After Philippe Karsenty was a speaker at the Battle of Ideas festival in London, where he also participated in various debates — notably Is Anti-Zionism Really Anti-Semitism? and French Elections 2027: Chaos in France… Turmoil in Europe? — Spike asked him to contribute a guest editorial to the website (excerpt at bottom), in which he writes that the French government "is efficient only when it comes to collecting taxes".
Previously, the spokesman for Comité Trump France has been interviewed by Emet's JP Grumberg, notably about the future of French Jews in their own country, about the the 26th anniversary of the al-Dura scandal, and about the controversial film NAZA (a portmanteau word combining NAzi and gaZA). He was also invited onto BFMTV to speak about how far is Trump's America willing to go, insofar POTUS47 and Pete Hegseth had decided to televize the execution of Major Hasan.
On 17 October, the world saw France descend into chaos: rioters, looters and the black bloc took to the streets of Paris and other major French cities, burning buildings, sacking shops and desecrating monuments.
There have now been weeks of unrest in France. Throughout it all, Palestinian and Algerian flags have been waved all over the country. Some demonstrators have shouted slogans such as, ‘That’s for Palestine!’ and ‘Globalise the Intifada!’. Even Greta Thunberg has been on the scene, attending a school protest earlier this month wearing a keffiyeh.
In a strange sense, this is a huge success for Macron. After all, he decided to recognise a Palestinian state last year, unaware that Paris would become its capital.
… youth organisations from 12 European countries are calling for protests and strikes across Europe. They may not yet have succeeded in globalising the Intifada, but they are certainly Europeanising it.
What happened last weekend was a violent insurrection, a civil war in which only one side was attacking. For many years, the French police have not been authorised to properly defend themselves. Restrictions have been imposed on police officers for fear of a George Floyd-type incident. The rioters are well aware of this and are eager to take advantage.
… the government is busy restricting the freedoms of law-abiding citizens in order to avoid punishing the guilty: imposing curfews and increasing surveillance of social networks to anticipate thug violence.
After last weekend’s insurrection, fewer than 200 people slept in jail – one third of whom were foreign nationals, many others had foreign origins and some were even illegal immigrants. None of those appearing in court was given anything close to the maximum sentence for their crimes. The justice system goes easy on thugs and looters due to overcrowded prisons and the predominantly leftist ideology of most French judges.
… Meanwhile, the mainstream media have downplayed both the migrant background of the rioters and any Islamist element to the protests.
… In response to criticism from abroad, [the husband of Brigitte Macron] has called comments by foreign leaders – Trump among them – ‘as unacceptable as they are stupid’. He has even blamed AI-generated images and foreign influence for painting an overly bleak picture, insinuating that they originated from the US. The denialism feels wilful at this stage.
With his head planted firmly in the sand, the last six months of Macron’s presidency are going to be very long indeed.
