US Jewish leaders refuse to meet Macron in NY
“The guy has a 15% popularity rating in France,” the source, who was invited to the meeting, told JNS. “It’s not our job to help him out.”
French President Emmanuel Macron
Emmanuel Macron sought to set up a meeting with U.S. Jewish leaders on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly later this month in New York City, but the only available times for the French president were during Rosh Hashanah.
It won’t take place for that reason, although the leaders wouldn’t have met with Macron anyway, a source invited to the meeting told JNS.
“I think the organizations, for the most part, would not have participated,” the source said. “The guy has a 15% popularity rating in France. It’s not our job to help him out.”
Macron has said that France will recognize a Palestinian state this month. The source, who told JNS that AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee would have likely been among those invited to meet with the French president, said Jewish leaders would have balked at the meeting for broader reasons than Paris opting to recognize a Palestinian state and rising Jew-hatred in France.
It’s more “the climate” that would let the president say, “‘Look, the American Jews met with me,’ regardless of the content,” the source said. (JNS sought comment from the French embassy in Washington and from Macron’s office.)
If American Jewish leaders had met with Macron, they would have taken a hard line with the French president, including his “statements on Israel, the failure to respond to antisemitism,” his decision to recognize a Palestinian state and to try to convince others to do so, per the source.
The source also told JNS there was sufficient pressure that Jewish leaders would have decided to decline a meeting if the High Holidays hadn’t been a factor.
“God saves us every time,” the source said, of the Jewish calendar, preempting the leaders.
Israel fighting ‘fierce war’ against terror, Netanyahu says after Jerusalem attack
“I want to extend condolences to the families of the victims and to the wounded,” said Netanyahu.
Six people were murdered and a dozen more wounded in a shooting in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot on Monday morning.
Two terrorists were killed at the scene by an Israel Defense Forces soldier and an armed civilian. The soldier was identified in reports as a squad commander in the IDF’s ultra-Orthodox Hasmonean Brigade.
“When I say we are in an intense war on several fronts, we naturally have tremendous successes against terrorist regimes and organizations. But the war continues, also in the Gaza Strip, where we will destroy Hamas as we have promised and free our hostages—all of our hostages—and unfortunately also here in Jerusalem,” said Netanyahu.
“In Judea and Samaria, we acted with very great force. The Shin Bet, the IDF and also the Israel Police thwarted hundreds of terror attacks this year, but not this morning unfortunately,” the premier added.
© JNS
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