France II – Macron and Antisemitism

In February of this year, France’s President Macron, at an annual dinner of CRIF, the representative body of French Jews, came out with a statement equating anti-Zionism with Antisemitism: "L'antisionisme est l'une des formes modernes de l'antisémitisme" Whichever of his assistants had written that text, is either an idiot or under the thumb of a pro-Israel lobby. 

 

That was ten months ago. Now the French parliament has passed a resolution repeating Macron’s idiocy. The Israeli government confirmed that “The adoption of the resolution came after many months of diplomatic efforts by the Israeli embassy in Paris.”

Whereas I believe that establishing a Jewish state in Palestine was morally justified, I do not expect everyone to share my view. I definitely do not expect Palestinians to do so: For Palestinians, Zionism means dispossession, displacement, occupation and structural inequality. It is cynical and insensitive to stigmatize them as anti-Semites for opposing Zionism. They oppose Zionism not because they hate Jews, but because they experience Zionism as an oppressive political movement.  

The fact that some Antisemites are also anti-Zionists, does not mean that all anti-Zionists are Antisemites. Antisemitism is way too serious a problem to handle it superficially, only because the Israeli government takes advantage of European guilt over the Holocaust.  

Macron the Feeble

On more than one occasion has French President Macron proven not to be very good under pressure. Last week, he panicked again, as in reaction to recent Antisemitic incidents, he announced that France would now consider anti-Zionism as a form of Antisemitism.

This, of course, is somewhere between ignorance and dishonesty.

I believe that it was morally right to establish the Jewish state and thus define myself as a Zionist. I, however, accept that some people – for whatever reason – do not share that view and therefore define themselves as anti-Zionists. There will be antisemites, whose hatred of Jews, will also make them anti-Zionists. This, however, does not mean that their anti-Zionism = antisemitism. 

Israel and its supporting Jewish lobbies have been very successful in their push to delegitimise critics of Israel by defining them as antisemites. With Macron they can add another notch to their belts.