Did France Cave to “Jewish Fundamentalists”?

In civil and courteous phone conversations with the French Embassy in New York, I, a friend and a few others -- after requesting the embassy to review the book's postscript -- were very happy and satisfied to see that the embassy decided to cancel its participation in a book party to celebrate the publication of Carmen Callil’s history of a Vichy collaborationist, Bad Faith. Our objections centered around the author’s postscript to the book wherein she argues that Israel and Israelis are analogous to Vichy and the Nazis.

The Left’s campaign to vilify Israel takes many guises, and this particular absurd analogy from long-past, completely unrelated history is especially offensive, and indicative of the depths to which they’ll stoop.

A very favorable review of the book, in the Christian Science Monitor by a Harvard PhD in modern French history, concludes:

Unfortunately, after so painstakingly researching and portraying Darquier - as well as the French regime in which he lived and worked - Callil concludes her book with a two-sentence indictment of "the Jews of Israel": "What caused me anguish as I tracked down Louis Darquier was to live so closely to the helpless terror of the Jews of France, and to see what the Jews of Israel were passing on to the Palestinian people. Like the rest of humanity, the Jews of Israel 'forget' the Palestinians."

It left this reader hoping that others impressed by Callil's thoroughness in telling one complex story will remember the value of a complete record when addressing other complicated subjects as well.

The government of France’s embassy office in New York City agreed to sponsor a party for Carmen Callil’s book, which meticulously details a Vichy government official who organized the deportation of French Jews to Auschwitz. The embassy acted at the behest of powerful publishing house Knopf, who used a prominent, widely-respected Jewish author to enlist the French Embassy’s cooperation. Neither that famous Jew nor the official at the French embassy had read the book. The imprint and merchandising power of publisher Knopf was at work, as is common in the world of jacket blurbs by endorsers who trade quotes.

A publisher has the right to print what it sees fit or commercial. However, when the embassy of a government sponsors a speaker on a topic, that government in effect endorses that speaker’s views.

Today, Reuters reported on the cancellation, “French embassy cancels N.Y. book launch over author’s Israel views,” (Also, here in Israel, and here in a media blog, but virtually no where else) quoting the author:

Callil told Reuters on Monday that the party was canceled after complaints from “fundamentalist Jews.”

Reuters reports that,

Callil defended the postscript to her book.

"I think the people in Gaza live in poverty huddled up in a very small territory ... because people don't like their government," she said. "But if you persecute people, they will rise up against you."

Asked if she feels the current Israeli government oppresses Palestinians, she replied, "Yes."

"I want people to learn from the past so the same terrible things do not happen again. If you oppress people, they will hate you and I do not want Israel to be hated," she said.

Of course, Ms. Callil, your comparison of Israel and Israelis to Vichy and Nazis is intended to express your love! Such Leftist anti-Israel twaddle and excess seeks to hide behind many guises, but its one-sidedness -- it ignores historical facts along with Arab and Palestinian culpability -- evinces its gross bias.

In the Left’s lexicon, anyone who expresses his religious faith publicly is a “fundamentalist,” a term employed by them as a pejorative that seeks to deny traditional morality – at least that which differs from their own -- from credibility. I’ll return to the ludicrousness of Callil’s comment below, but first some facts about this diplomatic encounter between a couple of American citizens of conscience and the French Embassy, and the embassy’s conscientious response to the facts.

On October 6, my friend Ruth King emailed me and others on her distribution list interested in discussions of pro- and anti-Israel publications:

Dear e-pals: This is an invitation to a book party for Carmen Callil....For your information, in her book she meticulously details the sordid history of the Vichy government, their helpers, etc. However, she then goes on to gratuitously compare Israelis to the Nazis......

I emailed the French embassy in New York:

Surely an official reception at the French Embassy reflects poorly on France when it equates Israelis and Israel with Nazis and Vichy collaborators. Do you delight in exposing France to ridicule, justified by such inanity?

Much to my surprise, I quickly received a phone call from a press attaché of the French embassy. He was very polite and earnest in expressing his concern that the book, which he hadn’t read, contained anti-Israel comments. He expressed his and the French government’s strong desire to expose the Nazi collaborations by the Vichy Regime in WWII, and to atone, as the embassy’s reason for arranging the book party. He was honestly shocked that this noble objective may be tarnished by the author’s gratuitous launch from that to a comment equating current Israel and Israelis to the Vichy. He promised to read the book, and reconsider. I arranged for my friend Ruth King to telephone him, as well.

Here’s what Ruth King has to say:

Although the book is well written and documented my concern was that even a welcome examination of the sordid history of France during the Holocaust would be used as a vehicle to bash Israel. With that in mind I sent an e-mail asking like minded persons to object to the official reception by the French embassy.

The response was swift and clearly hit a nerve because it prompted messages to several persons by XXXXXXXXXXXX [he requested not to be named]. He had not read the book and was unaware of the offensive paragraphs.

In my own conversation with him he was a tad defensive but truly shocked and dismayed, particularly since he seems so determined to examine the issue of Vichy and the rounding up of Jews.

I’m told that publisher Knopf, also, received many emails of complaint, including from many non-Jews, which were forwarded to the French embassy.

Last night I received the following email from the French Embassy’s press attaché:

The Cultural Services of the French Embassy has decided to cancel its participation in a reception for Bad Faith, by Carmen Callil and published by Knopf.

Although the French Embassy was looking forward to the presentation of a work exploring the darkest hours of French history, it could not endorse a personal opinion of the author expressed in the postcript of the book.

Bad Faith tells the story of Louis Darquier de Pellepoix and fills a gap in our knowledge by shedding light on the biography of this sinister organizer of the deportation of French Jews. To know more about this villain, this Commissioner for Jewish Affairs during the Vichy government, will help us to remember and not forget.

Best regards,
XXXXXXXXXX

I replied:

You and your Embassy's action are to be highly commended, sir.
Thank you, for this, and for its very positive reflection on constructive and civil cooperation.

When I saw the Reuters story this morning, I had to first laugh at my friend and I being labeled “fundamentalist Jews.” That comment by Callil, in fact, all the more exposes her bias.

I hold deep attachment to my faith, and its roots are Jewish. Yet, its messages are universal. Visit two recent blog posts I wrote, before Rosh Hashanah and before Yom Kippur. In the first, I spoke about my agonizing over my short-comings and my search within for insight. Several non-Jewish bloggers emailed me with thanks or compliments for my attachment to self-responsibility and decency. A Catholic priest wrote me: “This is VERY GOOD, Bruce. It is particularly Jewish, as it should be, but it is also open to anyone with a heart, a conscience, and a belief in God. I was touched by it. Thanks for taking the time to write it.” In the latter blog post, I spoke about the importance of free will to accomplish worthy goals of helping others.

These are fundamental principles. If that makes me a “fundamentalist Jew,” I proudly take that characterization. But, that’s not the use of the term by Carmen Callil. She exposes her politicized Leftist conception of the world by using the term, “fundamentalist,” as a negative description of anyone of publicly held religious faith, or to the Right of themselves with attachment to fundamental first principles.

In another recent post, I wrote in opposition to “gay-bashing,” in the discussions of the Foley expose -- hardly a posture taken by the caricature of “fundamentalists” propounded by the Left. In fact, I belong to a Reform Temple, the branch of Judaism that strays furthest from “fundamental” Orthodoxy.

My friend in this diplomatic encounter with the French embassy is Jewish, who usually only visits a synagogue for simchas, Bat Mitzvah’s and such. Again, hardly the profile, or facts, of a religious zealot, as the Left’s use of the term “fundamentalist” as a slur is meant to imply.

Carmen Callil founded in 1973 a publishing company called Virago.
The definition of virago: a loud-voiced, ill-tempered, scolding woman; a shrew. Virago has since been acquired by far larger publishing houses. Callil has remained true to her original name.

UPDATE: I just received a phone call from the French Embassy's press attache. He requested that I make two corrections to my original post, and I have: I had at first identified him as a cultural affairs attache. He also stressed, correctly, that neither I nor Ruth King requested that the embassy cancel the book party, but rather that the embassy read the author's postscript and reconsidered. He also reminded me of another email I'd sent him, in which I stated: "it's a government's responsibility to be responsible. If a scrupulous examination of Vichy still results in or is used to draw the wrong conclusions or to support wrong statements, those conclusions or statements are still not permissible and undercut any good done." The embassy's decision was its own, for which it is to be commended.