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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (54949)	7/18/2004 9:34:06 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793559

I think Sharon is right. France is starting to sound like Germany in the '30s. Get out while you are still alive. PM: French Jews should immigrate Herb Keinon Jul. 18, 2004 Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called on France's 600,000 Jews to immigrate to srael "immediately," prompting the French Foreign Ministry to issue a response calling his comments "unacceptable." "If I have to advocate to our brothers in France, I would tell them one thing: move to Israel, as early as possible," Sharon told a meeting of the United Jewish Communities in Jerusalem. Sharon's comments came a week after a 23-year-old woman shocked France by first claiming she was the victim of an anti-Semitic incident on a train, and then admitting that she made the whole thing up. Although this particular woman was not attacked, in the first six months of 2004 there were – according to French Foreign Ministry statistics – 135 physical attacks against Jews. By comparison, in all of 2003 there were 127 such attacks. While praising the French government for taking steps to fight anti-Semitism, Sharon said, "We see the spread of the wildest anti-Semitism there." Sharon urged Jews from around the world to immigrate to Israel, but said that this is especially critical now for French Jews. A spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry issued a statement shortly after the French press picked up Sharon's comments. "We have been informed today of the declaration made by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon calling upon the Jews of France to immigrate to Israel," the spokesman said. "We immediately contacted the Israeli authorities in order to seek explanations for those unacceptable comments." AFP reported that in the aftermath of the alleged attack on the train, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said that "anti-Semitism is a disgrace. We want to fight this sort of intolerable racism. There is also something wrong in our society: it's the indifference to violence," he said. Sharon's call for increased immigration from France comes at a time when an increasing number of French Jews are considering aliya. The Jewish Agency expects to receive 200 French immigrants on July 28, said Mike Rosenberg, who is director-general of the Jewish Agency's immigration and absorption department. He is hopeful that close to 3,000 will arrive this year. As anti-Semitism increased, the numbers of French immigrants doubled from 1,100 in 2001 to 2,083 in 2003, Rosenberg told The Jerusalem Post. "A large majority of [French Jews] have visited Israel and have a connection to Israel," he said. He said there are neighborhoods in France where Jewish families are complaining that it isn't safe to let their children play outside. "There is a definite atmosphere that it is not safe to be Jewish," said Rosenberg. "When they come down to street level, religious Jews remove their kippa," said Rosenberg. He attributed it in large part to the rapid demographic changes taking place in France, where the growing Muslim population is largely "anti-Israel." "I do not think that you have to be a genius to realize that this is not a reversible situation. I would expect it to get worse, not better," as the Muslim population grows, said Rosenberg. Sharon's comments came on the day a ceremony was held in Paris marking the 62nd year since the deportation of 8,000 Jewish Parisians to Nazi concentration camps. Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin clarified the prime minister's statements, explaining that he called on the Jews of France to immigrate the same way he urges Jews around the world to come to Israel. He did not tell them to leave because of anti-Semitism, said Gissin. He urged them to come to Israel the way he tells Jews from the United States and Canada to come to Israel. If we want to insure Jewish survival, Jews have to live in Israel, said Gissin. There is no doubt that there are dangerous manifestations of anti-Semitism in France, said Gissin. But Sharon made a clear distinction between the society and the governments policy. He said very clearly that despite the fact that there is wide spread anti-Semitism the government of France and the President of France takes a strong unequivocal stance against anti-Semitism, said Gissin. He said that Sharon spoke of the threat anti-Semitism poses not just to France, but to democracies around the world. This article can also be read at jpost.com

To: LindyBill who wrote (54949)	7/19/2004 9:28:18 AM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793559

Bill, There are, to my understanding, two points in the Senate Intelligence Committee report that the Dems refused to sign and are disputed by Wilson. The two are his wife's role in his selection and his assertions about Iraq wishing to buy yellowcake uraninium. I gather you are calling the version in the Senate Intelligence Committee report, "the facts" and Wilson's version and the refusal of the Dems to sign off, you are calling spin. Marshall argues those "facts" are wrong. I'm simply saying they are disputed. I have no insider basis for declaring otherwise. I read you as saying something like the following. Because people like Safire and the large number of right wing bloggers take your "facts" as the premise for their arguments, all of you are assuming the same thing. Let me say, once again, "the facts" as you call them are the disputed thing. To some degree, we will know what is and is not a fact here, if the Justice Dept investigation into this case has a credible argument for its conclusion. Stay tuned is all I can say.