France is expected to select the candidates today (Sunday) in the first round of the presidential election, including two candidates who particularly bother French Jewry - Eric Zemor the Jew, and Marie Le Pen.
But while in previous cases the solution was clear and on the table, and other presidential candidates could be chosen, this time also the incumbent president, Emanuel Macron, managed to provoke the wrath of the Jews, due to a failed confrontation with antisemitic issues.
"I do not remember such an interesting election since I was born, it has always been quite boring," says Ariel Kendall, CEO of Kelita. The first, and since this is not expected to happen, there will be a second round in about two weeks between the two leading candidates.The hope at the moment is that Macron will win the round, when he will face Le Pen, who is only two percent of him in the polls.
Ariel Kendel, Photo: Courtesy of Kelita
The problem, Kendall says, is that Eric Zamor, who led a particularly tough line against radical Islam, is equipping Le Pen in the eyes of French Jewry.
"This is a Greek who advocates full assimilation, claims that the Vichy regime saved Jews in the Holocaust and that perhaps Dreyfus is to blame. He claims that the mind should not be confused with the past and equips the creep.
"Like all French Jews, I grew up in a family where Marie Le Pen is like Hitler. "For the first time in France's history, there is a risk of it coming to power."
At the same time, Macron has recently suffered severe blows in light of his administration's handling of anti-Semitism issues.
About a year ago, the state Supreme Court decided not to prosecute Sarah Halimi's killer, even though he threw her out of a building, claiming he had smoked drugs before.
At the same time, the affair of the death of Jeremy Cohen, who was killed by a light rail hit after escaping from anti-Semites who beat him, manages to provoke huge echoes.
"Zamor uses it. Asks where the police are, where the state is."
Interestingly, some of the eyes are actually on Israel, where about 80,000 people with the right to vote in France live, because it is forbidden by law within France to check who the citizens voted for.
The fear is that Zamor will receive support from the French in Israel because many of them fled the country due to anti-Semitism.
"This is a worrying phenomenon, voting for an extremist because of anti-Semitism and ignoring the permit."
Voting in France, Photo: AFP
The fact that France is in uncertainty, and in a political game in which the Jews do not seem to have a good solution, is causing increasing interest in immigrating to Israel.
About 10,000 households have recently approached the Jewish Agency to examine the possibility of immigration.
There are about 50,000 Jews who ask themselves what will happen.
Some because of Halimi, some because of the corona.
It is the only country in the world where an entire community is in question.
If Macron is chosen there is a chance that everything will calm down, but if not - there is a great potential of quality people who will want to go up.
"The state must now prepare for such a situation - to help them and seize the opportunity," says Kendall.
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