Rothschild: France not anti-Semitic

Thousands are voting with their feet.

"Figures released in Israel yesterday (2004) showed that 2,380 moved last year and 2,556 the year before. In the 1990s only about 800 French Jews emigrated to Israel each year."

Here are some very shocking findings from a 2003 survey

French Jews have grown so disgusted with anti-Semitism that more than one quarter of them are considering emigrating.

That's according to a new survey of the 500,000-member French Jewish community, the second largest in the diaspora.

The poll was conducted by The Israel Project, which previously measured American attitudes about Jews and Israel in order to produce pro-Israel ads.

According to the poll, 26 percent of those surveyed said they have considered emigrating due to worsening French anti-Semitism.

Among those polled, 13 percent are "seriously" considering leaving, according to Washington pollster Stan Greenberg, who led the surveys and focus groups...

82 percent of respondents say anti-Semitism is a serious problem in France and 78 percent say it has deepened in the past few years.

Moreover, 38 percent of respondents say they personally have been the targets of anti-Semitic incidents, and 58 percent say they know friends or relatives who have been singled out.

Only 30 percent say they don't know anyone who has experienced some form of anti-Semitism.

Most of those who are thinking of leaving -- 64 percent -- have been victims of anti-Semitism, whether physical attacks, verbal assaults or some other form of anti-Jewish behavior.

Yaakov, I just want to understand something:

Is this the same Chirac who visited Arafat in his hospital room on order to pay tribute to "a man of courage and conviction who for 40 years incarnated the Palestinians' fight for recognition of their national rights"? Wow, he has made quite a turn-around.

How this is related to anti-semitism? Is having any kind of bias toward Palestinians and their cause being anti-semitic? As I see it, the situation in the Middle-East, basically, has nothing to do with anti-semitism: it's Israel vs Palestine. Not that it may not be involved, but it's not the heart of the issue, as it was with in WWII, for example.

I try to be balanced in my opinions, trying to see things in shades of grey instead of black and white. But I see red when I see a quote like that, because I get it as being accused, indirectly, of anti-semitism, just because I might have some kind of empathy for the Palestinian people (and don't tell me about the islamists or the suicide bombers, I'm not talking about them).

It seems to me that it's a very hard thing indeed to claim that France is anti-semitic - and supporting Israel's enemies isn't by any yardstick the same thing.

I wonder if Israel has for too long traded off Europe's past unspeakable atrocities by equating anti-semitism with opposition to Israeli government policies?

No, Israel has long ago learned that France is going to defend its honor regardless of truth, by placing the blame elsewhere. They've always had to deal with their own problems with Algiers and the fighting with Arabs. They are not going to defend Jews, now or ever.

They will continue to make excuses for their own dark history.