The Fanonite

In one of his comedy routines, George Carlin describes how he would react if the plane he was flying in were to crashes into the sea: “I’ll go around the fat fuck. Step on the widow’s head. Push those children out of the way. Knock down the paralyzed midget and get out of the plane  – so I can help others!”.  The reaction of ’socialist’ Bernard Kouchner to his appointment as the Foreign Minister by the far-right French president Nikolas Sarkozy is somewhat similar.

“This is a bit unusual,” Mr. Kouchner confessed today in accepting his appointment at the Foreign Ministry. He added that he “would not have done it” had he not felt the conviction “to serve our country.”

As I had said on another occasion, at times the worst indicments come in the form of praise. Sarkozy’s choice for Foreign Minister seems to have delighted some — the extreme-right Free Republic, and Zionist hawk and anti-Arab/Islamophobic editor of The New Republic, Martin Peretz, for instance. Peretz magnanimously forgives Kouchner’s socialist past; it does not make ’make him foul or “treyf” (non-Kosher)’, because ”Kouchner and Sarkozy have intellectual and political bonds that cross party lines”. He adds:

Andre Glucksmann, a good friend of Kouchner’s but not by any means a socialist, may have planted the idea in Sarkozy’s head [Glucksmann is also a 'good friend' of Alain Finkielkraut, French Zionist comedian who passes for a philosopher in the airier circles of Paris]. Or tilled the idea after someone else or Sarkozy himself had raised it. After all, Glucksmann had campaigned for Sarkozy, loyally and energetically. And the three share many values and convictions, whatever their party loyalties. They are friends of America, not at all friends, but antagonists of militant Islam, allies of the West as idea and reality, sympathetic, empathetic with Israel, aligned with the ex-communist democracies of Eastern Europe, etc. Enough said about this.  

Sarkozy and Kouchner may agree on many things, but it would be unfair to consider them identical in their politics. New York Times reports:

Mr. Sarkozy opposed the American invasion of Iraq while Mr. Kouchner, unlike most French people anywhere on the spectrum, supported it.

Richard Holbrooke gushed with further praise for the man described as ‘an effective early advocate of “humanitarian intervention”’:

It will be very positive for U.S.-French relations, because he does not come with a visceral anger towards the American ‘hyperpower.’ ”

Given the fabulous job NATO is carrying out in Afghanistan, “Mr. Kouchner appears to support the maintenance of a strong international — and French — presence in Afghanistan to bring stability to the country”.

If all that weren’t enough to endear him to the average Brit or American, he also always gets ”the best restaurant tables”, and while Sarkozy’s appointed PM is an anglophile, Kouchner is being described by NYT as an “Americaphile, a stance that has led many in the Socialist Party to regard him as a traitor.”

Friends and Foe (of Israel)

Sylvain Semhoun, the representative of Sarkozy’s Union for Popular Movement (UMP), told the Jerusalem Post, “Israel got lucky [with Kouchner]. Israelis should thank God it’s him and not Vedrine“. Far from getting lucky however, it was the very heavy-handed approach of the Israel Lobby that brought about this change. According to Le Canard Enchaine:

As soon as the leaders of CRIF (Conseil représentatif des institutions juives de France) learned of the prospect [of the appointment of Vedrine] from the new Head of the State, Roger Cukierman, outgoing president of CRIF [the French Israel lobby], telephoned Claude Guéant with a violent warning.

“We held a meeting with CRIF, today, and the rumour circulated of the nomination of Védrine to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs . That caused panic because, for us, Védrine is worse than the usual anti-Israelis of the Quay D’Orsay.”

A little later, Cukierman directly joined Sarkozy and said to him that the Jewish community would take the nomination of Védrine as a “casus belli”.

It should be understood that Cukierman and its friends had campaigned across the country for Sarko explaining why the victory of Ségolène would cause the return of Védrine to the Quay!

So what makes Kouchner so much more appealing to Israel?

Kouchner, who was born to a Jewish father and a Protestant mother, is close to right-wing Jewish MP Pierre Lellouche, who advises Sarkozy on international issues. And Kouchner received an honorary degree from Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba at the height of the second intifada…

Kouchner at the diplomatic helm, coupled with the new American-style National Security Adviser Jean-David Levitte - former French ambassador to Washington - Sarkozy is making good on his pledge of support to his American friends.

Kouchner and Levitte broke ranks with the French government in 2003, refusing to oppose the invasion of Iraq. Kouchner published an article in Le Monde arguing the positives in toppling Saddam Hussein.

Meanwhile in Israel, some have already registered their satisfaction:

Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu has said that with the coming to power of his friend Sarkozy, he expects French Middle East policy “will no longer be characterized by reflective anti-Israelism.”