French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is fighting a losing battle to clear his name following the publication of a book that accuses him of serving African dictators for pay and that suggests he serves American and Israeli interests rather than French interests.
The cover of the book, titled The World According to K, features a black-and-white photograph of the Foreign Minister embracing George Bush. Both are described as "partners in war." The book cover leaves little reason to leaf through the pages, already making it apparent that the book was written to undermine President Sarkozy's new foreign policy, which opponents portray as pro-Israel and subject to American dictates.
The book includes all of the old stereotypes: Judaism (Kouchner's father was Jewish), betrayal and profiteering. Le Monde hinted that the scandal was devised against the unconventional Foreign Minister in the heart of the Foreign Ministry and the Elysees Palace by pro-Arab diplomats from the old administration.
Kouchner has a strong popularity rating and a reputation for being an idealist and one of the most honest public figures in France. He founded Doctors Without Frontiers and was even among the Jewish leaders of the student uprising of 1968 in Paris, which toppled De Gaulle. The book, on the other hand, depicts him as a hypocrite, saying he subscribes to "an Anglo-Saxon cosmopolitanism" that is out of line with French interests. The word "cosmopolitan" has often been used by French and other extremists as a codeword for "Jew."
Both the Left and the nationalist, Gaullist Right have not forgiven Kouchner for supporting the war in Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein or his betrayal of his socialist colleagues by joining the Sarkozy government. The author, Pierre Pean, a Chirac supporter, has spoken out for years against Kouchner along with Jews, Israel and the US, and has openly sought to humiliate and ruin him. The book is based on several factual incidents, but Kouchner says that Pean inflated his earnings and distorted his goals, while also falsely intimating that he sold out French interests.
Kouchner angrily rejected the accusations, describing himself as a victim of "an antisemitic character assassination," saying "my honor and honesty were trampled in the book, which is filled with distortions and libel." For example, he acknowledges working as a consultant in Africa for a consulting company in the field of public health and receiving a salary of 6,000 euros per month. But the book claims he raked in millions. "As the former health minister I contributed through consultation to the establishment of health services in Gabon and the Congo. What's wrong with that? I paid my taxes."
One chapter of the book mocks Kouchner's pride in his Jewish origins. Gaullist diplomats have yet to come to terms with the appointment of the son of a Jew as foreign minister and have been pressuring Sarkozy to have Kouchner replaced by a nationalist establishment figure who would preserve French "might" and continue the policy of capitulating to dictatorial Arab terror organizations.
According to Kouchner's view, writes Pean, France "can easily do without a strong foreign minister since it is just faithfully following directions from Washington." Pean apparently prefers sticking to the dictates of Teheran and Hamas.
"There are certain circles that hate me," says Kouchner. "And who are they? The same people who feel nostalgic for the 1930s and 40s, for the Vichy Era, and distort history."
