France Follies, Nombre Vingt Trois

Today's International Herald Tribune details the de riguer anti-semitism of everyday France:

Sarah Aguado, a precocious 13-year-old, . . . the only Jew in a school with a large Muslim minority, [was] repeatedly insulted and attacked and finally forced to flee. Classmates called her a "dirty Jew." One student slapped her and made a racist remark.

Barbara Lefebvre, who teaches history at a French public school agrees:

Just about every week I see students in my class - where there are no Jews - insulting each other by saying, 'Stop it, you Jew.' Or 'No, you can't borrow my pen, it's not yours, Jew.' Or if their pen is broken they'll say: 'What's wrong with my pen? It's a Jew.' When you point it out, they say, 'This is just a way of speaking.'

That's why French President Jacques Chirac proposed a bold new plan safeguard French Jews . . . No, never mind. Instead, President Chirac tried to minimze the story, claiming France "is being unfairly criticized . . . as anti-Semitic while France is leading a 'tireless struggle' against such discrimination."

I am surprised at this. I am told that in the streets of Tel Aviv, in newspaper cartoons and in conversations, the image of France as an anti-Semitic country is gradually spreading. These caricatures deeply hurt French people.

According to the OED, "caricature" is a "[g]rotesque or ludicrous representation of persons or thing by exaggeration of their most characteristic and striking features." In other words, caricatures are ugly descriptions of well-known facts. According to the Israelis, "anti-Semitic incidents across the globe fell by almost half last year to 983 from 1,979 in 2002, [but] doubled in France." This is both factual and ugly--making the caricature distressingly accurate.

Until recently, anti-semitism was associated with the political right (notwithstanding Stalin's brutal treatment of Jews). Like many, Monsieur Le President overlooks the "new anti-semitism" promoted by the political left (an odd alliance between liberals and Muslims). This blind spot encourages and prolongs violence against France's Jews.

Update:

Has Redmond, Washington, become French? Conceding they were "unacceptable symbols," Microsoft removed the swastika (both original and reversed Nazi versions) from its Bookshelf Symbol 7 font. Personally, I think scrubbing fonts an unnecessary surrender to PCism. But here's the punchline: at the same time, Microsoft removed the star of David from the same font. (The link above includes before and after screen shots.) Translation: Microsoft believes the Jewish star, which also is the official symbol of Israel, is equivalent to, and equally unacceptable as, the emblem of Hitler's Third Reich. Microsoft's decision both affirms and enhances the baseless accusation that zionism is racism and Sharon is Hitler.

Maybe I should buy Apple. (via LGF.)