”There can be no balance in the Middle East until Israel is recognized by its neighbors and protected from the nuclear fire of those who have never ceased to proclaim their sole obsession and intention to destroy it,” declared François Bayrou.
Denouncing the “delirious, murderous beast” of anti-Semitism, French Prime Minister François Bayrou listed at length the disastrous litany of assassinations and other attacks that have targeted Jews down the ages, in an address last Thursday to the Paris annual dinner of Crif, the representative body of Jewish institutions in France.
The annual event brings together government ministers, politicians, religious leaders, representatives of of the Jewish community and of the civil socity as well as media.
“The beast surprises us all the more because it has changed shape”, lamented Bayrou who said that “the monster has grown other heads” which no longer have the face of the extreme right but of “radical Islamism”.
Referring to the October 7th 2023 pogrom committed by Hamas in southern Israel, the Prime Minister considered that “there can be no balance in the Middle East until Israel is recognized by its neighbors and protected from the nuclear fire of those who have never ceased to proclaim their sole obsession and intention to destroy it”.
He also reaffirmed “France’s unfailing friendship.’’
Before him, Yonathan Arfi, the freshly reelected President of Crif, launched an “appeal to our republican spirit of resistance”. Denouncing the “obsession with Jews in public debate” and “atmospheric anti-Semitism”, he argued that, “for violence to stop, it’s not enough to deplore it; you have to know how to fight”. “40 years ago, we were called ‘dirty Jews’; 20 years ago, ‘dirty Zionists’; today, ‘genocidaires’”, he continued, lamenting the way in which some people are struggling to ‘Nazify’ the world’s only “Jewish state” in order to “relieve consciences” of the Shoah.
“Israel’s cause is just, in this war it has not chosen”, he stressed, citing in particular the fight against the Hamas terrorist organization, and the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program.
Arfi reiterated his criticism of extreme-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon from the LFI party for “reducing Gaza to an electoral slogan”, and his promise to “make the political influence of La France insoumise residual”, in a reference to Melenchon’s remark that antisemitism in France is ”residual.”.
Regarding the recent war between Israel and Iran, he also deplored “the erratic positions of certain European diplomats”, including “that of our country”. He regretted that despite “its support for strikes against the Iranian nuclear threat”, the French government had condemned access to the Israeli stand at the Le Bourget air show in June.
The Crif President concluded his speech by celebrating the Republic as a “community of destiny”. “Fighting anti-Semitism means bringing together all French people”, he said, calling for a republican school, a firm secularism and stronger justice against online hatred.
The same day, the French Interior Ministry announced a documented increase in acts targeting Jews. It recorded 504 such acts in the first half of 2025, down -24% on the same period in 2024, but up +134% from 2023.