It’s really time for us to say it: Au Revoir, France
Okay, that finally settles it: France is finished. Get your croissants while they’re hot and before arson incinerates all those quaint but flammable boulangerie-pâtisseries. The nation is aflame with fringe fanaticism, as the past two weekends have demonstrated — from an especially violent Marxist-Muslim alliance.
France’s far right is lying in wait to cash in on all the chaos in the nation’s upcoming election.
Like in many other Western countries, the center in France has capsized. All that’s left is the death-wish nihilism of the extremes — and an unhealthy dose of Islamist menace.
The finer points of European refinement are becoming a thing of the past across the continent. Predictably, due to its immigration patterns and permissiveness, France’s stock in civility and fraternity — not to mention its once enviable culture — is plummeting at a much faster clip.
The City of both Love and Light will soon become known for its Looting. For two weeks, ransacking and arson have been the weapons of choice for a revolutionary movement comprised of students, trade unions and Islamists.
If things don’t get upright, the Eiffel Tower is about to resemble the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Nearly half a million marched and protested throughout France on Saturday, ostensibly over school funding and rising costs of living. Nearly 1,000 were arrested, but not before major cities throughout the country were treated to smoky tear gas, exploding grenades, water cannons, whirring helicopters and an armada of armored vehicles.
Trade unions disputed the government’s figures, estimating the number of nationwide protesters to have reached 800,000 — with 250,000 in Paris alone!
Hundreds were jailed for vandalism, arson, looting, attacks on public buildings and clashes with the police. Special counterterrorism units were stationed beneath the Arc de Triomphe. The Louvre was shuttered. Shopkeepers boarded up their stores. Riots took place in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Orléans, Bordeaux, Toulouse and Montpellier. No city was spared.
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Last weekend, the 143-year-old town hall in Limoges was set on fire, its dome and bell tower collapsing. Marseille’s city hall and police stations were sacked.
The chaos has been a windfall for secondary black markets. More than 3,000 businesses were looted or damaged. Luxury retail brands like Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Hermès plundered. Apple stores, Nike and Sephora started off Monday with empty shelves and smashed display cases. Pharmacies, neighborhood bars, and local banks destroyed.
Barricades and trash cans were set on fire in Marseille as face-covered, darkly clad vandals tore through the wooden boards that were vainly protecting shops in Bordeaux. In Lyon, police hurled tear gas into crowds.
Agitators grasped at anything to create makeshift barricades while tossing projectiles at the police.
“Les Misérables” has returned to France! This student revolt, however, is less authentic than the original.
Mainstream media described the rioting as largely peaceful protests, mostly the grievances of high school students, workers, farmers and retirees. That’s not exactly like what it looked like on the ground, nor does it explain the magnitude of mayhem. As we discovered with pro-Hamas protests on American college campuses, students were radicalized by Islamist agitators.
France’s cowardly president, Emmanuel Macron, blamed all the menace on “ultra-left,” “radical far-left,” “extremist agitators,” and “criminal looters.”
He intentionally neglected to mention Islamists, however. It’s always the elephant in the room wearing a keffiyeh and waving a Palestinian flag that everyone seems to miss.
How else to explain why the Ohaley Yaakov Synagogue in Paris was ransacked — prayer books scattered throughout the sanctuary — but not a single mosque was violated? Why were Jewish-owned businesses in Marseille and Paris looted and torched, but not a single establishment owned by a Muslim?
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There were Palestinian flags unfurled at Place de la République, and chanting about Gaza at each of the nationwide riots. A Muslim student organization, Étudiants Musulmans de France, openly promoted the protests. The press, however, only reported communist groups, labor unions, and left-wing political parties as culprits.
Yes, students seeking quality education were among the protesters. But we know where the violence actually emanated from, and why Jewish businesses were targeted. This kind of belligerence is generally the handiwork of hardcore Islamists.
Indeed, Islamist violence is not new to France — especially when it comes to Gaza. During the past war that Israel fought against Hamas in 2014, two synagogues in Paris were burned to the ground and many Jewish-owned stores ransacked. Two hundred Jews were trapped that year inside a Paris synagogue while an outside mob chanted, “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the Gas!”
After the October 7, 2023 massacre, French Jews reported 1,570 antisemitic incidents. This past summer, Islamists wielding baseball bats attempted to storm a Paris synagogue.
Actually, violence against Jews in France is 20 years in the making. It began in 2006 with the torture and murder of Ilan Halimi by a self-described Islamist “Gang of Barbarians.” Two elderly Jewish women were murdered in their homes by Islamists: Sarah Halimi, tossed from her balcony in 2017; and Mireille Knoll, stabbed and set on fire in 2018. Each attack was preceded by, “Allahu Akbar!” In 2012, a teacher and three students in Toulouse were killed outside their Jewish day school. Four Jews were slain in a terrorist attack at a Parisian kosher market in 2015.
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It may be true that political elites throughout the West have surrendered to widespread violence and disorder. And global news outlets have grossly truncated their investigative reporting, making sure to leave Muslims out of their coverage. Who wants to be charged with Islamophobia, knowing how easily Muslims are offended by Western norms?
France especially lacks the moral and political courage to admit the demographic problem it faces. It stands stupefied while bidding goodbye, with little regret, to all that culture and history.
It’s hard to argue with correlation, unless the truth is too much to bear. France made room for the largest number of Muslims in Europe, roughly 10 percent of its population at 7 million (Germany is second). And that’s the reason why it has been forced to contend with the highest number of No-Go Zones and Sharia courts in Europe. (France refuses, out of fear of Muslim backlash, to make publicly available the official count.)
For the rest of us, the past two weeks once more demonstrate that screaming “Free Palestine!” is always a precursor to violence. Shouting “Globalize the Intifada!” while ransacking designer shops in Paris doesn’t sound like a movement bent on nation building. It’s more like a rallying cry for the West’s downfall.
Thane Rosenbaum is a law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro College. His latest work, “Saving Free Speech … from Itself,” was just published.
