Emmanuel Macron addressed France on television on Thursday evening. It was an opportunity for the president to reiterate his support for Israel in its war against Hamas, but also to call for his country to remain united.
As Macron spoke to the nation, police in Paris were using tear gas and water cannons to disperse a pro-Hamas demonstration. Meanwhile, some 10,000 police in France have been deployed to stand guard outside Jewish schools and places of worship.
Through its uncontrolled immigration policy Europe has exacerbated tensions around the Palestine conflict
The atmosphere is tense and France’s Jewish community are right to be frightened. No European country has suffered as much brutal anti-Semitism as France in the last decade.
On Wednesday two of Macron’s ministers visited a Jewish school in Sarcelles, a northern suburb of Paris, in a show of solidarity. Why Sarcelles? It was here in 2014 that mobs of youths went on the rampage in response to an Israeli offensive in Gaza.
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