Prime Minister Sharon faces French outrage

Israeli Prime Minister Sharon is advising all Jews to leave France. 
There are growing anti-Jewish sentiments and incidents in France as more than 300 anti-Semitic attacks have been reported in France so far this year, which is more than in all of 2003.

Shalom Ouaki, a Tunisian-born Jew, said:  "I have to deal with the insults, the spitting as I pass, the aggressive body language," he added. "I always feel ill at ease walking in my neighborhood."  His son was badly beaten by a group of North African boys. They taunted him with anti-Semitic remarks and tore his skullcap from his head.

French President Jacques Chirac says Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is not welcome in Paris until he explains his appeal to French Jews to leave the country.

Roger Cukierman, president of the Jewish Community of France, said: “French Jews are experiencing an unprecedented level of hostility”.

In 1980, a bomb outside a Paris synagogue killed four people. The then-Prime Minister Raymond Barre remarked that "two innocent Frenchmen were killed" -- implying the Jews killed weren't French. It was a slip of the tongue, but something the French Jewish community hasn't forgotten.

Author’s note – I am not one of Sharon’s bigger fans, but this time, considering what is happening in France, I have to swing toward Sharon. That is until French President Chirac can get a handle on the problems and eliminate the problems.  However, it might be noted that the Vichy Government of France, during World War Two, openly cooperated with Nazi Germany.

More on the situation can be found on CNN.

Michael Berglin