FRANCE AND GREECE'S WAKEUP CALL

Melanie Phillips has written about the messages the victories of Francois Hollande in France and the neo-nazi party in Greece have sent out, including the dangers of anti-semitism looming:

The recent elections here and in Europe have left Jews and all who care about freedom and democracy with many reasons for unease.

In Greece, around two thirds of those who voted did so for extremist parties of left and right. Chillingly, the neo-Nazi "Golden Dawn" party won no fewer than 21 seats. [...]

Not only that, the EU itself precipitated this calamity. For the Greek debacle was a public spasm of fury against austerity measures imposed by Brussels and Berlin.

The convulsions in Europe are throwing up some curious and disturbing parallels and alliances. In France, the left-wing Francois Hollande won on the very same anti-austerity platform as the neo-Nazis in Greece.

Hollande says he is an "enemy of finance" - in effect making common cause with the far right, which identifies the Jews as controlling that financial world, which they agree with the left is a conspiracy against the interests of working people.

Behind his victory, moreover, lies an alliance between Islamic radicals and the left. Writing before the election, French Jewish commentator Michel Gurfinkiel wrote that the French left had recast the proletariat as the "multitude", the West as "Empire" - and Jews as Zionists, the spearhead of counter-revolution.

After the Toulouse atrocity, leftist and Muslim groups started organising rallies against racism, antisemitism, and Islamophobia, on the basis that the killer was a white neo-Nazi - only to drop all protests when his Muslim identity was established.

A victory by Hollande, Gurfinkiel wrote, would accelerate the Islamisation of France and the destruction of its national identity.

That's one more reason why we'd better hope the conservative parties in parliament will have success in the June 10 election.

On a related note, I must admit that I'm not sure of the exact reasons why the vote against austerity, if it was. My assumption - and that of some relatives of mine - is that the disenchantment had what to do with the Euro currency itself: if the currency was proving itself bad for Europe's economy, and Sarkozy was still going along with it, then that could be part of the reason why he failed in reelection, even if by a narrow margin. I'm sure there's plenty who'll agree that if the American continent went and adopted a currency similar to the Euro, it might actually hurt the continent if suddenly, the USA, Canada and Brazil had only one basic currency to use. The NY Sun has an op-ed explaining how voters can punish conservatives who don't deliver.

And then, there's Sarkozy's own denials of Islam's connections with the Toulouse bloodbath to consider, not to mention his call for Jews to be removed from Judea/Samaria, something he may have even repeated recently (and, there was even the crack he made about Netanyahu, when he thought the microphone wasn't on). I wouldn't be surprised if this if this too had a negative effect in some way or other on his reputation as well, that he toed a PC line. When he did those things, it's possible that even non-Jewish residents of France were disgusted. Indeed, his denial of Islam and jihad's connections to the Toulouse bloodbath was an insult to the victims, not to mention an insult to rape victims attacked under the same mindset. And what if his call for Israel to show weakness also had an indirect incitement effect? Food for thought.

Sarko's passing of a law to ban veils in public was a good step, but beyond that, what did he do on his part to get rid of the more damaging, draconian libel laws, like the one used to persecute Phillipe Karsenty? Any steps he may have tried to take against abominations like that were almost non-existent. For all we know, despite some welcome steps, the negative ones he took may have otherwise helped to damage his chances.

Based on this, his failure in itself probably shouldn't come as a surprise. The conservative movement in France has some serious considerations to make now if they want to make a successful return to power, and to really make their country what the Statue of Liberty they gave to America represents. Assuming there's any chance for that in the future at all. The same goes for Greece.