Angry Jews may upset French P.M.’s plans

Press, 16 July 1980, Page 12

Angry Jews may upset French P.M.’s plans

By

PAUL WEBSTER

in

Paris

The emergence of a powerful French Jewish lobby may force President Valery Giscard d’Estaing to reconsider his pro-Pa-lestine policy in the runup to the presidential elections in April next year. A profound change in attitudes among Jews in France has been ■ symbolised by two recent events — the recent election of a new Grand Rabbi from the Sephardi community and the impressive support for the pro-Israel movement, Jewish Renewal. Dr Rene Sirat, who will replace Rabbi Joseph Kaplan as leader of 700,000 Jews, represents the recent influx of poorer North African Jews, who now outnumber the elitist Ashnekazi community from Eastern Europe. It was the Sephardi who brought Menachem Begin to power and the new militancy in France can be traced to their increasing influence. Although France has the second biggest Jewish population in Europe outside the Soviet Union, it is only recently that political analysts have begun talking about a Jewish vote. This is despite the fact that Rabbi Kaplan led opposition to General de Gaulle’s anti-Israeli policy. The traditional Jewish population and refugees from Eastern European lacked a political identity partly because their leaders, the de Rothschild family, have been closely linked with the central system of power. Much of this community has only a loose attachment, to the Jewish • faith and is absorbed in the general philosophy of progressive French republicanism. President Giscard courted an intellectual Jewish preoccupation with reform to reinforce his centrist movement; other Jews rallied to it because it was anti-Gaullist. But since his open support for an independent Palestine and the manifestation of power by the Spehardi, he has lost touch with the new forces in the community. Many Sephardi feel that Giscard is motivated wholly by economic reasons, giving way to Arab wishes to protect French oil imports. The Sephardi took refuge in France after the ending of the French North African empire. As many exile families are split between Israel and

France, there is a deep attachment to Israel. There are more than 400,000 Sephardi in France, a disturbing factor for the Elysee when it is recalled that the President was elected by a margin of only 300,000 votes in 1974. How this power could be rallied against him was illustrated two years ago, when Jewish Renewal successfully campaigned against one of his proteges in a parliamentary by-election. In March Jewish Renewal shook the whole establishment with a well organised protest against the President’s ■ policies on Palestine, attended by more than 100,000 people. The movement; led by a lawyer, Mr Henri Jadjenberg, is seen as a direct challenge to the dominance of the apolitical, Rothschilddominated Council Representing Jewish Institutions that administers most Jewish social and financial organisations. The Jewish Renewal demonstration has encouraged a network of . antiGiscard movements . supported by the newspaper “Tribune Juive,” which has called for- a - vote against the President. Mr Marc Aron, president of a co-ordination committee for 40 pro-Israel organisa--tions with 100,000 mem-, bers, said that the French Government’s “contempt for the security of Israel and 700,000 French Jews has led to dissidence that no other French Government has ever provoked.” Jewish anger has developed slowly since a 'French Foreign .Minister publicly shook hands with the Palestine Liberation Organisation leader, ? Yasser Arafat, five years ago. Only now are there signs that the pro-Govemment political parties- are .se-

riously worried. President Giscard’s own party is demanding a more considered policy and wants an end to rumours that Arafat will soon be welcomed in Paris. With the opposition Socialist Party in the best position to pick up a dissident Jewish vote, its development into an organised lobby now largely depends on the political attitude of the new Grand Rabbi, Rene Sirat. The 50-year-old university professor of Jewish studies was bom in Algeria and has a strong’influence in southwestern France, one of Giscard’s power bases. He takes office in January and says his priority' will be to • develop Jewish education.. But he: has "made it clear he. is' fully aware of what may be a decisive political role. ■ Dr Sirat said on his election: “Every Jew .in the world is. agreed on one point — the higher interests of Israel are fundamental in the daily life pf a ' Jew,' whether in Israel .or in Diaspora.”, — 0.F.N.51 Copyright.