I am writing these words from Nuremberg, Germany, the city where, in 1933, the persecution of Europe’s Jews began.
In what was once the Jewish Quarter, on the banks of the Pegnitz River where the city’s Grand Synagogue once stood before it was burned on Kristallnacht, a memorial stone now stands. Embedded in the stone is a charred fragment from the original synagogue, with a verse etched in Hebrew reading: “Who among you remains who saw this house in its former glory?”
Nearby, another plaque bears the verse from Proverbs: “If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’ does not He who weighs the heart consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?”
Another memorial marks the site of the former Adat Yisrael synagogue on Essenwein Street, featuring a relief of the synagogue facade and the verse: “Remember what Amalek did to you.”
Eighty years have passed since the Holocaust and the murder of six million Jews, yet it seems the world has learned nothing.
A war of light and dark
A Palestinian state would be a reward for barbaric murderers who would turn it into a terror state and a permanent threat to Israel.
In Palestinian Authority textbooks, authored under Holocaust-denier Mahmoud Abbas, one finds antisemitic statements reminiscent of Nazi propaganda from Der Stürmer: “Jews are the descendants of apes and pigs who must be destroyed.”
And yet, French President Emmanuel Macron seeks to recognize a “State of Palestine.”
It is worth reminding Macron – and the world – of Vichy France, which served as a puppet government of Nazi Germany between July 1940 and August 1944.
The persecution of Jews under Marshal Philippe Pétain, leader of Vichy France, remains one of the darkest chapters in French and Jewish history.
After France’s defeat in June 1940, Pétain signed an armistice with Hitler and led the Vichy regime, controlling southern France. Despite his public image as a World War I hero, Pétain betrayed the principles of justice and freedom, becoming an active partner in Nazi Germany’s persecution of Jews.
His regime enacted antisemitic legislation starting in October 1940, barring Jews from public service, media, education, academia, and government. Jews were marked, dispossessed, and hunted. In 1942, Vichy police, on Pétain’s orders and in full cooperation with the Nazis, began deporting Jews to death camps.
In July 1942, about 13,000 Jews, mostly women and children, were rounded up and sent to Auschwitz.
Pétain’s Vichy regime was the executing arm of Nazi Germany’s Holocaust on French soil. After the war, Pétain was convicted of treason and sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment. To this day, he remains a symbol of betrayal, antisemitism, and collaboration with Nazi evil.
As US President Donald Trump aptly remarked, without American intervention, “The French would be speaking German today.”
UNDER MACRON’S leadership, France is drifting away from Israel and from the core values of Western democracy. The recent calls from Paris to recognize a Palestinian state are proof of this dangerous trend.
While Israel fights for its very existence against the murderous terror organizations Hamas and Hezbollah, Macron’s misguided words reveal a dangerous detachment from reality, a betrayal of the only Middle Eastern nation upholding Western values.
Only recently, the world watched in disbelief as French police retreated from mobs looting and burning stores with impunity.
France’s fate is sealed. In a few short decades, the ethnic French will be a minority in their own country.
Paris’s recognition of a Palestinian state is not an isolated gesture. Once a strategic partner of Israel, France now bows to growing domestic pressures from radical Muslim communities whose numbers and political power are rising.
This is no longer confined to the suburbs of Paris; entire communities now operate under de facto Sharia, where French law holds no sway.
Macron, who once positioned himself as an opponent of radical Islam, is now retreating from his support of Israel out of fear of domestic unrest and political calculation.
Antisemitism in France is breaking records, with hundreds of incidents reported annually, from vandalized synagogues to Jews being attacked in the streets.
Instead of combating antisemitism and defending its Jewish community, the French government chooses to shift the discourse to “resolving the conflict,” a euphemism for demonizing Israel, assigning it sole blame, and conveniently ignoring Hamas’s atrocities.
Recognizing a Palestinian state without first demanding the dismantling of terror organizations is a gift to terrorism.
Instead of standing with Israel in its existential fight, Macron aligns himself with European countries that have already crossed the red line, such as Ireland, Spain, and Norway, recklessly discarding Israel’s legitimate security concerns.
Even African nations are tired of French colonialism. In December 2024, the last French troops were expelled from Chad in disgrace.
Ultimately, France is not merely betraying Israel; it is betraying itself and its citizens.
Its unconditional support for the Palestinians, capitulation to extremists, and abandonment of liberal values are steering the French Republic down a dangerous slope that threatens its identity, freedom, and future.
Just last week, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul publicly rebuked his French counterpart over reports that the French government is considering unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.
Former prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon believed wholeheartedly in extending a hand of peace to our neighbors. Yet after the Oslo Accords, Israel was met with exploding buses across the country, killing and wounding thousands.
The slap Macron once received from his wife pales in comparison to the blow he will suffer when his misguided initiative robs France of what little influence it still holds in the Middle East, including in Lebanon.
The “State of Palestine” may live on in Macron’s fevered imagination. But alongside a free and democratic Israel, it will not arise.
The writer is CEO of Radios 100FM, honorary consul, deputy dean of the Consular Corps in Israel, president of the Israel Radio Communications Association, and former NBC television correspondent.