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NEWS
France's Jewish Community Asks Who to Support Following Political
Shift
By Arnon Yaffeh, Paris
The Jewish community in France is worried over the rise of far-right
Front National (FN) party, led by Marine Le Pen, and the Socialist
Party (PS), and by the decline of President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP in
the second round of local elections.
Now Le Pen and the Socialists are poised to vie for control. The
elections results — 11 percent for Le Pen, 36 percent for the
Socialists and just 20 percent for the ruling party — left the
Jewish community wondering whether both final presidential candidates
will be anti-Israel and the Jewish constituency will have nobody to
vote for.
CRIF, the umbrella organization for France's Jewish groups, published
a pre-election call to Jews not to vote for the far right or the far
left. However, PS leader Martine Aubry belongs, from a Jewish-Israeli
perspective, to the far left for her disdain for Jews and her pro-
Palestinian actions. The door of her office was shut in the face of
Israel's ambassador to France after she refused to grant him an
opportunity to present Israel's stance. The allies of the far left,
the Trotskyists, disappeared as a local political force, failing to
win a single seat.
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