phoenix80
Banned
A man with a plan…. and ahead in the French polls for president.
by Nidra Poller, Pajamas Media Editor, Paris - 8 March 2007
Nicolas Sarkozy veut être président de la France. | Nicolas Sarkozy wants to be president of France. Many French people—and outside observers— believe he is the only candidate who could tear this country out of the doldrums of latter day welfare statism, arabesque foreign relations, and banlieue Eurabian tyranny.
Polls are worth what they’re worth, yet no one can resist taking them as a reality; Sarkozy wins over Royal, by percentages ranging from 50.5/49.5 to 57/43, in every poll taken since his candidacy was announced. Those who detest Sarkozy—the racaille, the far Left, the altermondialistes, Islamists and fellow travelers—detest him fervently, virulently, violently. He’s been tarred and feathered by Left-oriented media that accuse him of pouring oil on banlieue fires, creating tension and conflict, snapping an authoritarian whip. He’s called a fascist, a nasty cop, a threat, a disaster. Ordinary citizens who are truly put off by Ségolène Royal still hesitate to vote for Sarkozy. “He’s frightening,” they say. Why is he frightening? Don’t ask.
Sarkozy-trashing has been toned down since the official campaign got underway because the media are supposed to be neutral, but the bogeyman image hovers on the horizon. Sarkozy-haters act as if his crimes go without saying, as if they are not only common knowledge but commonly acknowledged. So why is it that the majority of voters intend to vote for him? The fact is that Nicolas Sarkozy is very popular. And this popularity, which extends to working class people and residents of the banlieue, must be telling us something about what French citizens really want.
Sarkozy is the closest to a neoconservative, free market libertarian, pro-American, pro-Zionist, unapologetic nationalist, pro-globalization candidate who could make it onto the ballot in France. Though many Jewish voters will probably maintain their leftwing voting habits, a significant sector of the Jewish community loves him like a brother. Jewish people are prominent in French public life; some assert their identity proudly and others flash it as a permit to trash Israel, some soft pedal it to avoid charges of parochialism, some never mention it, some are Christian converts, many have Frenchified their names.
Sarkozy is Catholic, but does not hide his Jewish affinities. His parents divorced in 1959, when he was four. His charming but unreliable Hungarian father went off to new adventures, his mother and the three boys moved in with her father, Benedict Mallah, a Jewish immigrant from Salonika who converted to Catholicism in 1917 when he fell in love with a widow from Lyon. Sarkozy’s wife Cecilia has similar mixed origins: her father is Jewish, from Eastern Europe, her mother is a Spanish Catholic. Nicolas Sarkozy has been openly, enthusiastically, abundantly friendly to the state of Israel and the French-Jewish community… particularly in the past seven years of explosive Jew hatred and virulent anti-Zionism. At every major incident, he has promised—as Minister of the Interior—that the culprits will be found, tried, and punished. The results have been meager but he is judged on his intentions.
February 28th Foreign Policy Press Conference
I was sitting between Bloomberg News and the United Arab Emirates. The UAE journalist showed me his ticket and tacked a copy of the list of Sarkozy’s speeches in our press kit, which begins with American Jewish Committee, followed by the Herzliya Conference, and includes Daughters of the American Revolution. He was surprised, or more like stupefied, by the absence of “countries in the Middle East.”
“Herzliya is in Israel, isn’t that the Middle East?”
“It’s Israel.”
“If he had given a talk in the UAE, that would be the Middle East?”
Yes, no, you know what he meant. I asked him if his country was concerned about Iran’s nuclear projects.
“Yes. If the U.S. decides on a military strike, it will inflame the whole region.”
“Hmmm. And if Iran decides to strike Israel, that too might inflame the region?”
Nicolas Sarkozy entered without fanfare, without introduction, and calmly presented his foreign policy platform. He was relaxed, natural, and not the least bit frightening. I would guess that the UAE journalist was reassured to hear that the Israeli operation in Lebanon this summer was “disproportionate,” the Palestinians should have a state, the Americans made a historical error in Iraq, and Iran must not have nuclear weapons.
Others may have been disappointed to hear these same old tunes from a man who has been known to be bolder. Only this summer he defended Israel’s right to vigorous self-defense against Hizbullah, and criticized the arrogance of France’s UN campaign against the American initiative in Iraq in 2003. But if one looks past the general statements and concentrates on the foreign policy dynamics he outlines, the rupture overrules the continuity. ........................................>>>>>>>>>>>>
READ THE REST HERE
http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/03/paris_blues_nicolas_sarkozy_in.php
by Nidra Poller, Pajamas Media Editor, Paris - 8 March 2007
Nicolas Sarkozy veut être président de la France. | Nicolas Sarkozy wants to be president of France. Many French people—and outside observers— believe he is the only candidate who could tear this country out of the doldrums of latter day welfare statism, arabesque foreign relations, and banlieue Eurabian tyranny.
Polls are worth what they’re worth, yet no one can resist taking them as a reality; Sarkozy wins over Royal, by percentages ranging from 50.5/49.5 to 57/43, in every poll taken since his candidacy was announced. Those who detest Sarkozy—the racaille, the far Left, the altermondialistes, Islamists and fellow travelers—detest him fervently, virulently, violently. He’s been tarred and feathered by Left-oriented media that accuse him of pouring oil on banlieue fires, creating tension and conflict, snapping an authoritarian whip. He’s called a fascist, a nasty cop, a threat, a disaster. Ordinary citizens who are truly put off by Ségolène Royal still hesitate to vote for Sarkozy. “He’s frightening,” they say. Why is he frightening? Don’t ask.
Sarkozy-trashing has been toned down since the official campaign got underway because the media are supposed to be neutral, but the bogeyman image hovers on the horizon. Sarkozy-haters act as if his crimes go without saying, as if they are not only common knowledge but commonly acknowledged. So why is it that the majority of voters intend to vote for him? The fact is that Nicolas Sarkozy is very popular. And this popularity, which extends to working class people and residents of the banlieue, must be telling us something about what French citizens really want.
Sarkozy is the closest to a neoconservative, free market libertarian, pro-American, pro-Zionist, unapologetic nationalist, pro-globalization candidate who could make it onto the ballot in France. Though many Jewish voters will probably maintain their leftwing voting habits, a significant sector of the Jewish community loves him like a brother. Jewish people are prominent in French public life; some assert their identity proudly and others flash it as a permit to trash Israel, some soft pedal it to avoid charges of parochialism, some never mention it, some are Christian converts, many have Frenchified their names.
Sarkozy is Catholic, but does not hide his Jewish affinities. His parents divorced in 1959, when he was four. His charming but unreliable Hungarian father went off to new adventures, his mother and the three boys moved in with her father, Benedict Mallah, a Jewish immigrant from Salonika who converted to Catholicism in 1917 when he fell in love with a widow from Lyon. Sarkozy’s wife Cecilia has similar mixed origins: her father is Jewish, from Eastern Europe, her mother is a Spanish Catholic. Nicolas Sarkozy has been openly, enthusiastically, abundantly friendly to the state of Israel and the French-Jewish community… particularly in the past seven years of explosive Jew hatred and virulent anti-Zionism. At every major incident, he has promised—as Minister of the Interior—that the culprits will be found, tried, and punished. The results have been meager but he is judged on his intentions.
February 28th Foreign Policy Press Conference
I was sitting between Bloomberg News and the United Arab Emirates. The UAE journalist showed me his ticket and tacked a copy of the list of Sarkozy’s speeches in our press kit, which begins with American Jewish Committee, followed by the Herzliya Conference, and includes Daughters of the American Revolution. He was surprised, or more like stupefied, by the absence of “countries in the Middle East.”
“Herzliya is in Israel, isn’t that the Middle East?”
“It’s Israel.”
“If he had given a talk in the UAE, that would be the Middle East?”
Yes, no, you know what he meant. I asked him if his country was concerned about Iran’s nuclear projects.
“Yes. If the U.S. decides on a military strike, it will inflame the whole region.”
“Hmmm. And if Iran decides to strike Israel, that too might inflame the region?”
Nicolas Sarkozy entered without fanfare, without introduction, and calmly presented his foreign policy platform. He was relaxed, natural, and not the least bit frightening. I would guess that the UAE journalist was reassured to hear that the Israeli operation in Lebanon this summer was “disproportionate,” the Palestinians should have a state, the Americans made a historical error in Iraq, and Iran must not have nuclear weapons.
Others may have been disappointed to hear these same old tunes from a man who has been known to be bolder. Only this summer he defended Israel’s right to vigorous self-defense against Hizbullah, and criticized the arrogance of France’s UN campaign against the American initiative in Iraq in 2003. But if one looks past the general statements and concentrates on the foreign policy dynamics he outlines, the rupture overrules the continuity. ........................................>>>>>>>>>>>>
READ THE REST HERE
http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/03/paris_blues_nicolas_sarkozy_in.php
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