A report from France says it is worse than we thought
We thought the big march last month was the beginning of France waking up. If Augean Stables is right, we were mistaken, and sadly mistaken at that:
“Nous sommes tétanisés,” said my French friend. The French are beginning to wake up, beginning to lift up their Ostrich head from the sand. As opposed to the frequent dismissals I ran across in the past – when it wasn’t accusations of racism – I now met an increasing number of people willing to say, “we don’t disagree” (the French really don’t like to say “you’re right”). But, as my friend put it, we don’t know what to do. “We’re paralyzed.”….
People are affolés, like the thirties. People are leaving. Especially the Jews. But if you try and make the parallel to the thirties, you get cut off. Your colleagues won’t talk to you, stop having you speak at colloquia. In 2002, the cry was “Synagogue brulé, République en danger.” In 2006, it was “Ilan Halimi brulé, République en danger. It’s gotten worse. Before we had hope. We told ourselves, they’re unaware. If we can get them to look at this clearly, we can persuade them. Now we’ve persuaded them, and they do nothing. The level of appeasement is depressing: every time the Muslims get angry, the French trip over themselves to calm their passions. It’s far worse now. I am losing hope for France. Even the French communities in good neighborhoods, with fancy Kosher restaurants nearby, are feeling the cold wind blow. Now, in market places, in schools, even when it doesn’t involve immigrants, Jew is used as an epithet. You can even call a Chinese “dirty Jew” if you want to insult him.
In other words, in the world of honor-shame in French culture today, the Jews are the dhimmis, the ones publicly singled out for humiliation. “But what about the huge demonstrations? Didn’t they represent a serious change of public opinion?” “Maybe. Aside from the politicians, it was mostly Jews….”
Roger Simon liked this phrase in the post: Like the Arabs, the French were once the leaders of European and global culture (from the 11th to the mid-19th centuries); and like the Arabs, they have a deep sense of grievance at “history gone wrong.” As for the substance of the report, well, there’s really not to much to point to that is hopeful in France today.