The Paralympics start tomorrow in Paris, but the sense of euphoria brought to France by the Olympics earlier this month has long since faded.
Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist mayor of Paris, may have been a little premature when she declared on August 7 that the success of the Olympics had “shattered the message of the far-right”.
Hidalgo said the message was negative and divisive, challenging the commonly progressive view of France as a happy, multicultural country.
By far-right she is referring to the more than 10 million people who voted for Marine Le Pen's National Rally in July's parliamentary elections. “Something incredibly positive is happening. I think it's good news for humanity,” Hidalgo added.
A few days after Hidalgo's comments, two members of the French Olympic team were suspended. One of them, sprinter Mohammed Abdallah Kunta, was accused of posting inflammatory comments that were described as “anti-white, anti-French and anti-Semitic.” (Kunta suggested that his comments had been taken out of context, saying, “I sincerely apologize if anyone was offended. I am against genocide and all forms of racism and injustice, and I don't see the need to prove how much I love my country.”)
Another long-distance runner, Hugo Hay, is accused of making derogatory remarks about Jews and Arabs. (Hay has apologized, saying, “I am no longer the stupid teenager who made such insulting and hurtful comments.”) Hay is known for his left-wing views, and earlier in the Olympics he had criticised Emmanuel Macron in an interview with the far-left newspaper L'Humanité.
Two shocking videos also went viral: one showing a man from Montpellier being subjected to anti-Semitic abuse on the city's public transport, and the other showing an African man hurling abuse at a frightened Jewish family on the Paris metro, a minute-long tirade that also includes the sentiment that “Hitler was right.” Another troubling aspect of the tirade was the indifference of other passengers.
But should that be surprising? After all, this is France, arguably the most anti-Semitic country in Western Europe, as I have documented for several years.
In 2018, I argued that France was “the most dangerous European country for Jews,” noting that anti-Semitic attacks that year had increased by 74 percent over 2017. I returned to the theme in January 2020 in an article titled “How Long Until France is Free of Jews?”
Anti-Semitic acts have soared 200 percent since Hamas began its brutal attacks on Israel 10 months ago, according to figures released by Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin this week, which include two attempts to burn down synagogues.
The first occurred in May when an Algerian man was shot dead by police after trying to set fire to a synagogue in Rouen. The second occurred on Saturday when a man wearing a keffiyeh and a Palestinian flag carried out a similar act on the outskirts of Montpellier, setting fire to a building and blowing up two cars in the street outside.
The usual condemnation came from all political parties, including President Emmanuel Macron and Gabriel Attal, who still holds the prime ministerial post.
Their words were not received well by many in the country's Jewish community, with Chief Rabbi Chaim Korsia lamenting that they “seemed more like crocodile tears than tears of sympathy.”
He, like Simone Rodin-Benzaken, president of the American Jewish Committee for France and Europe, accused Jean-Luc Mélenchon's far-left party, Insubordinate France, of fueling the fires of anti-Semitism. “Today, I believe that Insubordinate France (LFI) has become a structurally anti-Semitic party,” she said.
Similar accusations were levelled against the party in June by Serge Klarsfeld, France's most respected Nazi hunter, who has dedicated his life to bringing those responsible for the Holocaust to justice.
A rising star of Insubordinate France is Rima Hassan. “No one, except the Western hegemonic mindset, considers October 7 an act of terrorism,” she said recently, shortly after reportedly taking part in a rally in Jordan in memory of Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas political leader assassinated in Tehran last month.
Asked whether he would vote for Mélenchon or Marine Le Pen, Klarsfeld said he would vote for Le Pen because he believes she has cleansed her father's anti-Semitism from her party.
A few days after that interview, Macron and his government faced a similar choice ahead of the second round of parliamentary elections. But in their case, they had a third option: to remain neutral. The government instead sided with the LFI and the Left, saying it was voters' “moral duty” to stop Le Pen's party from taking power. Their alliance even went so far as to make a dirty agreement for candidates to withdraw in close races to increase their chances of winning against the Rally National. For example, Gérard Darmanin might have lost his seat to the Rally National if the LFI candidate had not withdrawn.
French Jews are rightly afraid for their future. With most politicians encouraging a frightening resurgence of anti-Semitism, is there a future for Jews in France? I repeat the question I asked four years ago: How long will it be before there are no Jews left in France?
This article originally appeared on The Spectator UK website.
