Given France’s gruesome post-World War II colonial history, it has a feeble claim to any moral superiority and is hardly in a position to pontificate to Israel over Gaza
A recent and somewhat undiplomatic incident occurred that set the proverbial cat among the pigeons in the stately halls of government in Paris.
It came in the form of an open letter in The Wall Street Journal written by Charles Kushner, the U.S. Ambassador to France, expressing sharp criticism of the manner in which President Emmanuel Macron has handled the burgeoning wave of antisemitism in the country.
Kushner, the father of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, warned that antisemitic incidents in France had “exploded since Hamas’s barbaric assault on October 7, 2023” against the farms, villages and towns in southern Israel. Significantly, he suggested that Macron’s government’s criticism of Israel and his move toward recognizing a Palestinian state amid its war on Gaza had emboldened antisemitic sentiments. The US envoy warned that today, “many French Jews fear that history will repeat itself in Europe,” and urged Macron to forge a “serious plan” to root out antisemitism.
