There are real threats

Editorial

France is impassioned over yet another apparently anti-Semitic incident. In this case, a notable gadfly has written a satirical article that has leading figures, including Elie Wiesel and the Paris mayor, crying foul.

The incident revolves around comments by Maurice Sinet, a cartoonist and satirist whose nom de plume is Sine, about Jean Sarkozy, the son of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. In a satirical magazine, Sinet commented on the younger Sarkozy's impending marriage to Jessica Sibaoun-Darty, the wealthy heiress of a French retail behemoth. The article claimed, incorrectly, it appears, that Jean Sarkozy "intends to convert to Judaism before marrying his fiancée, who is Jewish, and the heiress to the founders of Darty...." The offending comment was almost an aside: "He'll go far, that kid," wrote Sinet.

The reaction was explosive. Some Jews and other observers said the remark, apparently implying Sarkozy's marriage was a wise economic or career move, was a blatant reference to the stereotype about Jews and money. Sinet was fired from the magazine, Charlie Hebdo, for what the editor, Philippe Val, claimed were comments that should not have been printed and that "could be interpreted as drawing a link between conversion to Judaism and social success...."

The artist is a notorious provocateur – no, that is too kind: he threatens legal consequences against those who label him a racist homophobe and has launched civil proceedings against one commentator. In cartoons and public statements, Sinet has made despicable remarks, including a genocidal comment for which he later apologized. In the 1980s, he was convicted of inciting racial hatred and apologized for saying: "I am anti-Semitic and I am no longer afraid to say so.... I want every Jew to live in fear, except if they are pro-Palestinian. Let them die."

In refusing to apologize for his latest statement, Sinet invited his own sacking from the magazine. The aftermath has led to a revisiting of the French public's debate over growing anti-Semitism, on the one hand, and free expression, on the other. Given the writer's history, any benefit of doubt over whether his words have been misinterpreted by proverbial "oversensitive Jews" seems misplaced. This will likely go down as yet another chapter in an apparently endless French conversation that began with Alfred Dreyfus.

Not coincidentally, the Sarkozys have sensitivities resulting from Jewish roots of their own. The president's grandfather was a Sephardi Jew from Greece, who migrated to France and converted to Catholicism upon his marriage. Such details were irrelevant to the Nazis, of course, and 57 members of the president's family reportedly perished in the Shoah.

Probably because of these factors, Sarkozy has demonstrated empathy toward Jews and Israel that has been sorely lacking among world leaders. In a 2004 interview, the future president expressed succinctly the significance of Jewish self-determination.

"Should I remind you the visceral attachment of every Jew to Israel, as a second mother homeland?" he asked. "There is nothing outrageous about it. Every Jew carries within him a fear passed down through generations, and he knows that if one day he will not feel safe in his country, there will always be a place that would welcome him. And this is Israel."

While Sinet and his detractors have caused a stir across the pond, we have our own issues right here at home. Of concern should be the message implied by a cartoon in Monday's Globe and Mail. Neither offensive nor anti-Semitic, the cartoon was a four-panel depiction of Iran attempting to send a missile toward Israel. The missile fizzles – a reference to Iran's recent high-profile failure to launch – after which Iran morphs into a pear and a cartoon insect depicting Israel nibbles away at the fruit. The humor or quality of the art is not the issue. It made little sense and elicited less laughter, but the message was straightforward: Iran's bluster about wiping Israel from the map is just that. For all intents, Iran's despotic leader is a buffoon whose arsenal undermines his rhetoric.

At first glance, the cartoon gives a Zionist reader a happy feeling, reminding us that Iran was recently humiliated when it was revealed that the government-issued photos purporting to show a successful deployment was actually a doctored shot of a missile launch that was a dud. Only through Photoshop is Iran's potential to send a nuclear (or any other) missile to Israel a contemporary possibility.

However, like too many international commentators, the Globe cartoon implied that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian dictator, is a figure to be discounted. It is eerily similar to the mocking treatment Adolf Hitler received from Charlie Chaplin and so many others before it was too late.

The Iranian theocrats are as determined to fulfil their ominous promise to annihilate the Jews as was Hitler. There is really nothing funny about this situation and to find humor in it is to dismiss the determination and ferocity of the Iranian threat. To do so is to insult history and possibly repeat it. This sort of ostensibly innocuous "humor" is probably as dangerous as outright anti-Semitism, if not more so.

^TOP