De Gaulle Cabinet Includes Leading Friends of Israel in France

Gen. Charles de Gaulle’s assumption of the Premiership of France will require increased activity on the part of Israel to explain its policy to France, but at the same time Israel is assured of powerful friends among the leading figures in the de Gaulle Cabinet.

Well informed circles here have been chary of Israel’s stake in the situation, because of the lack of clarity with respect to the General’s foreign policies. However, it seems quite certain that Gen. de Gaulle will attempt to strengthen French ties with elements in North Africa hostile to the Algerian rebels. Since the Algerian nationalists draw both moral and material support from Nasser, there is not likely to be any meeting ground between de Gaulle and Nasser–a situation which may hold benefit for Israel.

However, even before the current French political crisis, many elements in French public life had favored, and instituted, a de-emphasis on Israel. Their point was there was no need to antagonize further Arab sentiment in North Africa.

Meanwhile, circles close to Israel drew some comfort from the announcement today that Guy Mollet would be a Vice Premier in de Gaulle’s Cabinet, that Antoine Pinay, Pierre Pflimlin and Felix Houphouet-Boigny would be members of the ministerial council. All are distinguished friends of Israel; M. Mollet was Premier of France during the Suez operation and M. Houphouet-Boigny had accompanied Mrs. Golda Meir, Israel’s Foreign Minister, during her recent tour of French Equatorial Africa.

Among those political and business leaders reportedly considered for important Cabinet posts in recent days were two French Jews. They are Wilfred Baumgartner, Governor General of the Bank of France, and David Bloch-Lainne, one of the country’s leading industrialists and financiers. Neither has been particularly active in French Jewish activities, but both have maintained contacts with the Jewish community.

While most Jewish community and representative organizations avoided participation in political demonstrations of any political hue these past few weeks, Jewish anti-racist: groups and survivors of Nazi concentration camps took active roles in the anti-de Gaulist demonstrations of the past week.

Among the groups which lent their support to the republican forces were the Movement Against Racism and Anti-Semitism and the League for Human Rights. The latter was led by Daniel Mayer, who recently resigned from the French Parliament when he was elected president of the League, a posting which he felt there might be a conflict of interests with his duties as a deputy. At that time he pledged to fight against racism wherever he found it, even in France.

In one recent demonstration, Jewish survivors of Bergen-Belsen, Auschwitz and Maidanek concentration camps paraded in striped prison garb.

The Jewish community of Algeria has not been asked to identify itself with the new military-Gaullist regime in that North African territory, it was learned here today from a reliable source who has just returned from Algiers.

The failure to invite the Algerian Jews to make a public statement of their views is seen as significant here, in view of the fact that virtually all bodies and communities in Algeria have been asked to state their views. It is interpreted as a sign that the new regime considers the Jews neither for nor against the military. This fits into the generally accepted thought here that in the Jewish community of Algeria, as in the population at large, can be found individuals of every political conviction.

The same source reported that there has not been a single anti-Semitic incident in Algeria during the past fortnight, when de Gaullist civilians and the military moved toward control of the territory, with considerable opportunity for extremists to act against Jews.