THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 19, January 29, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
BETRAYAL -- FRANCE, THE ARABS, & THE JEWS:
A BRIEFING BY DAVID PRICE-JONES:
SUMMARY ACCOUNT
By Mimi Stillman
FRENCH FOREIGN POLICY TOWARD THE ARABS & THE JEWS: A POLICY THAT IS PRO-ARAB & ANTI-ISRAELI --
FRENCH FOREIGN POLICY AT ODDS WITH AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY IN THE MIDDLE EAST -- THE CHARACTER & LONG
HISTORY OF ANTISEMITISM IN FRANCE -- THE PRO-MUSLIM ATTITUDES & VIEWS OF THE FRENCH DIPLOMATIC &
POLITICAL ELITES -- WHY THE FRENCH, IN INTERNATIONAL CRISES THROUGHOUT THE LAST THREE OR FOUR DECADES,
HAVE OBSTRUCTED EVERY WESTERN INITIATIVE & POLICY & THEREBY FACILITATED VIOLENCE, TERRORISM, & WAR --
WHY THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT SUPPORTED SADDAM HUSSEIN IN IRAQ & YASIR ARAFAT IN THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN
CONFLICT -- THE ROLE OF FRANCE IN BRINGING ABOUT THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION IN IRAN -- THE FRENCH PENCHANT FOR
HARBORING ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS & APPEASING GENOCIDAL ISLAMIC STATES
FULL STORY:
The Middle East Forum presented the eminent author David Pryce-Jones to discuss his new book, Betrayal: France, the
Arabs, and the Jews (Encounter, 2006). The goal in this study, he explained, was to "examine the very strange behavior
of the French" in their policy toward Arabs and Jews since the Nineteenth Century. His narrative centers on the latter half
of the Twentieth Century, but with a look at its roots in France's past.
Mr. Pryce-Jones pointed out a paradox in French political culture: As authors of the Rights of Man and creators of
the slogan Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity), the French left a legacy of democratic ideals to the
West. So why is it, he asks, that, in international crises throughout the last three or four decades, "the French have
obstructed every major Western initiative and policy, and although they declare themselves to be acting in the name of
peace, they are in fact encouraging, at best, confusion, and at worst, war and violence."
In Mr. Pryce-Jones's view, the West is locked in a serious confrontation with Islam, in which deep historic forces are at play.
The fragmentation of the Muslim world, including strife between Sunni and Sh'ia and among groups within those sects, is
cause for the eventual defeat of Islam. He believes that the West can win the struggle, but only if it stays united. He
suggests that the French are "fragmenting us and nullifying our efforts."
Two themes are woven throughout Betrayal: the French conceptions of the Muslims and the Jews. The phrase "la
France est une puissance musulmane" (France is a Muslim power), which came into common usage during the reign of
Napoleon III and was repeated generation after generation by the French regime, sparked Mr. Pryce-Jones's interest in
French foreign policy. This ran contrary to centuries of France billing itself as a Christian power and basing its policies
upon protecting the Christians in the Holy Land, then part of the Ottoman Empire. The idea of France as a Muslim power,
Mr. Pryce-Jones argues, is "a fantasy...."
"France is not a Muslim power and cannot be a Muslim power.
It is a mirage that France can take advantage of Arabs and the
Muslims and incorporate them into its imperial designs."
He suggests that the French borrowed the phrase from the British, who at the same period thought of Britain as a Muslim
power through its colonization of India. The British knew, however, that they were not a Muslim power, and that they
were actually ruling the Indians.
The French conception of the Jews, Mr. Pryce-Jones points out, derives from the French Revolution. Quoting the Conte de
Clermont-Tonnerre's famous saying to the General Assembly, "To the Jews as individuals everything, to the Jews as a
nation nothing," Mr. Price-Jones notes that the French attitude toward the Jews is defined by what the French think they
ought to be, not by how Jews define themselves. Mr. Pryce-Jones has documented centuries of "astonishing anti-Jewish
animus" in the archives of the Quai d'Orsay. The tenor of the bias against the Jews is that they cannot act independently;
they are the pawns of a hostile external power which varies along with the circumstances, be it the British, the Germans, or
the Russians.
Therefore, the rise of Zionism in the Nineteenth Century is a shock to the French, who suddenly discover that the Jews
have agency. The French do everything they can to stifle Zionism, inventing conspiracy theories blaming the Jews. The
French sought to impede the creation of the Jewish state, and later opposed Israeli foreign policy. Mr. Pryce-Jones traces
this "extraordinarily fantastic interpretation of what's going on in the Arab world and in the Jewish world" among
generations of French diplomats, who "believe rubbish" despite their being among the most sophisticated people in the
world.
Mr. Pryce-Jones centers his account on the split in French foreign policy circles during a brief period in the 1950s, when
French and Israeli interests coincided. Arab nationalism threatened the French position in North Africa and Israel during
the Suez crisis. But, while the French Ministry of Defense supported Israel, the Quai d'Orsay did all it could to stop the
Ministry's arms sales and pro-Israel attitude. By 1958, when Charles De Gaulle came back to office, he adopted the Quai's
viewpoint and French foreign policy reverted to its anti-Israel position. By 1967, the French were outright opponents of
Israel.
The French supported Qaddafi, even selling him arms when they had sanctions against Israel, but he was too unstable a
figure on which to base policy. So they chose Saddam Hussein and Yasir Arafat, who as Mr. Pryce-Jones points out, "are
the two pillars of French foreign policy."
"Both Hussein and Arafat run strictly counter to every value
France has produced … they are a couple of bloodstained
tyrants. They've done nothing but damage to their own
people and yet France has given Saddam Hussein every
opportunity."
According to Mr. Price-Jones, the French government hosted Hussein in France, sold Iraq billions of arms Hussein used
against his own people, and funded the Osirak nuclear plant, which the Israelis had to destroy in 1981. But, when Iran
sponsored terrorist attacks in France to protest France's support of Iraq, Mr. Pryce-Jones explained, the French were
surprised, thinking they had an understanding with the Iranians not to retaliate while they supported Iraq.
Mr. Pryce-Jones emphasizes France's disturbing role in bringing about the Iranian Revolution, which he calls the "most
important revolution in modern times." France received Khomeini in 1978, when it was clear he was planning an
insurrection against the Shah, and provided him lines of communication through which to mobilize demonstrations. This
is the most dramatic example of the French penchant for harboring Islamic extremists, Mr. Pryce-Jones points out, noting
that they granted a safe haven to Haj Amin el-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, returning him to the Middle East when he
was wanted as a war criminal in 1945. He concludes that "twice now the world has been handicapped by French-harbored
monsters – Haj Amin and Khomeini – who were fascists."
Mr. Pryce-Jones discussed the immigration of Muslims and Arabs into France, which began after World War II and
accelerated greatly after French rights and welfare benefits were granted them in 1974. Today, Muslims constitute 10
percent of the French population, not including illegal immigrants. The problem, Mr. Pryce-Jones points out, is that the
Muslim population is not assimilated, because the French government makes little effort to integrate it, and Muslims live
with 60-70 percent unemployment in slummy suburbs with drug and crime problems. They live in a society apart from the
French, factors that contributed to the rioting and violence in France in late 2005.
It is "safe to say that the French state lost control of these people, to the Muslim street," which to the Jews of France is a
serious matter. Some Jewish reactions are reminiscent of the 1930s, with the Chief Rabbi cautioning Jews not to wear their
yarmulkes in the street. The French state is critical of Israel, but "does everything appeasing and surrendering to Arabs."
The two themes – France as a "puissance musulmane" and no nationality for the Jews – have collided, and, as Mr.
Pryce-Jones notes, the French government has refused to stand by its Jewish population.
Iran, which threatens genocide and death to Americans and Jews, will present "a test of our whole civilization," says Mr.
Pryce-Jones. France is once again blocking U.S. efforts, choosing to appease a genocidal state. During the July, 2006,
fighting in the Middle East, France stopped short of siding with Hizbullah, but justified it and criticized Israel.
"To understand how France got into this muddle is the purpose of Betrayal, how they have taken this position that
the Jews are not a nation, must never be a nation, while incorporating Muslims into their nation." The problem, argues Mr.
Pryce-Jones, is that the French "believe their own fairy tale."
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
France, the French, & United States Foreign Policy
Jews & Anti-Semitism
Europe, Europeans, & Anti-Semitism
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Israel -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
North Africa -- The Arab States of Islamic North Africa
The Middle East & the Problem of Iraq
Page Two
Page One
The Problem of Rogue States:
Iraq as a Case History
National Strategy for Victory in Iraq
The Middle East & the Problem of Iran
Egypt, Arabs, & the Middle East
Tunisia, Islamic North Africa, & the Arab World
The Middle East & the Problem of Syria
The Middle East -- Lebanon as a Geopolitical Problem
Turkey, the Middle East, & the U.S.A.
Israel & the Arabs -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
American Foreign Policy -- Constitutional Democracy:
U.S. Promotion of Constitutional Democracy in Foreign Countries
David Pryce-Jones, Senior Editor of National Review, has also written for the Daily Telegraph, Financial
Times and the Spectator, while contributing frequently to such publications as The Times of London,
Wall Street Journal, CommentaryThe New Republic. Pryce-Jones was educated at Oxford and has
taught at universities in California and Iowa. He has authored nine novels and a dozen books of non-fiction. The latter treat
such themes as Middle Eastern politics and culture, the fall of the Soviet Union, and literary biography and criticism. Mr.
Pryce-Jones addressed the Middle East Forum in New York on November 2, 2006.
Mimi Stillman, an intern at the Middle East Forum since 1999, has a Master of Arts degree in History from Pennsylvania
State University. Her studies at Penn State focused on modern European History, in particular England during the Stuart
period and the English Civil War.
The foregoing summary account by Mimi Stillman was originally published in the MEF News, January 29, 2007, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum.
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
January 29, 2007
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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