The Times at last supplies details and context in the French “anti-semitism” case, a pretty good piece by Steven Erlanger that regrettably has an arch tone. The leftwing cartoonist Sine was fired by a satirical sheet for publishing a cartoon that mocked the fact that Sarkozy’s son is dating a Jewish heiress. I believe Sine used the word Jewess, which Sartre said (as I remember) is the most antisemitic word in the language. The usual alarums are raised, by Elie Wiesel and Bernard-Henry Levy. Some are comparing the case to the Dreyfus affair. I don’t see it. Sine is the one who has lost his job. And look at the Muhammed cartoons. We must be able to mock religions, especially with the old ones cracking and falling around us. Then there is the allegation that to mention Jews, money and politics in the same sentence is antisemitic. This is nuts. We have to be able to talk about these things, especially here, where Sheldon Adelson and Mel Levine from opposite sides are gathering rich Jews to try and sway the outcome of the next election.
I’m most interested in the gossip. So Sarkozy’s son, whom the Times likens to Belmondo, is dating a Jewish girl, daughter of an electronics tycoon. It is evidence of my themes, the new assimilation, the new establishment. Sine said that the young pol is thinking of converting to Judaism; apparently this is not true. Still I reflect that in the last couple of years, Anthony Lake, the foreign policy advisor who won’t go away, and Campbell Brown, the tv reporter married to Dan Senor (former AIPAC intern and spokesman for the Iraq occupation), have converted to Judaism. Maybe that’s a trend? Maybe it’s a story? Certainly it underscores what I said yesterday, that Zionism has become a social value in the new American establishment.
