French officials bristled at Ambassador Charles Kushner’s claim that government hostility toward Israel endangers French Jews.
The French Foreign Ministry expressed outrage at U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner after he warned that government rhetoric hostile to Israel was fueling antisemitism in the country. Paris confirmed it had summoned the diplomat for a formal conversation following his sharp criticism.
Kushner, a Jewish real estate magnate whose son Jared is married to President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, published an open letter in the Wall Street Journal warning about the increasingly hostile atmosphere toward Jews and Israel in France.
In the letter, addressed to French President Emmanuel Macron, Kushner wrote that “public statements haranguing Israel and gestures toward recognition of a Palestinian state embolden extremists, fuel violence, and endanger Jewish life in France. In today’s world, anti-Zionism is antisemitism — plain and simple.”