‘Antisemite? Certainly’
FRANCE’S Chief Rabbi has called Eric Zemmour an antisemite.
Zemmour is running second in some opinion polls ahead of next year’s election.
During an interview for France 2, Rabbi Haim Korsia was asked whether Zemmour, the son of Jewish immigrants from Algeria, is an antisemite.
After first asking his interviewer whether Zemmour is Jewish, Rabbi Korsia replied, “Antisemite? Certainly. A racist? Definitely.”
The leaders of French Jewish institutions have expressed hostility toward Zemmour, who has endorsed a controversial reading of World War II history in which French Nazi collaborators allegedly sacrificed some Jews to save others.
But only Rabbi Korsia has made the antisemitism allegation at Zemmour, whose wife and children are also Jewish.
Tribune Juive published an editorial that harshly criticised Rabbi Korsia and rejected the charge as unfounded. That same op-ed, however, called some of Zemmour’s statements “disconcerting,” “abject,” “obsessive” and “pathologically nationalistic”.
“But how in the devil’s name to interpret these nonsensical assertions by the Chief Rabbi,” the Tribune editorial read, “who has cast away all oratory caution and gone ahead to declare Zemmour an antisemite?”
A 2014 poll suggested that Le Pen, a far-right politician with views close to Zemmour’s, enjoys a 13.5 per cent approval rate among Jews.
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