The Canary in the French Coal Mine

I recently wrote a column describing Jews as the canary in the coal mine. They are often the first to smell the poison, but rarely the last to die from it.

France, having seemingly forgotten the lessons of the Dreyfus Affair, may be discovering this truth again. Whatever the cause du jour—education funding, school conditions, retirement age—the Palestinian flag appears amid France’s recurring unrest while France itself struggles to maintain order.

France was once one of Israel’s closest allies and its principal arms supplier. Then came de Gaulle. Seeking influence in the Arab world, France turned away from Israel. In 1967, de Gaulle described Jews as an “elite people, sure of themselves and domineering.”

The language changed over the decades. The underlying temptation did not.

France welcomed Yasser Arafat’s movement, sheltered Ayatollah Khomeini before his return to Iran, and repeatedly convinced itself that accommodation of extremists abroad would purchase influence or tranquility at home.

It purchased neither.

France has every right to criticize Israel. We all do. But criticism becomes something different when the world’s only Jewish state becomes an obsession, held to standards rarely applied to anyone else.

Meanwhile, France has suffered Islamist terrorism, attacks on synagogues and Jewish schools, the Bataclan massacre, growing social fragmentation, and the departure of tens of thousands of French Jews.

The great mistake is believing this is principally a Jewish problem.

History suggests otherwise.

Antisemitism is not merely hatred of Jews. It warns that a society is losing its ability to distinguish tolerance from surrender, criticism from scapegoating, and civilization from those willing to destroy it.

The Jews may leave. The poison remains. And the canary’s warning goes unheeded.

— Sina.