Much will be clarified in the coming weeks about how various political leaders, groups, and institutions respond to war between Israel and Hamas. In France, Marine Le Pen, the leader of the hard-right National Rally party, along with her number-two, issued strong statements of support for the Jewish state last week. Michel Gurfinkiel explains:
These are the most pro-Israel pronouncements both leaders have ever made. Marine’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded and led the National Front—the National Rally’s forerunner—managed to be at the same time an old-fashioned anti-Semite, a critic of Arab and Islamic immigration to France, and a close friend and supporter of Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime.
When Marine Le Pen took over the National Front from him in 2011 and turned it into a more mainstream populist party, she repudiated anti-Semitism and ventured to express some sympathy for Israel, albeit in vague and ambivalent terms.
Clearly, the National Rally is now stepping up the tone. For one thing, its base is increasingly convinced that Israel and France have a single common enemy—radical Islam—and that what happens now in Israel, or what national defense policies Israel must resort to, is a blueprint for France’s short-term future.
Read more on New York Sun: https://www.nysun.com/article/leader-of-frances-rightist-party-marine-le-pen-in-a-sharp-turn-after-attack-by-hamas-voices-strong-support-for-israel