Hard days are going on for Eric Zamor. It seems that the meteoric rise of the French-Jewish journalist and writer - or as he prefers to say, French-Jewish, to emphasize the primacy of the nation over religion - got into trouble, even before he officially announced this week his intention to run for French presidency. Five months before the presidential election, polls point to a decline in Zamor's power, presented by his many rivals as a far-right candidate, compared to a renewed strengthening of veteran nationalist camp leader Marin Le Pen.
Only a few weeks ago, polls predicted that Zamor would be able to qualify for the second round of voting instead of Le Pen, and would challenge the continued presidency of Emanuel Macron. But the new star of the French nationalist right, who had hoped to connect in his candidacy between the French conservative bourgeoisie and the popular strata to secure his way to the Elysee Palace, is rapidly losing its luster. Recent polls give it 15-12 percent, compared to 17 percent in early October. The reasons lie, among other things, in a series of statements that are perceived among the Jews of France when writing the antisemitic history of their country and creating a false narrative.
Zamor, 63, who boasts of his extensive historical knowledge, declared, for example, that Colonel Alfred Dreyfus' innocence was uncertain, and "in any case, he was not attacked as a Jew, but as a German."
Dreyfus, it is recalled, was an officer accused in the late 19th century of betraying France and passing on military secrets to the German enemy, was found guilty of no wrongdoing and was sentenced to be disqualified and imprisoned on "Devil's Island."
He was a French patriot, despite his origins in the Alsace region, which had been controlled throughout history between France and Germany.
The Dreyfus affair is still considered a founding antisemitic event in France and around the world.
Zamor also claims that the person who headed the Vichy regime, General Philippe Petten, who collaborated with the Nazis, "acted to save the French Jews and handed over to the Germans only foreign Jews."
In so doing, he is giving the French right-wing camp a boost, claiming that the Vichy regime was not an active partner in the Holocaust - in contrast to official France, which after decades acknowledged French responsibility for the Holocaust.
Zamor says it is time to stop blaming France for past actions, to allow it to regain its greatness.
He demands the repeal of the laws that incriminate racist and anti-Semitic statements, on the basis of which he himself has been found twice guilty of spreading racial discrimination, and several proceedings are being conducted against him for racist and religious incitement.
And if all this were not enough, he criticized the decision of the families of the children killed in 2012 in the Islamist terrorist attack on the Jewish school in Toulouse to bury their children in Israel.
Zamor also spoke with one breath about the decision of the family of the perpetrator to bury her son, who was killed by the French security forces, in Algeria.
"Murderers or innocents, butchers or victims, enemies or friends - everyone wanted to live in France, but when they chose their bone resting place, they did not choose France. Above all, they were foreigners, and wanted to remain so even after their deaths."
The Chief Rabbi of France, Chaim Corsier, called Zmour "antisemitic and racist."
The head of the representative council of the Jewish institutions in France, Francis Califa, described him as a "useful Jew" (a common expression in French for Jews who can be used in a way contrary to the interests of the Jews) and as "the leader of historical revisionism in France" and called on all French Jews to abstain.
On his emotional visit to Marseille, last week.
His opponents called him a "racist" and a "shame", his young fans shouted "Zamor Nasi", Photo: AFP
• • •
Zamor was born in the summer of 1958 in Monterey, an eastern suburb of Paris, to Jewish parents who left Algeria following the bloody civil war between the National Independence Movement and French rule.
Algerian Jews for the most part maintained complete loyalty to France, which recognized them as French at the end of the 19th century.
Zamor grew up in a traditional home, and according to his associates, he fasted for many years on Yom Kippur and avoided eating pork.
In the mid-1980s, after graduating from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, he began working as a journalist - first in the daily Cotidain de Paris, and in the mid-1990s as a political commentator for the conservative daily La Figaro.
His great breakthrough into the public consciousness occurred when he began participating in political programs on television some 20 years ago.
He stood out there as right-wing and patriotic and opposed to the growing Islamization of France.
To date he has written six political books, some of which, on the state of France, are bestsellers.
The Eric Zamor phenomenon fell on the French Jewish community in the midst of a deep identity crisis.
In the last two decades, Jews have been murdered in France because of their Judaism, by Muslim extremists.
Instead of defending the Jews and working vigorously to punish the perpetrators, the authorities demonstrated helplessness, and in many cases abandoned the Jews to their fate, refusing to acknowledge the antisemitic nature of the murders.
The feeling of insecurity caused many Jews to emigrate to safer places in France or abroad, to deny their Judaism, or alternatively to be confined within communal frameworks.
They have ceased to feel that they have a home and a future in France, even though they are still very much connected to France and its culture.
Jews who came to France from North Africa and did everything to assimilate into French society, see how they are pushed out by Arab and Muslim immigrant communities, who do not strive to be absorbed into French society but import their way of life.
Zamor attacks Islam and calls for a halt to mass immigration and the expulsion of immigrants involved in crime.
Against the background of the growing fears and frustrations of the Jewish community in the country and the helplessness of the political system, these attacks are received with quite widespread support by Jews.
Many of them will not admit it outright, for fear of being ostracized from their social circles, but despite Zamor's "deviations" in the context of France's antisemitic history and his declared opposition to communality, they still see him as their representative in the struggle for their existential problems.
On the other hand, other Jews see it as the great problem of France now.
The fact that he is being attacked from all sides - right and left, from the center of the political map and its extremes, by Jews, Muslims and anti-Semites alike - due to his controversial positions on immigrants, Muslims, French history and Christian identity in France - has strengthened Zamor's image as the sole "political establishment".
Already last summer, rumors began to circulate about his intention to participate in the presidential race. In September, his new book "France Did Not Say Her Last Word" was published, which conquered the top of book sales within a few days. The book and the extensive lecture tour, which Zmor conducted throughout France under the title "On a Crossroads," were already seen as part of an orchestrated election campaign. But waiting too long for his announcement whether to run for president has caused him to lose momentum. Just this week he jumped into the boiling political water.
According to reports in the French media, Zamor is having difficulty recruiting 500 signatures of elected officials, which are required by law to confirm his candidacy, and which he must publish in about two months. The task is not simple, as all right-wing parties are pressuring their constituents not to support it. One of its main funders, the millionaire Charles Gabe, who is affiliated with right-wing nationalist elements, decided to stop supporting him, in part after two of Zamor's associates cheated on his daughter. And the most senior politician to support him - Philippe de Ville, an ultra-conservative right-winger and former French presidential candidate - has announced he will not attend the big event Zamor is organizing this coming Sunday in Paris, fearing his side will hurt revenue from a historic theme park.
Zamor also hoped to win the support of Marion Marshall, the niece of Marin Le Pen, a nationalist politician in her own right.
This could have been a significant blow for Le Pen;
But the niece, who is very influential in right-wing circles, is wary of taking an unequivocal position.
Only Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marin's father and Marion's grandfather, the founder of the National Front, showered praise on Zamor and announced that he would vote for him if he were the leading candidate of the nationalist camp.
But 93-year-old Le Pen's support is more of a curse than a blessing: even his daughter expelled him from the party he founded, changing her name to the "National Convention."
Marin Le Pen, whose candid candidacy served to change her image and focus, this week called on the Jewish journalist who took her place to give up his candidacy and join forces with it.
• • •
In the midst of all these disappointments, a juicy affair exploded last week, which was a visible side charge to the eyes of all. The gossip magazine "Closer" published an exclusive article according to which Zamor got pregnant by his chief adviser, 28-year-old Sarah Knapo. Knapo - who is in fact running Zamor's start-up campaign for the presidential race - is expected to give birth near the time of the presidential election.
The report is accompanied by photos of the two walking with a hand folded in his arm, talking, laughing, and the counselor's swollen belly visible to all. The Zamor and Knapo families both came to France from Algeria and have been in close contact for a long time. Relations between Eric and Sarah have intensified in recent years, helping the young girl prepare for entrance exams to higher education institutions in political science and economics - including the ENA (National School of Administration, from which most French politicians and senior officials graduate). Upon graduation, Knapo was appointed a clerk in the public body responsible for overseeing state spending. She left the post a few months ago, before actually starting work on it, to dedicate herself to Zamor's future election campaign.
The French media generally refrains from engaging in the private lives of politicians.
Former President Francois Mitterrand had a mistress who gave birth to a daughter out of wedlock, but this became known to the public only after his death.
Jacques Chirac had a long line of mistresses, in parallel with his marriage, but even here, their identities were revealed to the public only after his death.
And Francois Holland was also credited with many love affairs, which remained unknown.
But Zamor is not president, nor did he bother at all to hide his knapsack and his closeness to her, despite being married and a father of three.
He had an affair with his counselor for several years, without divorcing his wife and in a non-discreet manner.
The weekly "Paris Match" published in early October intimate photos of the two bathing on one of the shores of France.
Even then, suspicion arose that Zamor and his men had initiated this publication in order to defuse the bomb and control the narrative, even though he was quick to file a lawsuit against the weekly.
Also last Friday, Zamor tried to prevent the article from being published in "Closer", but without success.
Zamor with his advisor, Sarah Knapo, who Closer magazine reported she became pregnant with (pictured above).
The newspaper crowned the front page with the words: "He will be a father in 2022", Photo: AP
Now Zamor and Knapo have announced that they will file a lawsuit for harming their private lives.
On his official Twitter account, Zamor tweeted: "Whatever it is, always and everywhere, I will bask in total zeal on the private lives and private lives of my relatives. Public life - yes. Voyeurism - no. Sorry for the perverts."
His supporters were quick to argue on social media that reporting on Knapo's pregnancy indicates that Zamor's political rivals have no substantive way to deal with his arguments.
His antisemitic critics were quick to claim, without any justification, that the journalist began having a sexual relationship with Knapo while a minor.
Antisemites tend to portray Jews as lewd sex offenders.
They also argue that Zamor - like Macron - actually serves the interests of "Jewish capital."
This is despite the fact that France's chief rabbi, Chaim Corsia, has stated that Zamor is anti-Semitic and racist.
• • •
The revelation about Knapo's pregnancy came when Zamor was preparing to visit Marseille, the second largest city in France and one of the country's main immigration centers: of its 900,000 residents, about 15 percent are immigrants.
The city is home to about 300,000 Muslims, and the growth of the Muslim population is so rapid that the heads of the Muslim communities complain that they do not have enough mosques to serve the believers.
Extensive neighborhoods in the city are considered "lost territories of the French Republic," controlled by violent gangs, mostly of North Africans, who run an extensive drug trafficking network. Under the auspices of these gangs, religious extremism is also developing among young people, who feel no connection to the values of France. All the issues that Zamor has been warning about for a long time are concentrated in Marseilles, which could have been an appropriate arena for announcing his candidacy for president: sympathy demonstrations or multi-participant protests would have created an appropriate atmosphere for such a move.
Zamor visited distressed neighborhoods and planned to meet with local residents.
But his visit plan was leaked ahead of time to Antifa (anti-fascist) activists, several dozen of whom were waiting for him at every point on his route, shouting loudly and shouting at him: "Get out of here, you shame! Racist!".
On the other hand, several dozen fans, mostly young members of the "Génération Z" movement ("Generation Z", like Zamor) accompanied him with chants "Zmor Nasi" and "Zmor for the second round of elections".
Between the two groups were armed policemen, private security guards and dozens of journalists.
Journalists, as is customary in France, refrained from asking Zamor questions about the consultant's pregnancy.
Knapo accompanied Zmor on his tours and meetings with activists from the movement who support him, "Zmor's friends."
Huge signs against him, hung on sites he visited, including a church in the port area, were removed ahead of time.
Several hundred left-wing activists gathered for a violent demonstration in a central square in the city on Friday night, while Zamor himself conducted a secret tour of the drug trafficking district, documented by his men.
"Marseille is a very symbolic city," Zamor declared, "if nothing is done, this is what France will look like in the future: flooded with immigrants and Muslim.
"Marseille has been dismantled for a long time, because of immigration. To absorb immigrants, one must first stop the flow of immigrants. This is the only way. All the French are afraid that France will become Marseille, Lebanon second. It will happen if the French choose Macron again ".
When a demonstrator against him pointed a triple finger at him, Zamor responded from his vehicle with a similar indecent gesture.
The incident was captured on press cameras and turned into an image disaster;
Even Zamor himself was forced to admit that it was an "unelegant" gesture.
The mutual triple finger in front of a demonstrator in Marseille, last week.
Another scandal, Photo: AFP
• • •
David Attia (50), a Jewish doctor, a father of four, of Algerian-Moroccan descent, is one of Zamor's main contacts in Marseilles.
The city is home to about 60,000 Jews, the second largest community in France.
Before Zamor's arrival in Marseilles, Attia tried to arrange for the candidate to visit two synagogues in the city, but the initiative was rejected outright by the community leaders.
"This week's Torah portion last week told of Joseph's sale to Egypt by his brother," David tells me this week.
"Joseph told his brothers his dreams and aroused their hatred. Zamor warns of what is about to happen in France, and it arouses hatred in our ranks. His remarks about General Petain and the victims of the attack in Toulouse were undoubtedly unnecessary, and here too he was sold by his brother to his rivals. It is completely unacceptable. Better. "A good but imperfect Jewish candidate, with his controversial views and private life, than a bad Jewish candidate."
Attia says he became interested in politics after the attack on the Jewish school in Toulouse.
"As a father whose children go to a Jewish school, the attack in Toulouse caused me trauma, as well as the attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels and the terrorist attacks against Jewish targets in Paris. The terrorist from Brussels was arrested in Marseille, holding maps of the school where my children studied.
"Since then, I have been connected to reality, that is, I support politicians who oppose mass immigration and all the progressive ideas that have failed. This is not an ideology, but a desire to regain confidence. It is also not related to the far right.
"France has a Christian antisemitic tradition, and there is also the Algerian war. And there is a kind of guilt about it. However, the perception of France and the French as eternal culprits is a kind of racism. When my parents came to France, neither Vichy nor Dreyfus drew them here.
"I know there is a traditional anti-Semitism on the far right, but reality shows me that the most significant threat to us today is Islamic terrorism. Of course not all Muslims should be treated as a threat. "Anti-racism.
Attia claims that the problem of the Jews in France is that they suffer from oblivion. There were politicians who said they were philosophical (affection for Judaism, the opposite of anti-Semitism; His representatives in comfortable offices in Paris, and lo and behold, say that Zamor does not like Jews, because of some lines he wrote in his books or some sentences he said.
"It was not difficult for Chirac and Macron to acknowledge France's responsibility for the deportation of the Jews in the Holocaust. These are dead Jews. But what did they do for the living Jews? And if France becomes a second Lebanon tomorrow, will it serve Israel's interests? Muslimism - So what is the point of opposing Iran's nuclear weapons?
"The memory of the Holocaust is important, but the anti-racism associated with it did not protect the Jews from further murders, but turned to protect our murderers in the 21st century. I do not get up in the morning worried about the Inquisition or the Nazis, but about Muslim terrorism. I do not want to act today. Base Perceptions Related to the Past Yesterday's enemies are not today's enemies.
"France is sick because of its guilt feelings. Zamor tells France that she is not guilty, and she needs to stand on her own two feet. He is doing France a kind of therapy, and trying to free her from guilt, which is the engine of activity of all parties and organizations that harm France."
David Attia.
"Singing Alert", Photo: Eldad Beck
Latia, as expected, has a full stomach for the Jewish leadership in the country.
"I do not tolerate the hypocrisy of the Jewish institutions," he says angrily.
"In fact, there is a rift between these institutions, which are held by elites who serve the interests of the government and not the Jews, and the base of the Jewish community. The Chief Rabbi of France condemned Zamor and slandered him. "Muslims who will not engage in politics, and here comes a chief rabbi and intervenes in a political matter, even though Zamor is not running for the presidency as a Jew but as a French citizen."
• • •
Eli Sasson (56), a Jewish dentist from Paris, born in Morocco, is also active in Zamor's campaign.
"When I came to France, I felt closer to my Arab friends than to the French. It took me a long time to feel French. I grew up, I went to university, I started working, I got married.
"Then, in 1996, one of my assistants at the dental clinic, an 18-year-old French-born Tunisian girl, very kind, asked me one day if it was true that Jews raped corpses to give birth to demons. I laughed, and asked her how she could say such nonsense. She said her parents have been telling her this since she was a child.
"It made me realize how important it is to stop the increase in the Arab-Muslim population in France. Of course not all Muslims think so, but it is certainly not the only one. I said to myself: if tomorrow there are hundreds of thousands like her in France, what will happen to Jews and the French population as a whole? I realized that we need to find ways to educate these people, and it's not easy, because they come from a background that educates them on nonsense and hatred.
"Therefore, we need to reduce the number of immigrants who come to France and educate those who are already here. It will be impossible to live with them if they do not change their positions. This is not racism, this is an understanding that many of these people hate the West and the Jews. Why bring them here? I also do not understand why, after France sent tens of thousands of Jews to death in the Holocaust, it brings here people most of whom hate the Jews.
"Zamor warned 20 years ago that a large part of the Arab-Muslim population in France hates the state and the Jews and is willing to resort to violence. He is the only one who has been saying these things clearly, for years, without fear."
What attracts you to it?
"I've been following him since he started appearing on TV. I read his books. I saw that every word he made accurately reflected my views. It was amazing. I said to myself: This man thinks just like me on almost every subject. I've never heard a public figure I had so much. Lots of points in common with her.
"Beyond that, he has his personality. I think I have enough life experience to recognize honesty in people. I worked in theater at the time, I recognize people who pretend. Zmour seems to me an authentic person. He does not try to impress. He does not attach any importance to his image. .His appearance is sloppy, his gaze is strange, he laughs uncontrollably, like a child, and he also erupts in rage uncontrollably.
"These personality traits are captivating to me. He is human. And he addresses taboo issues that no one wanted to discuss for years. Only the 'National Front' did so, but in an antisemitic way, with the weight of Jean-Marie Le Pen, which prevented any serious treatment. To the party.
"Then came Zamor, who is much more educated, more intelligent, more logical, and could not be seen as a neo-Nazi. In any case, until a few weeks ago it was not possible; today it has become fashionable. Wanted to talk about them.
"True, he sometimes says nonsense, but it's human. He's not a politician, he has nothing to sell. He does not have to give back favors to people or appoint people. Feel he has a very clear goal, very close to his heart: the greatness of France. "I want to renew the greatness of France."
• • •
Bruno Benjamin, 57, a representative of the Council of Jewish Organizations in the Marseilles region, estimates that the revelation that Zamor makes to history and the doubt he casts on the loyalty of Jews to France because of his special connection to Israel are very detrimental to the Jewish community.
Benjamin is the son of parents who moved to France from Algeria, after gaining independence.
"My father was completely in love with France," he says.
"He did not want to immigrate to Israel. Still, before his death he told us he wanted to be buried in Israel. It is part of a religious tradition, Zamor should not preach morality to us about it. He himself does not serve as an example at all. He claims the captain protected the French Jews.
"Serge Klarsfeld published detailed lists of all the Jews deported from France, indicating their citizenship. Most of them were French. .
"There is no doubt that Zamor raises problematic issues: immigration, insecurity, and the role of Muslims in crime. His distinctions are correct. He is not the only one who raises them, but to his credit it should be said that these issues were under the rug, and he took them out. Many think quietly.
"But the extreme way he presents things creates many difficulties for us, the Jews, and so do the historical lies he spreads. To claim to Petan's credit that he betrayed only foreign Jews and saved French Jews is something that goes against logic. A Jew is a Jew, it does not matter if "He is German, Polish or French. There is no different logic for Ashkenazi Jews and Jews from the Maghreb."
An antisemitic song?
"No. His talk about France's Christian identity does not shock me either. Just as there is a Jewish state, France is a Christian state. But from the moment he started talking about the historical issues related to anti - Semitism, he says nonsense. He admits he enjoys reading books by French antisemitic writers. Why? I have no idea. He seems to want to gather around him the Jews who are fed up with radical Islam and the antisemitic nationalists.
"I am a French patriot, I love France in the spirit of the writer Roman Gary's saying: 'Patriotism is the love of those close to you, nationalism is the hatred of the other'. The fact that there are problems should not lead to xenophobia. .
"Politicians from all parties talk about the problems and do nothing against them. Who guarantees us that Zamor or La Pen will solve the problems? They are demagogues who want to be elected."
Graffiti on a school wall in Marseille, this week: "Singing, we will kill you", Photo: Eldad Beck
Lionel Stora (57), director of the "Joint Jewish Social Fund" in southern Provence, also sees the psalm as a problem for the Jewish community in France.
The foundation is one of the main institutions of the Jewish community in the country, and deals with the fields of society, education, culture and young people.
"There are people in the community who say, 'Because he's a Jew, you have to listen to him,'" Stora says.
"This is a mistake. In everything he says there is a kernel of truth, but there are also many mistakes and incorrect historical details, or a trending historical interpretation. "There are incidents and tensions with the Muslim population, but the Jewish community is flourishing."
• • •
Stora was born in Marseille to parents who came to France from Algeria.
He spent his childhood and adolescence in the northern neighborhoods of Marseille, which even then were distressed neighborhoods full of violence and anti-Semitism.
"As Jews, we have a traditional approach that opposes hatred of the other. My parents, who were thrown out of Algeria and lost all their property, educated me not to accept statements like 'dirty Jew,' 'dirty Arab,' or 'dirty black.' Arab countries, we will not educate our children about hatred of Arabs.
"It does not mean that we are blind to problems, or that we are weak. But we forbid ourselves to support extremist positions, especially if they come from Jews. That immigration can create good things.We are all descendants of immigrants.
"It was not the anti-Semitism of the day that came mainly from Muslim communities, but French anti-Semitism," he recalled.
"Those who beat me because of my Judaism were French or immigrants from Italy. The contemporary discourse of the extreme right in relation to Muslims reminds me of that anti-Semitism.
"If people think that Jews accept the discourse of the extreme right, there is a great danger in that. If they think that Jews vote for a Jew who speaks on behalf of the extreme right, the impression will be created that Jews are willing to agree to everything, once said by a Jew."
Eli Sasson, a supporter of Zamor, emphasizes that "the Jewish community reflects the whole of France, and therefore has no consensus. However, there are internal conflicts that are unique to the Jewish community. First and foremost, there is the issue of dual loyalty. The connection to Israel is a fundamental component of the Jewish faith It's hard not to be associated with Israel when you believe in religion, and it's very difficult for a Jew living in the Diaspora to feel completely French and above all.
"אבל הקשר לישראל יוצר חילוקי דעות גם בתוך משפחות. גם בתוך המשפחה שלי. ככל שאדם יותר דתי, הקשר שלו לישראל גדל, וכך הרצון להגן על הנאמנות הכפולה הזו.
ליונל סטורא. "לא עיוורים", צילום: אלדד בק
"האנשים הדתיים לא רוצים שניגע בזה, כדי שיוכלו להעמיד פנים שהם אוהבים את ישראל כמו את צרפת. אבל בסופו של דבר, הם אוהבים את ישראל יותר מאשר את צרפת. הם לא עולים לישראל מסיבותיהם, אבל הם מתכוונים להגיע אליה - כשייצאו לפנסיה, או כדי להיקבר בה. הם לא כנים דיים כדי להודות בכך, וזה די צבוע.
"בעיניי, זה מסובך לאהוב מדינה אחרת יותר מאשר את זו שבה אתה חי, וקשה להיות פטריוט של המדינה שבה אתה חי אם אינך אוהב אותה יותר מכל דבר אחר. לכן האמירות של זמור מפריעות להם. הוא אומר להם שעליהם לבחור מהי המדינה שלהם. צרפת אינה מקום שעובדים בו, מרוויחים כסף וחולמים לגור במקום אחר. לצרפת יש הזכות שיהיו בה אזרחים שנלחמים עבורה, שגאים בה ורוצים לחיות ולמות בה. כשאנשים מרגישים שחשפו את הצביעות שלהם, הם מגיבים בהרבה אלימות ושנאה. הם הבינו שזמור חשף אותם, ולכן הם שונאים אותו".
נוסטלגיה ופחד | בועז ביסמוט, פריז
צרפת חולה, ואריק זמור הוא הרופא שירפא אותה. והמרשם שהוא רושם לעשרות מיליוני הבוחרים הוא נוסטלגיה ופחד. נוסטלגיה לאתמול, פחד מהמחר.
זמור לא בא לבצע רפורמות. זמור בא להציל את צרפת מעצמה ולהחזיר אותה למה שהיתה. הוא המועמד הססגוני ביותר שידעה צרפת: ידוען, סופר, פאנליסט מבוקש, שנלחם פעמים רבות לבדו נגד המוסכמות ונגד הפוליטיקלי קורקט, לא פוחד לזעזע, להתריס, לשחות נגד הזרם. למען צרפת הוא מוכן לטשטש כל דבר, כולל הזהות היהודית שלו, כולל רהביליטציה למשטר וישי, תוך הסתמכות על משנתם של היסטוריונים ידועים.
ברחובות פריז מדברים עליו הרבה. התמונה שלו מככבת בעיתונים, ספריו הם רבי מכר. זמור הוא איש ספר, והוא מספר סיפור: הסיפור של צרפת האלגנטית, היפה, הספרותית והמדעית, זו שיודעת לאכול ולשתות רק את המאכלים והמשקאות הטובים ביותר, זו שרצה קדימה באוויר, בים וביבשה. הוא מתגעגע למדינה של וולטר ורוסו, לנפוליאון וללואי ה־14, לדקארט, למולייר, לוויקטור הוגו, לז׳אן מולן ולז׳אן גאבן, למדינה שהמציאה את המכונית ואת הקולנוע.
הגעתי לצרפת כסטודנט וכעיתונאי ב־1988. היו אלה השנים של מיטראן, תקופה אחרת, עולם אחר. עידן שבו זמור לא היה יכול אפילו לחלום על ארמון האליזה. אולי כמבקר. מאז, עברו שם שיראק וסרקוזי והולנד ומקרון. צרפת השתנתה, והשינוי הזה מאפשר לזמור לחלום. דווקא העולם של אתמול, שאליו הוא מתגעגע, לא היה כנראה מחבק אותו: זה היה עולם של זהויות, ולא בטוח שבן של מהגרים יהודים מאלג'יריה היה מתקבל כמועמד לגיטימי לנשיאות. זמור בוודאי יזכיר בתגובה את נפוליאון, שצמח בקורסיקה הקטנה ללא כל סיכוי, ואז השתלט על פריז ועל אירופה כולה.
אגב, צרפת לא באמת השתנתה. בארה״ב או בבריטניה, מאהבת הרה של מועמד לנשיאות מפילה את המועמד. בצרפת לא: כאן, אם טוב לפוליטיקאי בלילה - טוב לאזרח ביום. ככה זה בצרפת.
Five years ago, a candidate who engraved on his banner the slogan "America First" won the White House.
Zamor ran on the ticket of "France First".
And for those who come up with complaints for nostalgia lovers, I suggest they look at themselves and understand that progressiveness that comes at the expense of national identity, can invent a candidate like Zamor.
I was walking around the Notre Dame church, which Zamor loves so much, and I thought to myself that he might be able to rewrite Stefan Zweig and write a new novel: "Yesterday's world will be tomorrow's world."
shishabat@israelhayom.co.il
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