Israel takes in 200 French Jews

[Rose Siding]

A plane carrying 200 French Jewish immigrants has landed in Israel, at a time of strained diplomatic relations between Israel and France.
They were personally greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who recently urged French Jews to flee to Israel to escape rising anti-Semitism.

In his welcoming speech, Mr Sharon moved to reduce tensions with France.

French police meanwhile said a Jewish cemetery had been vandalised in the town of Saverne, near Strasbourg.


"Welcome to Israel," Mr Sharon told the immigrants, "welcome home."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3932313.stm

[thebigidea]

1. If Mr. Sharon is known for one thing, its "reducing tensions."

he's just FANTASTIC at "reducing tensions."

[aquart]

2. LOL!

French, but are they restauranteurs?

(Sorry, but I prefer even British food to Israeli.)

[lottie244]

19. Here come another "settlement"

The Palestinians will be paying for this.

[rooboy]

3. Oh, thank God they managed to get 200 'out'....

</sarcasm off>

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[southlandshari]

5. How do you feel about

millions of Palestinians living below the poverty line under military occupation while thousands of citizens of other countries get immediate Israeli citizenship and benefits based on their religion?

How would you feel if America, which so many like to call a "Christian nation" adopted similar policies based on religion and ethnicity?

Criticism of Israel does NOT automatically equal anti-semitism.

[Baltimoreboy]

10. So do you actually think being Jewish is just religion?

You need to crack the books a bit more.

[Darth_Kitten]

21. Read the person's post again.......

n/t

[southlandshari]

22. Huh?

I didn't say that "being Jewish is just a religion" or anything that I see could be interpreted that way.

I am a former resident of Israel and now back in the states, I am active in the interfaith community in my area. I would never insult the Jewish faith, individual Jews or Jewish people in general. I'm sorry if my comment was in any way interpreted as putting Judaism itself in a negative light.

[rooboy]

6. Vandalized by whom? n/t

[Baltimoreboy]

13. Well it had big swastikas all over the tombstones

[ze_dscherman]

17. They had also smeared pentagrams and 666

Just yesterday I saw some feature about the latest incidents on French/German Arte TV.

There were also recent violations of christian and muslim churchyards in the same region. Some connection to "satanism" with anti-semitic undertones is probable.

On other occasions, the neo-nazi background was evident, with signs of neo-nazis sprayed as well as swastikas.

[rooboy]

18. I didn't ask what it had... I asked WHO DID IT ?? n/t

[daleo]

7. This is a provocative phrasing, and it seems like a political stunt

It is not as if France prevents its citizens from emigrating, and Israel's Law of Return is well known, so to describe Jews as fleeing from France to Israel is just misleading. They emigrated, like thousands of people do every day from countries all over the world. The fact that they flew charter and Sharon met the plane makes it seem like a politically inspired stunt by Sharon, for local political effect. He may also have been giving Bush a bit of support, by the implied knock against France, which always goes down well with some.

[Baltimoreboy]

11. Not a stunt

According to the news on TV (CBS?) last night, Jewish emigration from France is 3,000 a year now, a couple times what it was only a few years ago.

Anti-Semitic hate crimes continue to grow as well. The number of crimes through June almost equalled all of last year's total.

[Stockholm]

8. Big time political stunt!

Those poor people do not understand that they are being used as pawns by that scumbag Sharon.

Any "reply" from the French government will only hurt these "refugees".

Time for the french jews to speak up big time.

[Baltimoreboy]

14. They are speaking up

Emigration is increasing just as anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise.

[ze_dscherman]

9. The country with the biggest jewish immigration

at present is Germany. Imagine this. BTW, I'm not claiming that there is no Anti-Semitism in Germany. I just want to state that this is a political game by Sharon.

"Jewish Agency Chairman, Sallai Meridor: "German Government enticing Jews to emigrate to Germany under refugee status."
The Chairman of the Jewish Agency, Sallai Meridor, presented an overview to the Knesset's Immigration and Absorption Committee on current issues relating to immigration and absorption, Israel and the Jewish World.

The Chairman of the Jewish Agency attacked the policy of the German Government. "The German Government is enticing Jews to emigrate from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) to Germany under refugee status, despite the fact that the State of Israel already exists for 56 years. The Government of Israel must take serious steps to counter Germany. This situation drastically affects immigration to Israel. Last year about 19,000 Jews immigrated to Germany from the FSU whereas only 12,000 came to Israel." "

SNIP

http://www.kokhavivpublications.com/2004/israel/05/0405181640.html

[tinnypriv]

12. Quite heavy coverage on this in Israel

Especially Ha'aretz, which had articles barely concealing the contempt Jewish Agency leaders have for individual Jews.

[BonjourUSA]

15. we are on a soapy-slope.

The main French Jew organisations don't agree with the Sharon's speech. They want to return to the French values in which nobody is identified with religion and said : we are French before being Jew. But in France like all over the world the religious speech is increasing. That is not our culture and I feel we are on a soapy-slope.

A little minority of Jews is taking part in this change and the curious welcoming of these French Jews in Israel is not going to reduce tensions with a minority of French muslims which wants a more religious state. But perhaps it is the Sharon's aim.

[Aidoneus]

16. Note that these people..

say their motivation for this was not being attacked, nor Sharon's little pep talks. Whoops, didn't mean to deflate the PR..

[LivingInTheBubble]

20. Motivation.

I wonder if israel still gives immigrants a cash reward for immigrating there?

[southlandshari]

23. Info here

on immigration to Israel:

http://www.aliyah.org/info.html

[noonwitch]

24. I can't imagine wanting to live somewhere like that

Where you can get blown up at a coffee shop or on the bus, or just walking around the neighborhood. France has to be safer.

I live in the Detroit area. Lots of people go on about how scared they are of Detroit-I lived in the city for 12 years and was never the victim of a crime. I'm a single female who lives alone, too. Most violent crime in big cities is drug related or domestic. Stay away from the dope houses and don't get involved with abusive men, and your chances of being murdered go way down. Being careful about where you carry a purse and always recognizing where you are and who is around you will get you that much further.

In Israel, it seems it doesn't matter where you are, you are never safe. This goes for both sides of the situation. I used to think, before Sharon took over, that it would be a really cool place to visit. Not now.