“Betrayal: France, the Arabs, and the Jews,” by David Pryce-Jones is your first Must-Read for the year. This review by Daniel Johnson in the Literary Review gives you a sense of what Pryce-Jones offers, and it’s a key perspective concerning the international scene, explains why France has been so problematic and faces one of most aggressive Islamist jihads outside of the Middle East.
Daniel Johnson
J’ACCUSE
Betrayal: France, the Arabs, and the Jews
By David Pryce-Jones
…How has it come to this? In this devastating indictment, the cri de coeur of an Englishman who loves France but is exasperated by the French, the background to this breakdown of civil society gradually emerges. David Pryce-Jones has discovered the explanation in the archives of the French foreign ministry, known after its imposing headquarters, the Quai d’Orsay. The corps diplomatique who have run this institution like a private club – known to initiates simply as ‘la carrière’ – are responsible not only for the decline of French prestige abroad, but also for creating the conditions for the unfolding catastrophe at home. […]
French diplomats, determined to outdo their British and German rivals in great-power politics, were also convinced that France had a special mission civilisatrice in the Islamic world. Yet their sentimental orientalism was entirely compatible with an institutional anti-Semitism that is documented in shocking detail by Pryce-Jones. The rise of Zionism transformed this anti-Semitism from a mere prejudice, odious perhaps but peripheral to foreign policy, into a distorting mirror which motivated and reinforced the fatal misjudgements that have led France to its present predicament…
Under General de Gaulle, France reverted to its traditional ‘Muslim policy’ and imposed an arms embargo on Israel. After the Six Day War in 1967, de Gaulle set the tone for future French statesmen by calling the Jews ‘an elite people, self-assured and domineering’ with ‘a burning ambition for conquest’. He ignored Raymond Aron, who warned that de Gaulle had opened ‘a new era in … anti-Semitic history’, and instead echoed the old Quai d’Orsay motto of France as a ‘Muslim power’.
Thereafter, Israel looked to America, while France recklessly encouraged a succession of Muslim leaders who proved to be implacably hostile to the West, from Gaddafi to Saddam Hussein. It was the French who turned Yasser Arafat into a figure on the world stage and tolerated his terrorists in their midst. And it was the French who enabled Ayatollah Khomeini to launch his Islamic revolution from a suburb of Paris.
Obviously, read the whole review which is, in itself, worthwhile. And then use one of those gift certificates you got for Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Border’s for “Betrayal: Betrayal: France, the Arabs, and the Jews.” Unfortunately, I think it will prove invaluable for years to come.
It wasn’t just the Arabs and the Jews. I have been reading Triumph Forsaken and was stunned to find that, once again, French foreign policy as a root cause of the tragedies in Indochina. I had thought they left Indochina in order to drop a hot potato on the USA, but the book makes a strong case for France driving a lot of bad decisions early on.
france’s motto should be:
liberty
equality
treachery
I watched a show on the History Channel recently, called something like “The Third Reich and Saddam Hussein”. It showed the history of the Baath Party, which Saddam was a part of. It was founded by a French teacher during the time of the Vichy government, during the Nazi occupation of France. It was effectively Arab Nazism.
The Baath Party was founded in Syria at the time when France occupied Syria and Lebanon as mandates. They came under the control of the Vichy government when the French government was toppled. It doesn’t sound like the Vichy government had anything to do with the founding of the Baath Party, but if anything it allowed the Baath movement to flourish. It still exists in Syria today.
Saddam’s uncle, who was like a father to him, participated in a pro-Nazi coup in Iraq, backed by Germany, against the British-installed Iraqi government. His uncle was also an admirer of Hitler.
If this information mystifies you, brush up on the fall of the Ottoman Empire. It will fill you in.
The show on the History Channel was a real eye opener. It left me with the impression that this war in Iraq is old unfinished business from World War II.