French-Jewish tourists may be heading en masse to Israel, but the road seems to go both ways. The European Jewish Press reports that France is offering kids from Northern Israel an escape from the war via French summer camp, complete with surfing and folk dancing. Only two French towns participated, and Israel, for its part, isn’t enthusiastic about sending its children abroad, but the kids who went, according to this article, had a decent time of it.
While I’m sure these French mayors meant well, there’s something a bit creepy and Operation Shylock-esque about telling Israelis to give up on living in the hot, scary Middle East and come back to Europe. It’s just a two-week vacation, sure, but if France gives these kids a good enough time, that ends up being a gain for France and a blow to the Jewish State, in the same way that a successful Birthright Israel trip opens the eyes of Diaspora Jews to the option of being Jewish in Israel. Something about it just doesn’t sit right.
Mordejai Jefferson Carver
8/20/2006
yes, I agree, its nice a 2 week vacations in France or whatever…but dont like the idea of “security reasons” they put on that program.
After all, if a israeli decides to move to europe or whatever…is like all the efforts from the jewsih agency since 1870 till now and all the sad history of jewry in diaspora, was just a “comment” in some history book…cause if a israeli decides to move out haretz, to settle in europe…then the REAL vacations were they time he/she lived in Israel, cause he/she went back to diaspora. Israel is our place, take vacations please but comeback to haretz, always comeback.
check please hebrewhammer-f...
ck
8/20/2006
Aw crap. Does this mean I have to make a birthright France logo in bleu, blanc, rouge? Oy.
phoebe
8/20/2006
Seems so. Well done!
Tom Morrissey
8/21/2006
Hmm, Israelis may be too weak to resist the seductions of la civilization francaise? Send ‘em to boot camp with the Legionnaires. Or, better yet– how ’bout peacekeeping gigs in southern Lebanon?
CR
8/21/2006
Dear France:
The book was called “The Plot Against AMERICA”, not “The Plot Against FRANCE”. Get your own folksy brand of anti-semetism, and an original idea for once.
Thank you,
Snarky Jews
phoebe
8/21/2006
Err, I think you’ve got the wrong Roth book there.
Tom Morrissey
8/22/2006
You mean “Francois’s Complaint”, CR.
Beiruti Mezrahi
8/27/2006
France took also Lebanese children , by the Haute Seine Department , is it the same messege by the french mayor : “about telling Lebanese to give up on living in the hot, scary Middle East and go to Europe.”
if it’s true i hope so !