A delegation of the Representative Council of Major Jewish Organizations in France (CRIF) yesterday submitted a list of 10 demands, mainly concerning Israel and French foreign policy in the Middle East, to President Valery Giscard d’Estaing who is seeking reelection to a second seven-year term. Alain de Rothschild, president of CRIF who led the delegation, said that a similar list of demands will be presented tomorrow to the opposition Presidential candidate, Socialist leader Francois Mitterrand. The list and the two candidates’ replies will be made public immediately afterwards.
Giscard and Mitterrand will face each other May 10 for the final runoff in the Presidential election. Public opinion polis show them running neck to neck and the 400,000 Jewish voters could theoretically be a decisive factor in determining the election result.
OUTLINE OF THE DEMANDS
The demands by CRIF include a promise on the part of the candidates to close the Palestine Liberation Organization bureau in Paris, a halt to the sale of arms to Arab countries and an end to the supply of enriched uranium to Iraq.
Other demands include a pledge to invite the Premier or President of Israel to pay an official visit to France and to follow this up with a visit to Israel by the President of France; a full disclosure of the results of the investigation into the bombing last October of the Rue Copernic Synagogue in Paris and the status of teaching about the “horrors of racism” in public state-controlled schools that was initiated after the synagogue bombing.
This is the first time in French history that a representative Jewish group has taken such a public stand on the eve of national elections. Seven of the 10 demands deal with Israel and the Mideast and only three with local Jewish issues.
CONCERN DEMANDS MIGHT BACKFIRE
Such open lobbying is not traditional in France and some of Giscard’s Jewish backers warned that it might backfire. The President’s official spokesman said, however, that Giscard assured the CRIF delegation that he had “never done anything which might have endangered Israel’s security.”
Giscard, the spokesman added, also recalled that socialist leaders have attended numerous PLO demonstrations and meetings at which the government was not represented. The President also said that “high level exchanges of visit” could be considered after the elections.
Socialist Jewish backers were also sceptical about the CRIF initiative, saying that even if Mitterrand favors some of the demands or most of the demands it might look awkward if he were to accept them less than a week before the May 10 vote.
The CRIF decision to submit the 10 demands was taken immediately after the first election round, April 26, at a meeting attended by some 35 CRIF members.
The CRIF meeting with Giscard came at a moment of renewed Franco-Israeli tension following Israeli Premier Menachem Begin’s sharp accusations levelled Sunday in Tel Aviv against France and West Germany. Begin, accused Giscard and West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of being motivated “only by their search of profits in selling arms to the Arabs and buying cheap oil” from them.
BEGIN ACCUSED OF MEDDLING
Government spokesmen, whether representing the Quai D’Orsay or the President’s office, refused to comment, but election campaign aides accused Begin of trying to influence the election outcome in France. Some aides, who refused to be named, accused Begin of involvement in French internal affairs. Giscard’s electoral spokesman, former Information Minister Jean Phillipe Lecat, commented: “As far as I know, Mr. Begin does not vote in France.”
Up till now the two candidates have avoided turning the Middle East and Franco-Israeli relations into an electoral issue. Giscard and Mitterrand, who are due to face each other tonight on a nation-wide television debate, will probably be questioned on this subject by the panel.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
