Mr. Prime Minister
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We have a deep relationship of trust with you, and it is to a friend that I am speaking. I am sounding the alarm to you reluctantly but solemnly: anti-Semitism is back again. Today many Jews in France are afraid. But our anxiety, which, I know, is also yours, means disarray for France and fear for the Republic in which we have historically played the role of watchmen.
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It was of no use to prove that the Jews or Jewish associations were not spared by the crisis. It was of no use to verify that there were as many Jews as others among the victims of the 9/11 attacks. Rumor cares nothing about the truth. Bending facts to an ideology is an old activity, but today the Internet gives rumors a terrifying forum. Anti-Semitism is spreading there immeasurably.
(…) Our requests are to create a watchdog on racism on the Internet, to strengthen the resources of the Central Office for the Fight Against Crime Linked to Information Technologies, and to systematically prosecute the hosts of anti-Semitic contents.
On December 27, 2008 the Israeli government launched an operation in Gaza to stop the firing at the south of the country. (…) The month of January 2009 witnessed an explosion of hate of an alarming virulence in our country, but not only in our country.
(…) The hate against the Jews has poured out on the Internet sites of newspapers that had to be closed. Last year I was worried about the propagation of this subculture of anti-Jewish stereotypes: this subculture is expressing itself today. Yesterday it was confidential, and in January it displayed itself unabashedly in the streets of the Republic.
The demonstrations claimed to support the population of Gaza against Israel’s attacks, against which no qualifier was spared: perpetrator of genocide, Nazi, shame of humanity.
But there were also shouts of « death to the Jews ». (…) We have understood that for many organizers the real objective was to glorify Hamas.
We are in a free country: demonstrations of support to the Palestinian population, demonstrations of hostility to Israeli policy, all that is normal. But how can we accept that people parade under the flags of the arch-terrorist movement Hamas with banners of hate and slogans of death? I understand the person who comes to help populations in distress and who allows himself to be manipulated. But how can we believe these seasoned political activists of the far left who claim that they have seen nothing and heard nothing of these excesses? In photos we do not see these activists close their eyes or plug their ears!
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We are as sensitive as anyone else to the Palestinian civilian victims of the Israeli operation. But we do not forget the victims of Hamas, who are Palestinian as well as Israeli.
Some dare to suggest or even to write that the Jews of France, and the CRIF in particular, make themselves responsible, through their attachment to Israel, for the anti-Semitic excesses. This venomous phraseology is something that we have experienced in our history. « Cease to be this or that, in other words cease to be a Jew, and there will no longer be any hostility against you… » we were once told. Today we are hypocritically exhorted: « be against Israel, otherwise it will be normal that we, or that others, be anti-Semites. » (…) You have often said, Mr. President of the Republic, that good reasons for anti-Semitism do not exist.
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On January 4, 2009 we demonstrated our solidarity with the state of Israel with calm and dignity, as is our right as French citizens. We did not demonstrate against the Palestinians. The CRIF has taken a position in favor of a viable and prosperous Palestinian state, but we say that it cannot be a state dominated by Hamas, a totalitarian movement advocating a democracy of one day, the day that brings it to power.
(…) During the month of January 2009, aside from a minor and debatable episode, which we denounced, it is the Jews and the Jews alone who were attacked or insulted.
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We pay homage to the law enforcement and to the public authorities who proved the importance they attach to the protection of the Jews. When I spoke abroad and in the United States in particular, I firmly stressed the obvious point that there is anti-Semitism in France, but that France is not an anti-Semitic country. Today, at last, this message is heard, and it is partly thanks to the French President and to you.
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To our Moslem friends, who will be the first targets of radical Islamism, I solemnly declare that it is in difficult moments, when events seem to push us toward opposite sides, that we must strengthen our exchanges and announce this publicly. We must resist slogans and pressures from extremists and violent persons. We all know here that our struggle is a common one, it is the struggle for fraternity, it is the struggle for democracy.
Our meetings must be placed under the aegis of the law and values of the Republic, in the framework of an open and respectful vision of identity, of which secularism is one foundation. If this rule of the game is circumvented, the national fabric will continue to fall apart.
It is the State that must provide the impetus that will then be able – but only then – to be effectively passed on by local initiatives on the part of citizens aiming at promoting what we call « living together ». The CRIF will meet trade union organizations or associations of our country. We will meet all the political organizations that support the Republic, including those that are not favorable toward us. We will clarify our positions and convince the people to whom we speak that the fight against anti-Semitism is a fight for today, and that the hatred of Jews is a marker of the tribalization of our society.
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When radical Islamism takes the immediate destructive form of Al Qaeda, we know who we are dealing with. But when it takes the more insidious form of the Moslem Brotherhood, democrats are not as well armed. The Moslem Brotherhood, the Palestinian branch of which is called Hamas, uses the space in our open societies to acquire their legitimacy, and then the demand for their own code of values, under the cover of freedom. This code is incompatible with the rules of our society, but our society must not forget its rules.
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The French branch of the Moslem Brotherhood is the UOIF (Union des Organisations Islamiques de France). It was very active in January. The UOIF published press releases accusing the Israelis of unprecedented genocide and planned genocide. We are thus considered as accomplices of perpetrators of genocide. It is out of the question for us to resume the dialogue as long as these unacceptable words are not withdrawn. We will never yield to the murderers of the truth.
Another murderer of the truth is named Richard Williamson, an inveterate Holocaust-denier, whose excommunication was recently lifted, to our stupefaction. You took a clear position on this, Mr. President of the Republic, and I thank you for it
(…) A Williamson will not be enough to break the links that are now established between the Catholic Church and its faithful with the Jews, links whose solidity we particularly feel in France.
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Negationism is not an opinion, it is a criminal abjection. (…)
There is a city in which another form of revisionism will seek a victory in a few weeks. It is Geneva, where, the Conference called Durbin 2 will be held April 20-24.
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Last year President Sarkozy announced the red lines that condition France’s participation in this Conference.
Discussion is underway in Geneva about a text that will condition the final resolution. The current proposals maintain the ban on the chain defaming religions, which is a major threat to the freedom of speech. These proposals focus their criticisms on free societies and their so-called racism, and of course reserve the essential share of their denunciation for Israel.
(…) The United States, which for the first time participated in this type of meeting, has just officially announced that it would not go to Geneva.
This decision is a capital one: the American administration, under the orders of a new President, whose election is a magnificent symbol, approached Durban 2 with a new eye and no prejudices, decided that enough was enough…
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Mr. President of the Republic, I entreat you, do not compromise on the red lines of Geneva. If the standstill is such, do not leave France in this masquerade. Do not let Iran, Libya and Cuba define what Human Rights should be, or rather quit them and leave, leave with Europe, with all the countries in which the words freedom, democracy, and equality between the genders still have a meaning…
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Despite the collapse of oil resources, despite the economic disaster, despite the rejection by broad portions of society, despite widespread misery, Ahmadinedjad and his group stick to their position: their priority is a nuclear bomb, the bomb that will satisfy their dreams of power. The deadline is now very close. We are aware of France’s involvement in the nuclearization of Iran, one of the most alarming issues in the world today. Ahmadinejad, the funder of Hamas and Hezbollah, a Holocaust-denier, a purveyor of arms, hate and the Apocalypse, must not maintain a nuclear threat over a group of countries within the growing range of his rockets, a group much broader than just the State of Israel.
(…).
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