We're not inclined to grant Jacques Chirac the benefit of the doubt on many topics. But we will admit that, whatever his motives, he has begun to make appropriate noises about the wave of anti—Semitism making life dangerous and unpleasant for France's Jewish community, the largest in Europe. We congratulate the President of France for his belated leadership.

It may be that the prospect of mass emigration of Jews has gotten him scared. After all, the Jews of France, like those of America, tend to be educated, affluent, and tax—generating citizens. Not too many of them collect welfare or demand state—subsidized housing, unlike certain other groups present in France in large numbers, which we could name. Their loss, especially if they withdrew their financial assets from France, not to mention their talents, would be a blow to the shaky French economy, which, like the rest of old Europe, is on a low growth/high welfare demand trajectory.

But, the French being French, prestige may be even more important than money. The spectacle of Jews fleeing France in fear of their lives could be rather embarrassing. Chirac may not wish to go down in history as the leader who caused the French Jews to flee. It invites just too many awkward comparisons with the neighbor just to the east, only sixty some years ago.

Posted by Thomas  07 09 04