In France, left-leaning Jewish organizations and individual voters are having to make a decision ahead of tear legislative elections, with the far right expected to win big and the hard left allegedly mired in anti-Semitism claims.
According to its spokesman Lorenzo Leschi, a spokesman for Jewish shared Golem,” the way straight is the main danger threatening Jews and French society.”
However, he continued,” there is certainly a big anti-Semitism problem at France Unbowed,” the hard-left organization whose ambivalent response to Hamas ‘ assault on Israel on October 7 temporarily shunned by other left functions.
Three major blocs are competing for votes in the two- round ballot on June 30 and July 7: the far- right National Rally ( RN ) of Marine Le Pen, President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist camp, and the left New Popular Front ( NFP ) alliance, of which LFI is the largest member.
It was” a total shame” for France’s traditional left party of government, the much- weakened Socialist Party ( PS), to ally with LFI, which “makes hatred of Jews its electoral stock in trade”, the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions ( Crif ) charged.
Raphael Glucksmann, who helped the PS to an unexpectedly positive result in the European elections on June 9, acknowledged to an agonizing vote on a phone-in display last week that the alliance places” a very tricky choice before you” while claiming that the far-right” threat” was “infinitely to great” to abandon working with LFI.
The remaining empire program includes a condemnation of Hamas ‘ attacks and a strategy to combat the hatred and Islamophobia of Jews, as well as LFI itself, which has consistently and firmly refuted allegations of anti-Semitism.
– ‘ Erasing background’-
The hard media’s strategy for June 9 German elections laid enormous emphasis on stopping Israel’s campaign in Gaza, while its leader Jean- Luc Melenchon claimed that France today suffered just “vestigial” anti- Semitism.
In response to the 300 percent year-on-year rise in anti-Semitic incidents in January-March in the midst of the October 7 strike and Israel’s reprisal in Gaza, these sorties irritated some Jewish people.
Two teenagers from a district of Paris were charged with the murder and mistreatment of a 12-year-old Jewish girl, acts allegedly motivated by anti-Semitism.
Melenchon, a front-runner for the remaining if the left had a majority, said on social media that the hate crime had “horrified” him.
But the attack made it possible for three-time political member Le Pen to criticize” the far left’s stigmatization of Jews” in an interview.
Le Pen’s group was co-founded by her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, who frequently made anti-Semitic remarks in open. It was also led by her father Jean-Marie Le Pen.
She has made efforts to appeal to potential Israeli citizens, including with vociferous support for Israel, since she took over, sidelining her papa, and renaming the dress.
Serge Klarsfeld, a writer who has spent years researching the Holocaust in German-occupied France, stunned the audience on Saturday by saying he did vote for the RN over the remaining empire if forced to make a decision in the July 7 run-off.
” My life rotates around defending Jewish memory, defending oppressed Jews, defending Israel”, Klarsfeld said.
” I’m faced with a significantly left that’s in the hand of LFI, which reeks of pro- Semitism and violent pro- Zionism”, he added– qualities Klarsfeld believes the RN has” shed”.
In a joint op-ed in daily Le Monde Thursday, scientist Michele Cohen-Halimi, author Francis Cohen, and professional Leopold von Verschuer wrote,” Serge Klarsfeld is… worsening uncertainty and surpassing all in erasing background, which is part of the RN’s intellectual programme.”
On Wednesday, the RN itself and its conservative allies withdrawn support for two candidates who had posted anti-Semitic content online.
– ‘ Do n’t have the choice’-
The election is” totally weird,” comedian and activist against anti-Semitism Emmanuel Revah told AFP.
He is leaning toward LFI because, according to him,” the most crucial thing is beating the RN.”
” It’s very difficult, I’m rationalising by telling myself I’d rather vote for a candidate or a party that’s just a little rather than completely anti- Semitic”, he added.
” We do n’t have the choice, we’re voting for any candidate against the RN”, said Brigitte Stora, author of the book” Anti- Semitism: an intimate murder”.
Once the parliamentary polls are over, though,” we have to take Melenchon and his little lieutenants out of the game”, she added.
