And So It Begins

And so it begins.  After the mourning, the marches, the moments of silence and the singing of La Marseillaise, we are now left with politicians hell bent on using the events of the past week to strengthen their positions, both in France and Israel.  While Netanyahu (running for reelection in Israel) was an uninvited guest to the Sunday march of unity, Obama and his team dithered, resulting in no high-ranking official representing the United States. (Isn’t it the job of the Vice President to go to things like this?) Netanyahu convinced the families of the four slain Jews to have them buried in Israel, despite the fact that none of them were citizens of Israel, but it did give him another platform to push his fear mongering as he did on Sunday when he said that French Jews should move to Israel for their own protection. (The French were none too keen to hear him repeatedly say this.)

Hollande, the most hated President of France in generations, is doing a bang-up job to make sure that he is seen as caring and presidential, thus improving his political image in all of France.  Meanwhile Marina La Pen uses these events to strengthen her position as the leader of far right by suggesting that there is no place for Muslims in French society.  We all know that France has mobilized more that 10,000 heavily armed soldiers to protect Jewish schools, places of worship and bookstores, but we don’t hear as much about the 50 plus attacks on Mosques and Muslim restaurants that have taken place since last week.

So, what will come out of all of this, in this rush to look more proactive than the next guy? France will most certainly support more stringent border checks, angering the leftists in the European Parliament.  France will most likely allow the arming of their police officers once again, with calls from all segments of the population supporting this since the bad guys have lots of heavy arms and the municipal police have batons.  Hollande will remake himself as the President Who Fights Terrorists, La Pen will reinforce her position as the defender of the ‘real’ French, and Sarkozy will - as he has always done - try to split the difference.

In Israel, Netanyahu will most likely win again due to his ‘intervention’ to help French Jews.  In the USA, members of Congress from both sides of the aisle will use this as a way to limit immigration, cut back on visa waiver programs and limit the number of foreign students allowed to study in the USA.  The Obama administration will try to walk back its blunder in not sending anyone of importance to the unity march and will try to heal wounds at the Feb. 18^th White House meetings on international security.  Don’t get me started on presidential hopefuls; they’ll really muck up the waters.  And so it goes!  wm