Betrayal: France, the Arabs, and the Jews

by David Pryce-Jones

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594031519
Publisher:	Encounter Books
Publication date:	10/25/2006
Pages:	185
Product dimensions:	6.38(w) x 9.38(h) x (d)

Editorial Reviews

Pryce-Jones, a British author and journalist, argues that France'spast imperialism, support for dictators, openness to immigration, and pro-Arab bias have destabilized the Middle East and led to interethnic violence within France. These are serious issues that deserve serious treatment, but Pryce-Jones has instead written a polemic -- disguised as an archive-based historical study -- that consistently assumes only the worst about French motives. He portrays France as having a unique bias toward dictators in the Middle East -- as if other Western powers have dealt only with the region's democrats. Arab immigrants in France are said to have benefited from special treatment and privileges -- when, if anything, they have suffered from prejudice and lack of opportunity. President François Mitterrand's criticism of the 1981 Israeli military strike on Iraq's nuclear reactor is seen as proof of an anti-Israel bias -- even though Ronald Reagan also criticized the strike and Mitterrand a few months later made a highly pro-Israel speech at the Knesset. The November 2005 riots near Paris are depicted as a sort of jihad -- when almost all observers agree they were far more socioeconomic than religious in nature. And France's opposition to the Iraq war is held up as proof of its perfidy -- as if recent developments do not suggest at least the possibility that France might have had a point about the war. The results of French policy in the Middle East and toward Arabs and Jews deserve real scrutiny but in a more evenhanded way than this blanket indictment provides.

Foreign Affairs