Betrayal: France, the Arabs, and the Jews

by David Pryce-Jones

Book Overview

France has done more damage to the Middle East than any other country. One aim of these policies was to sponsor the Arabs' belief that they could be incorporated into a Franco-Arab power bloc that might one day rival the United States. Simultaneously, France encouraged the mass immigration of Arabs. A huge and growing minority in this country now believes that they have rights and claims which have not been met.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594031517
• ISBN13: 9781594031519
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Encounter Books
• Length: 185 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

En Passant

David Pryce-Jones provides the reader with a succinct account of the venal and temerarious nature of modern French foreign policy. Pryce-Jones has done some remarkable detective work in revealing the sententious and tendentious inner workings of the French Establishment. He shows how this related, and still relates, to a deep and vicious in-built antisemitism in French society The elan of the Quai D'Orsay is sui generis. The almost concupiscient desire of the French to pander to Arabism is irrefragable. This is a depressing book for anyone that hoped the French had something positive to contribute to many of the existential threats that threaten western Civilisation today.

Required Reading To Understand Present Day Events

Having authored nine novels and twelve books of non-fiction, David Pryce-Jones has now turned his attention to France's dealings with Arabs and Jews with his Betrayal: France, the Arabs, and the Jews. This book actually started out as an essay Pryce-Jones contributed to the French magazine Commentaire in May 2005 which has now given rise to this revised and extended version. Pryce-Jones has selected much of his material from culling the archives of the Quai d'Orsay, France's foreign ministry and its principal foreign policy institution. The result is a kind of narrative divided into sixteen chapters that moves from a general introduction pertaining to the working of this branch of France's government to examining such topics as the Jews in the view of the Quai d'Orsay, the Catholic factor, French designs and how they clash with Zionism, the rescue of the Mufti of Jerusalem during the World War II, the disposition of the former Ottoman provinces, French writers and their influences on France's foreign policies, Ayatollah Khomeini and his exile from Iran, and other topics that evidence France's hostility to Jewish self-determination while at the same time furthering their dream of passing itself off as a "une puissance musulmane" (a Muslim power). It was and still is the belief of the Quai d'Orsay that France and the world of Islam share a common destiny while it has the ability to define Jews and ordain their future in a way that would be better than the Jews can do for themselves. Unfortunately, as Pryce-Jones illustrates, the dream has become a nightmare as France tries to fit Arabs and Jews into a grand design based on French requisites. The result has become catastrophic as the relationship between the two communities has advanced to crisis point where there have been several instances of brutal anti-Semitic incidents as well as Muslim rioting that has placed France in a dangerous situation. As the inside cover of the book states, "France has betrayed its proud humanistic values in its very different dealings with Arabs and Jews." Pryce-Jones does not hide his feelings pertaining to the damage that was done by misguided policies that have appeased such tyrants as Saddam Hussein and Yasser Arafat and, as he quotes Christian Pineau a one-time foreign minister well disposed towards Israel, that "the Quai d'Orsay has motivated its Middle East policy by a `more or less conscious' anti-Semitism." In view of all that has happened in the Middle East and Africa over the last century up to the present day-the period that this book covers-you have something that approaches required reading if we are to understand France's behavior that is proving to be quite dangerous to the interest of everyone concerned. Norm Goldman, Editor Bookpleasures

Excellent history of French diplomacy and designs in the Middle East

If the behavior of France in the Gulf War (Kuwait) and in the War on Terror have mystified you, this book provides a most helpful history of French diplomacy and international goals since the nineteenth century. France has viewed itself as an Arab / Muslim power (they are not quite identical) since colonial times. Since World War II, France has had to play a spoiler role in certain international dealings in order to claim some relevance for itself. It was Chirac who kept the Clinton sponsored accords between Israel and Arafat from being signed. It was France that Saddam looked towards to keep the United States from invading in the current conflict. And rather than France having increasing influence in the Arab world, it is the Arab-Muslim world that is transforming France both politically and culturally. Contrary to some notions of this book, it is NOT about proving that France is anti-Semitic. The arguments in the book are more complex than that. To my reading, David Pryce-Jones demonstrates how France's long standing view of the world and its place therein has made a profound contribution to our current troubles and their own confused situation. Anti-Semitism has been a part of the tradition and history of the French Foreign Affairs Ministry - referred to as the Quai d'Orsay because of where its headquarters are, and is reflected increasingly in its policies towards Israel, but this is not the focus of the book. The book opens with the current state of Arab unrest inside France and the rising number of blatant attacks against Jews because they are Jews. The author then begins to tie it to a centuries old anti-Jewish tradition of with the French diplomatic class. More than one French diplomat has expressed the idea that the only real future for the Jews is to assimilate and to cease to be Jews (others have said this as well, but not from the diplomatic corps in an ongoing way). The role and tension between French Designs in the Arab world and Zionism is also discussed, as is the role of the French in saving the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin, from being tried with the Nazis after WWII. The author also later compares the French attitude towards Haj Amin with its treatment of the Ayatollah Khomeini and its protection of him and its aid to his return and rise to power in Iran. A great deal of the book also discusses the connection between the literary culture and the foreign ministry and the anti-Jewish subjects and treatments by certain authors over the past century and more. It is most interesting to read how virulent some of them are and how those strains exhibit themselves even today. The discussions of France and Saddam and Yassir Arafat are also quite enlightening and how France has dragged its feet and worse to try and thwart U.S. power and goals in the region. The author notes that France had hoped to have the influence in Iraq with its huge oil reserves as the U.S. has with Saudi Arabia and its oil. All this an

Recounts some of France's diplomatic and moral mistakes in its Middle East policies

Let's see. France is a fair-sized country. It has veto power on the United Nations Security Council. It is rarely under the threat of being obliterated. On the other hand, it is not a truly big power. The United States is a far bigger power, and several other nations are often considered more important. What should France do about that? Well, one idea would be for France to be scrupulously honest and just in its foreign policy. That would set it apart from most other nations. People would respect France as the soul of human civilization. When France spoke, people would get used to hearing the truth from it. When France gave advice, people would take it very seriously. France would play a big role in settling international disputes and in determining whether obligations were in fact met. Another idea would be for France to be sneaky, arrogant and untrustworthy. That would lead to France becoming less and less relevant on the global scene. And that seems to be what is happening. This book shows how the French foreign office, the Quai d'Orsay, has been hostile to Israel. In spite of this attitude by the foreign office, France has at times helped Israel. But since the mid-1960s, France has become strongly opposed to Israel. To some extent, this is due to a desire of France to support Arab allies. But as I think this book helps show, it is not the whole story. Part of it appears to be a desire of some French people to hurt Israel whether it helps the Arabs (or France) or not. In this book, David Pryce-Jones discusses the rather arbitrary and counterproductive French attitudes towards Israel. At first, one may think this is a silly topic. After all, Israel is a small country; who cares what France does or does not do to it? But just as we can learn plenty about a person from watching him beat up and rob a blind person, we can learn much about France from the way it treats Israel. A France that can arrogantly ignore truth and justice in order to hurt Israel will do other counterproductive things in its foreign policy. The author does an excellent job of tracing France's relationship with Israel. And it's a rather sad history. The start of the book shows what may be interpreted as one of the results: a big increase in incidents of anti-Semitic violence in France. Pryce-Jones concludes that France is continuing to behave "in defiance of reality," and I think he's right. The cure for France's serious foreign policy errors is not to put a higher value on dogma but a higher value on truth. Given an appreciation of reality and some open eyes, France can then do more of what it wishes to, whatever that happens to be. I highly recommend this book.

The French Connection....to the Arabs

David Pryce-Jones has written a brief, readable and illuminating account of France's Middle East foreign policy, starting with Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt in 1798, the French invasion of Algeria in 1830, and continuing to the present day. France's motive was to emulate and even surpass the British Empire. "The British might have India, but the French would move into, and ultimately colonize, the Arab World." The institution most responsible for the attempt to realize this grandiose scheme was The Foreign Ministry, referred to in France as "Quai d'Orsay." Pryce-Jones gained (through an anonymous source) access to the archives of Quai d'Orsay, and his researches are the basis for his book, "Betrayal". Early on the French conceived their grand France-Arab empire as "une puissance musulmane" - "A Muslim Power." And this fantasy dovetailed neatly with the anti-Semitism that had long existed in France and reached its height during the Vichy occupation by Germany. The main part of Pryce-Jones' study shows how these two ideologies, anti-Semitism and pro-Arabism, have made France an unreliable ally of Western values and interests. This was true of the lead-up to WWI, the inter-war period, and modernity since the conclusion of WWII. Many instances of French perfidy in dealings with the Western Powers, and particularly the United States, are related in compelling detail. Anti-Americanism fit well with Anti-Semitism to advance France's standing with the Arabs and these became recurring themes in the machinations of the Quay d'Orsay. Yet, in one of those fateful ironies of history, France is now beset by a demographic explosion of unassimilated Islamic Arabs within its own borders. One out of every three children born in France is Islamic. Arabs and Muslim youth routinely go on riots, shouting "Allahu Akbar", burning cars and vandalizing property. In 2005 there were 110,206 recorded incidents of urban violence, and 45,588 vehicles had been burned. This seems incredible, but Pryce-Jones provides the documentation. The lust for empire and power have resulted in the betrayal of democracy in France, as well as its own national interest. Yet France continues to behave in defiance of reality, assuming that it has to pursue its own political agenda regardless of the present day context of Islamic expansion and militancy. This context of political Islam that France has aided and abetted now threatens France, the entire continent of Europe, and all the West.