corruption schemes and "conservative" policies on the economic front. Why else would the Democrats in LA be stuck with turncoats like John Breaux, Mary Landreiu(in), William Jefferson who had the nerve to hide his bribery money in the freezer, etc ... !?!?!?!

In addition to this book, I would strongly recommend as a followup of solutions David Sirota's "Hostile Takeover" and you don't have to be wealthy to follow his solutions and help take back America from the GOP TALIBAN !

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