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| Sarkozy reassures US Jewish leaders about anti-Semitism in France
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Nicolas Sarkozy with Rabbi Israel Singer, chairman of the policy council of the World Jewish Congress
Photo: AFP Copyright 2006
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NEW YORK (EJP)--- French Interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, has tried to reassure leaders of American Jewish organizations worried by outbursts of anti-Semitism in France, during a meeting on Monday in New York.
“There is a lot of concern. They wonder what is happening in France, why there are riots in the suburbs,” Sarkozy told journalists after meeting eight American Jewish organisations at the French general consulate in New York on Fifth Avenue.
Sarkozy, who is a leading candidate to replace President Jacques Chirac in elections next year and is labeled by the American press as ‘France’s most unabashedly pro-American politician’, has been on a four-day visit to the U.S. since last Saturday.
He attended memorial events in New York commemorating the fifth anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001.
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Sarkozy reassured the American Jewish leaders, worried by the situation in France, that riots of young Muslims in Paris suburbs last year had “no relation with the situation in Israel”.
He said that “not all Muslims are anti-Semites and not all anti-Semites are Muslims”.
“There have been polls in the beginning of 2000 about the reality or not of anti-Semitism and I told our friends that France was not an anti-Semitic country but that there is some anti-Semitism which we are combating with great energy,” Sarkozy said.
According to the minister, “the results are spectacular because the number of anti-Semitic acts halved in 2005. I am drawing the conclusion that we should not stop watching out, on the contrary we should continue this firm policy,” he added.
According to the press, the meeting marked the first time a major French presidential candidate has publicly cultivated relations with the American Jewish community before an election, and it came as French parties are preparing to select their candidates for the presidential race in April 2007.
"I am a friend of America. I am a friend of Israel," declared Sarkozy, who is heading the conservative governing party “Union pour un Mouvement Populaire” or Union for a Popular Movement Union, known by its French initials UMP.
 Not all Muslims are anti-Semites and not all anti-Semites are Muslims 
Nicolas Sarkozy |
Among those attending Monday’s meeting were the chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Harold Tanner, the chairman of the policy council of the World Jewish Congress, Rabbi Israel Singer; the president of the American Jewish Congress, Jack Rosen, and officials from the American Jewish Committee and Anti-Defamation League.
Advice to Israel
Sarkozy declared that Israel was the victim of aggression but managed to lose the image war, so that the idea of Israelis as victims was replaced by pictures of dead Lebanese children.
"Israel must pay more attention to its international image. If Israel has a terrible international image, it cannot exclusively be the fault of everyone else,” the minister stressed.
Israel should explore the possibility of talks with Syria in order to effect a split between Damascus and Tehran, he said.
And Israel should be "more proactive," he said. "When you are small, you must be swift."
He advised Israel "never to be the aggressor, and never to be caught standing still."
The 51-year-old Sarkozy is currently leading most recent French opinion polls by a narrow margin over his nearest potential rival, Socialist Ségolène Royal.
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