French Jews 'unfazed' by National Front gains

The far-right National Front made a surprise comeback in the French regional elections on Sunday, but the Jewish community remains largely unperturbed.

The National Front gained its best result in years, getting an average of 17.8 per cent of the vote in 12 French regions. Eighty-two-year old party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen obtained the highest share of the vote, 22.8 per cent, in the southern region of Provence, Alpes, Cote d'Azure.

The party's success was unexpected as it has been losing ground for years, particularly since Nicolas Sarkozy ran for president in 2007. But voters are now turning back to the far right.

Still, the head of France's Jewish umbrella group CRIF said the party's results do not prove the French are increasingly antisemitic.

"I've always protested against Le Pen's controversial declarations, his insulting remarks on the Holocaust, and he hasn't gotten any wiser through the years, but this does not mean his voters share his views," said Dr Richard Prasquier. "They're just extremely frustrated with the economic crisis and their vote is a form of protest.

"However I do feel that the fact that they found no other way to express their dismay is a bad sign for our democracy."

Since Mr Sarkozy was elected president, the National Front has been beset by internal rivalries and financial woes. It spent millions on campaigning and even had to put its headquarters on auction to settle its debts, but no one would buy them due to the party's negative image. Meanwhile, the party has been struggling to find a successor to its aging founder and several leaders have left the movement

The debate over who would take over after Le Pen retires seems resolved now, in favour of Jean-Marie's daughter Marine, currently the party's vice president. The 42-year old has positioned herself as the probable successor and while several party officials have criticised a succession within the Le Pen family, her impressive 22 per cent share of the vote in the regional election in the north brings her new legitimacy.

Over the past decade, Marine Le Pen has tried to change the party's image, abandoning her father's controversial style and revisionist remarks about the Holocaust. She tried to join a parliamentary trip to Israel and to approach Jewish media. But observers say she is still advocating the same policies as her father.

"She may be more polite, but her programme remains unchanged: favouring people of French descent, getting people of foreign descent to leave the country," said political scientist and far-right expert Jean-Yves Camus.

When running for president, Mr Sarkozy vowed to strip the National Front of its voters with promises of greater security in France and limited immigration. But his policies appeared to have fallen short, and now Mr Le Pen's old voters are returning to their old party.

"This is an obvious defeat for Mr Sarkozy," said Jean-Marie Le Pen after the election.

And his daughter Marine said the party will now prepare for the presidential election due in two years.

"The National movement is now a major player," she said, "a major player in the next major national election - the presidential election."

CRIF, now officially a right wing lobby?

The head of France’s main Jewish umbrella group, the CRIF, denied on Wednesday that his organisation had veered to the right, but some within CRIF are questioning this. (According to liberal Crif member Gilles-William Goldnadel saying someone is on the right is not insulting, so I assume Crif won't be offended by this post).

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An odd controversy was at the heart of Wednesday's annual dinner of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF). The organisation’s leader, Richard Prasquier, sought to explain why he had defended a man who had aimed a comment described by some as anti-Semitic at former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius.

Georges Freche, a long-time president of the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France and a former member of the Socialist Party, caused a stir last month when he said one shouldn’t vote for Fabius because “he didn’t look Catholic”. Since Fabius is of Jewish descent, the remark was deemed by many to be anti-Semitic.

Fabius was offended and the Socialist Party was shocked; but Freche revealed that he got a letter of support from none other than the leader of France’s Jewish umbrella group.

Prasquier said Freche was not anti-Semitic, even though he considered his latest remark to be intolerable. Freche, who was expelled from the Socialist Party in 2007, is not new to allegations of racism. He once made waves by claiming there were too many black players in France’s national football team.

Observers say Prasquier defended Freche because of his past support for Israel. Defending the Jewish state is one of the CRIF’s main aims, as Prasquier repeated in his speech on Wednesday.

The CRIF is generally considered to be more traditional and conservative than Jewish organisations in other countries. But many say it has recently veered further to the right, while its defence of Israel has become more uncompromising than ever.

In the recent election of the CRIF’s executive committee, right-wing candidates gained significant ground. One of the winners was Gilles-William Goldnadel, a lawyer who defended journalist Oriana Fallaci when she was attacked for writing in The Rage and The Pride that Muslims “multiplied like rats” among other comments. But Goldnadel has also defended young Jews who tried to destroy anti-semitic manuals in book stores, and victims of anti-Semitic attacks. That might be one reason for his success.

Meanwhile, Socialist Party member and prominent anti-racism activist Patrick Klugman failed to make the cut. But contrary to media reports they can’t be deemed leftists regarding the Middle East. Indeed, Klugman defended the Israeli bombings on Gaza launched in December 2008 is response to Hamas rocket fire against southern Israel.

“Yes, we succeeded, that’s democracy,” Goldnadel told FRANCE 24. “The irony is that many Socialists voted for me too. People voted for us because they felt we would defend Israel better and fight against anti-Semitism in France.”

Goldnadel says the left failed to recognise the changed nature of anti-Semitism, and therefore failed to come up with an adequate response. “[The Socialists] failed to recognise it because they didn’t want to see it. Because it came from a new place they wanted to ignore,” he said, referring to claims of growing anti-Semitism among French Muslims.

In his speech, Richard Prasquier said anti-Semitic assaults had doubled in 2009, and most of the increase had taken place in impoverished suburbs. “People who live in wealthy neighbourhoods have little chance of knowing this,” he said.

CRIF figures show a spate of attacks in France mainly in January 2009, during the Israeli operations in Gaza. At that time, the Jewish organisation sought to demonstrate its support for Israel, but its marches were dwarfed by numerous rallies against the Israeli bombings on Hamas.

The Communist and Green parties, who had called for a boycott of Israeli products during the Gaza War, were excluded from Wednesday’s event by the CRIF.

Asked whether he felt lonely at the gathering, former Communist Party leader Robert Hue told FRANCE 24 “he would always come to this event”, adding that the shift to the right was “a reality not only within the Jewish community but also among the French population in general.”

For French writer Marek Halter, the shift to the right marks a loss of hope for a peaceful settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: “It’s just like in the Middle East itself. The left in Israel is weaker because of the circumstances. Peace seams unattainable. So pro-peace parties fail to gather support. But everything can turn around with a little spark of hope.”

At the dinner, the CRIF appeared at times more right-wing than the conservative politicians who were present. Christine Boutin, a former minister and a staunch conservative, even told FRANCE 24 she was “concerned about the CRIF moving too far to the right”.

But, as he wrapped up his speech, Prasquier dismissed such fears. “We’re not right or left-wing,” he told the audience. “We’re Jews, Republicans, French – and proud to be so."

Burkini 1, Mikveh 0

Muslim lobbying for religious rights in France has had a certain impact on Jews, who feel that their own, similar requests are being brushed away.

“Things have got worse since more and more Muslims started pushing demands, sometimes with political motives. Now we’re compared to assertive pushy militants and our own requests are denied outright,” said Marc Djebali, vice president of the Jewish community of Sarcelles, a suburb north of Paris. “Now officials tell me: ‘we can’t accept this, this is a secular state’.”

Sarcelles is the home of one of France’s largest and more assertive Jewish communities. In a way it pioneered the controversial trend of French minorities lobbying the secular government for religious rights, known as communautarisme — community activism.

But over the past few years it has been lagging behind the local Muslim community, which has been better able to get its traditions recognised in schools and work places.

“Ten years ago, kosher meals were offered to kids in our neighbourhood school. Today, they can only get halal,” said Mr Djebali. “Principals tell me halal is normal, "natural" even, but kosher is just too comlicated"

"Numbers, it's all about the numbers. The Muslims are not a small minority like us. Their requests are examined seriously," says Djebali.

The feeling that the community was being put at a disadvantage by the Muslim requests became stronger this summer, after comments by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy sparked a public debate over whether the Muslim burka should be banned. Calls to similarly examine Jewish clothing soon followed.

“Jewish men who wear hats and ringlets are just like Muslim women with their burka. They’re proselytising,” said Yves Pras, head of the Europe Secularity organisation. “Maybe this clothing should be banned from all public places, like smoking.”

Although France defines itself as secular and in 2004 its parliament adopted a law banning religious clothing — such as veils and skullcaps — in public schools, Islam has made its way into French tradition and society.

Dozens of schools are now offering halal meals; one school in Paris even offers halal meals exclusively. Meanwhile, a number of pools have arranged separated bathing hours for women, a trend which began in the Jewish community of Strasbourg, and later in Sarcelles, where, for the past 15 years, women have also had a female lifeguard.

In university, students still have to attend exams on Saturdays and holidays. This is a regular sticking point and every year France’s chief rabbi tries to negotiate with universities to find suitable dates.

Muslim holidays are increasingly respected in the office, according to a study by the professional association IMS-Entreprendre.

Ramadan is the first non-Christian holiday to be officially recognised in French companies. Many offices have adjusted their schedules in the afternoons to accommodate tired fasters, and others have set up prayer rooms where fasters can rest. Carmaker Renault was one of the first to reorganise its timetable for Muslim employees.

But IMS-Entreprendre considers other demands, such as leaving early on Friday night, “excessive”.

“Everything depends on the number of people pushing for change,” Dounia Bouzar, the author of What’s Allah’s place at the office?, told the AFP. “If 80 per cent of a company’s employees are Muslim, they’ll be making the rules.”

Halimi kidnappers to be re-tried

Youssouf Fofana, the head of the gang that kidnapped and murdered 23-year-old Ilan Halimi in 2006, was sentenced to life imprisonment last Friday, but French Interior Minister Michele Alliot Marie asked for a new trial for 14 other gang members because their sentences were deemed too lenient.

The case of the self-proclaimed “Gang of Barbarians” is aparently not over. After a two-month long trial behind closed doors, the jury gave on Friday its verdict for the 27 people accused of the abduction and death of Ilan Halimi. The sentences ranged from six months to life imprisonment for the gang’s leader Youssouf Fofana who admitted killing Halimi.

But the victim’s family and Jewish community criticized the verdict, saying Fofana’s accomplices got off easy, and France’s Justice Minister Michele Alliot Marie asked the prosecution to appeal the verdict regarding 14 of the accused who got lighter sentences than the ones the prosecution had requested. (AFP picture)
The appeal was filed on Monday.Halimi’s family is now hoping the new trial will be open to the public.

“The trial was a missed opportunity. It should have explored the facts, the construction of (anti-Semitic) stereotypes and the mechanism that lead to this abduction, torture and killing of this young man,” Richard Prasquier, the head of the Jewish umbrella group CRIF told me. “I was shocked by some of the sentences because they were not strong enough, not to the dimension of what had happened. The trial shouldn’t just be Fofana’s trial. His accomplices were part of it all. Any one of them could have put an end to this ordeal at any moment.”

“The accomplices helped the killer massacre Ilan. They participated actively,” Halimi’s mother Ruth said after the verdict. “What they did is terrible. They killed Ilan because he was Jewish. But the verdict is by no means exceptional.”

Meanwhile, Defense lawyers said many of the accused had no link or knowledge of Halimi’s murder.
“They were judged for their deeds and not to set an example,” said Me Seban.

Three years ago, Youssouf Fofana organized Ilan Halimi’s kidnapping, hoping to get a ransom. The leader of the self-proclaimed ‘Gang of Barbarians’ wanted to get a Jew, any Jew, because he thought “they were rich” and would have the money to pay a ransom.
Fofana went to a street with several kosher restaurants and Jewish-owned businesses to find targets. He spotted the stored that were closed on a Jewish holiday and sent the following days several young women to seduce potential victims.

Ilan Halimi was filling in for a friend at a mobile phone shop that day, when Iranian-born Emma entered the store. Ilan asked her out on a date, and she invited him over to her home in a suburb to the south of Paris. He accepted, but when they get there, Halimi was attacked by several men who pushed him into the trunk of a car.
He was then taken to an apartment in the suburb of Bagneux and later to the sordid basement with the help of the building’s guard who gave the gang a set of keys for some money.

For 24 days Fofana tried to negotiate a deal with Ilan’s parents. But the Halimis followed police orders and refused to pay.

As Ilan’s father kept refusing Fofana’s deals, the gang of Barbarians got wilder and wilder. Several members kept beating up Halimi, and a guard even burned Ilan’s forehead with a cigarette while calling him “dirty Jew”.

Fofana eventually realized his plan had failed and decided to get rid of Halimi. The gang stripped Halimi of his clothes and drove him to another suburb, Sainte Genevieve des Bois. Fofana stabbed Halimi several times, spread petrol on his body and torched his victim. Halimi was then abandoned. He was still alive and tried to get help, but succombed when rescuers tried to get him to the hospital.

The court considered that only two of the accused had anti-Semitic motives, Fofana and one of the guards who burned Ilan’s forehead with a cigarette.
Fofana’s main accomplices who guarded the basement and tortured Halimi got 15 to 18 years and the woman who trapped him was sentenced to 9 years and could be freed in two years.

As the ruling came in on Friday night, some of the accused’s friends and families were in court and smiled at them. They cheered as some of their friends’ short sentences were pronounced. Fofana applauded the ruling.

Unraveling deceitful Judeo-Muslim dialogue

French authorities are hoping that the truce in the Middle East will extend to their own territory.
Over the past three weeks, over sixty anti-Semitic incidents have occurred throughout the country: Molotov cocktails were thrown at synagogues, a dozen youths were assaulted, Jewish institutions were tagged and two Jewish artists – TV star Arthur and emblematic Sepharadi singer Enrico Macias – were prevented from performing. Meanwhile three young Muslims were targeted by a bunch of pro-Israeli militants, presumably from the Jewish Defense League and an imam known for his tolerant ways was assaulted by Muslims.

The media lashed out at Israel for its offensive and tens of thousands protested in the streets – often in support of Hamas - but a surprising poll showed an evolution in public opinion regarding the conflict. Indeed, 23% considered Hamas was responsible for the crisis, while 18% accused the Israeli government. 28% said they were both responsible and the rest couldn’t say.

The less expected effect of the war, here in France, is the collapse of the Judeo-Muslim Friendship Association, founded by Rabbi Michel Serfaty. All of its Muslim officials resigned because their Jewish counterparts didn’t openly condemn Israel for its operations.
Co-chairman Djelloul Seddiki said remaining neutral wasn’t enough: his Jewish colleagues had to condemn Israel.

Rabbi Serfaty said he was surprised, for he remained silent and expressed no support for Israel precisely to please his Muslim counterparts.
Meanwhile Djelloul Seddiki and his friends protested against Israel without mentioning Hamas’s role in the flare-up. So much for dialogue…

Rabbi Michel Sefaty (photo:UEJF)

Rabbi Serfaty is an engaging figure. The tall former basketball player, with his wide black hat and Clint Eastwood stare launched his battle for friendship after being assaulted in the street while walking to the synagogue with his son in 2003. Instead of running along, the rabbi faced his attackers and asked them to explain themselves. He then created the Jewish Muslim Friendship Association to deconstruct stereotypes.

Throughout the years the rabbi has been dragging his congregation, family and fellow Jews along in his initiatives. Every summer he drives his association’s ‘Friendship bus’ across France and neighboring countries with a number of Muslim and Jewish militants advocating dialogue. They go everywhere, from the beaches of Marseille to the rough suburbs around Paris. They don’t spare an effort. But sometimes they have to cave in and make sacrifices.

Rabbi Serfaty sided with his Muslim colleagues over the Danish Mohammad cartoons controversy. The drawings had been reprinted in a couple of French newspapers and the Muslim umbrella group CFCM decided to bring the issue to court in a lawsuit which it eventually lost.
At the time several Jewish leaders, among them former French chief rabbi Joseph Sitruk, criticized the cartoons. Rabbi Serfaty told me he wasn’t, like some French rabbis, against all cartoons criticizing religion. Mocking Moses or Jesus was fine for him. But he strongly opposed drawings criticizing Islam, saying Muslims are different. “The Christians and us have been living in this free speech environment for centuries. They’ve only just arrived. We don’t care about these caricatures but they get hurt.” When I asked him if he did not think many Muslims would be offended if treated differently from the rest of society, he responded that the important thing for him was avoiding a flare-up. “The main goal is to maintain social peace”.

It seems as if this time, condemning Israel – and Israel alone - was a price the rabbi wasn’t willing to pay, even to save his cherished association. Or was he simply taken by surprise ?

Still, Rabbi Serfaty is far from lost. If the crisis in the Middle East taught us anything, it’s that façade dialogue is useless. Uniting to settle kashrut and Hallal issues or to condemn the Jerusalem gay pride is not really a breakthrough. France needs a genuine Judeo-Muslim dialogue between religious and secular leaders.
And the crisis showed us that these leaders exist and who they are.
While tens of thousands demonstrated in the streets, a number of Muslim leaders refused to join them and repeated France had to stay away from the conflict, while respecting each others’ views on the conflict.

French minister Fadela Amara, a strong secular figure in charge of the impoverished suburbs, gathered in her ministry various associations to discuss and organize the battle against anti-Semitism and racism. This wasn’t surprising as Amara, who had strongly supported the Geneva initiative a few years back, has been fighting for tolerance and against sexism in France for years with her women’s association ‘Ni putes ni soumises’.

Imam Hassen Chalghoumi and his family, from the suburb of Drancy, have paid once again during this outburst for their tolerant approach. The imam who advocates genuine dialogue has been assaulted again and his family threatened after he denounced anti-Semitism and called for peace.
“How far will you go? Watch out!” told him North African men as he was walking down the street. Others vandalized his car and threatened him over the phone.
Chalghoumi said nothing would alter his dialogue with the Jewish community although he couldn’t stop thinking of the events in Gaza.
“People from my congregation ask me ‘why is this happening? This isn’t fair.’ And I answer ‘that’s war. It’s never fair.’”

Chalghoumi is the imam of Drancy, a town where French Jews were gathered during World War II in a concentration camp before being deported to death camps. In 2006 the imam called on all Muslims to remember that part of history and pay their respects. Following his address at the Drancy memorial his children were threatened.
A few months ago he invited Jews to participate in the festivities ending the Ramadan. Chalghoumi was attacked following his initiatives. But that didn’t stop him.

Chilling hatred in snowy France

Temperatures haven't sunk so low in Paris for the past 3 decades. The streets are beautiful in the snow in the trendiest and loveliest neighbourhoods as well as in my own popular 20th quarter.
But you know what? Forget about the freezing wind. We get a much greater shiver these days when we hear about the Middle East, see Hamas flags in uptown Paris rallies, and hear about desecrated synagogues and assaulted men.

A burning car crashed into the gates of a synagogue in Toulouse, in the south east of France last night, in what appears to be the latest attack in a recent wave of anti-Semitism.

Rabbi Jonathan Guez was lecturing some members of his congregation when a stolen car was rammed into the front gate, setting it on fire.
A second car was about to be crashed into the synagogue but the attackers abandoned the vehicle with the motor running and fled the area when a security alarm was set off. Police found Molotov cocktails in the cars and is searching for three suspects who were seen running away.

The attack is the latest in a wave of incidents targeting the French Jewish community over the past week which Jewish officials have linked to the unrest in the Middle East.

A 29-year old Jewish man was beaten up in a Paris underground station by 20 young men shouting “Palestine will prevail” following a pro-Palestinian rally in front of the capital's Opera Garnier.
A car with a giant menorah was vandalized and other vehicles were set alight in front of a synagogue in the Paris area. Meanwhile, the Jewish community is following closely the investigation over an attempted murder that left a Jewish doctor in a critical condition on Friday.
70-year-old Dr Desire Amsalem had been shot in the back.
In another symbolic incident, vandals damaged the “Wall of Peace” created by Jewish artist Clara Halter who pleads for peace in the Middle East.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is desperately trying to broker a truce between Hamas and Israel, warned against a contagion of the Mideast conflict and called on France’s communities to remain calm.
French newspapers qualify his attempt to reach a settlement "Mission Impossible" but the public seems to appreciate his efforts in the general international apathy.
Sarkozy's defreeze with Syria - Bachar el Assad's visit in France last summer and his invitation to the prestigious July 14 Bastille Day parade - is even praised in newspapers as a clairvoyant move.

Sarkozy's Interior minister Michele Alliot-Marie gathered Muslim and Jewish officials on Monday, moments ahead of the attack on the synagogue, to discuss the recent tensions and anti-Semitic slogans in rallies against the Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip.

“The conflict should by no means spread to France,” said Richard Prasquier, the head of the Jewish umbrella organization CRIF. Prasquier invited his Muslim counterpart Mohamed Moussaoui to “overcome together” the current difficulties but stressed that certain religious leaders had incited against the Jewish community.

Moussaoui, who heads the Muslim umbrella organization CFCM, condemned all violence and said he was “determined to strengthen relations with the Jewish community in these difficult times.”
Both organizations launched on November 24 common efforts to battle jointly against ant-Semitism and Islamophobia.

However the events may turn in our lovely city, one cannot ignore a strange coincidence.
Yesterday, the day a synagogue was attacked in Toulouse, was also the first day of a major trial, the trial of the three suspects in the attack against the synagogue of Djerba - one of the oldest synagogues in the world. In this al-Qaeda-sponsored attack a Muslim man crashed his explosive-loaded truck into the gates of the ancient temple - killing 21 people. It all happened on April 11, 2002. The accused deny any kind of involvement.

The invisible arm of the WJC

As the World Jewish Congress is set to meet for its general assembly in January, its European branch is entrenched in an ongoing cold war between its western and eastern delegates.
On December 17, Russian businessman Moshe Kantor was easily re-elected president of the lobby with 55 votes, beating French senior challenger Roger Cukierman who got 28, but the latter, a former leader of the French umbrella association CRIF, told me the battle was far from over.

“I imagine the ongoing war between the East and the West will end with the election of the new president ?” I asked Mr Cukierman hours ahead of the vote.
“Obviously,” he answered ironically “after the election, our differences will fade away – just like in the [French] socialist party!” he said, referring to the spectacular split of the French left wing party after its internal election in November.

The French, Austrian, Portuguese and German communities have been criticising Mr Kantor’s leadership and approach, in some cases even before the billionaire took over the head of the EJC 18 months ago. Some criticise the tycoon’s soft lobbying over the Iranian nuclear issue.
“It seems that it is Mr Putin who convinced Mr Kantor of the relevance of his policies rather than the other way around…” evaluated Cukierman.

Mr. Kantor pleads for a friendly approach – working along with Moscow rather than criticising its cooperation with Tehran…but his opponents argue his stance lacks results.
Others have accused him of focusing on commemorations (Kantor financed the massive 60th anniversary of the “liberation” of Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Kristallnacht commemoration in Brussels) rather than on the challenges the Jewish community is facing today.

All four communities left the lobby in 2008 after a contested vote to stretch the president’s mandate from 2 years to 4.
Some of them even considered creating a new pan-European Jewish lobby, perhaps even a partnership with the American Jewish Committee. This absolute nightmare for the EJC was averted by a thread.

“The idea of creating another European body was indeed considered for a time,” confirmed Cukierman, “but we dropped the plan when we realised it wouldn’t be effective because we would be competing with the EJC.”

The four rebellious communities came back to EJC late 2008 after Kantor accepted to hold elections as planned around June 2009. They thought they would challenge his policies from the inside, even compete for the leadership of the lobby.

But once the communities returned to the EJC, the body - which widely relies on Kantor’s 900 thousand-euro yearly contribution - announced flash elections, and the debate was cut short.

“The EJC can become a strong and influent organisation, but since the day it was created, 20 years ago, it’s a sort of sleeping beauty. It doesn’t really do much of anything,” argues Cukierman. “Our lobbying isn’t well coordinated. Simultaneous initiatives are launched separately in different countries while we should work together. We have to be in permanent contact with decision-makers and with the media in order to inform the public. We should work with the WJC. The EJC used to be its European arm.”

I asked the EJC, for which I worked during a short period of time in 2007, to send me a review of its initiatives over the past couple of years to challenge Mr Cukierman’s remarks, but it failed to do so.
Its secretary general simply told me that the inner conflict was settled and that the vote was announced on time.

Regarding the UN-sponsored Durban II conference due to take place in Geneva in April, which several countries have decided to boycott, Serge Cwajgenbaum said the EJC was still holding meetings to decide whether it would take action or not…
“We have yet to decide whether we’ll participate in the conference or boycott it,” said Cwajgenbaum.


The lobby and the anti-Semitic epidemic

Anti-Semitism is still a major concern throughout Europe. The EJC often denounces anti-Jewish assaults but it lacks an efficient strategy.

The Jewish community in France faced the problem a few years back.

“When I arrived to the head of the CRIF at the beginning of the year 2000, a new wave of anti-Semitism had just erupted – twenty synagogues and schools had been burned down, rabbis had been attacked - yet the authorities, President Chirac and the Left-wing government refused to admit it. The attackers had to specifically write anti-Semitic tags when desecrating synagogues in order for the attacks to be considered anti-Semitic.”

Today, France has solid laws which worsen verdicts in cases of anti-Semitic attacks. The next step was to get actual convictions in court.
Education is another important part of the battle as anti-Jewish stereotypes have flourished in French schools. The media of coarse can't be ignored either. An unbiased coverage is essential to win over the war on the anti-Semitic drive.
This strategy has to be extended to the rest of Europe, especially in these times of crisis in which Europe’s Jewry fears a rise of anti-Semitism.