A ‘new anti-Semitism’ rising in France

[DFW]

15. France, like Germany, had their own "mea culpa" phase

Last edited Sun Jun 22, 2014, 09:08 AM - Edit history (1)

The Germans had theirs forced upon them by their defeat in World War II. It took a generation, but it was mostly successful for two reasons. First, there weren't a lot of Jews left after the war, and the Allies kept Germany under their thumb for a generation--the Germans were forced to confront their victims.

France didn't leave their last big Arab colony until after the last uprising in Algeria int he 1960s. They then opened their country to millions of residents of their former colonies, but they forgot one major detail--they offered them a house, but not a home. Millions of Arabs came to France and were stuck in ethnic ghettos and ignored. Shocking living quarters, economic and racial discrimination, and high unemployment in general made for an explosive mixture. After 1967, when Arabic language broadcasts helped fuel hatred of Israel (a vague concept to the kids of Algerian immigrants in Paris) and Jews (very real and visibly present in Paris), now there was a focus. Couple that with the latent vestiges of Anti-Jewish sentiment left in tiny parts of the European French population, and you have a fertile ground for recruiting hate violence.

I have Jewish friends in France, and one of them has indeed moved to Israel. After all that has gone on in recent years, their feeling toward the Arab community in general is mutual. However we also get together with Muslim Arab friends when I'm there, so it's a weird mixed bag of feelings directed toward nebulous groups, but always other people "out there," who are nothing like the guys we hang out with at the local café.