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French Jews Sound Alarm Following Far-Left Surge in Elections; France-Israel Relations Expected to Plummet

Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of La France Insoumise party, speaks after the results of the second round of the 2024 French legislative elections, at the headquarters of La France Insoumise, July 7, 2024. Photo: Victoria Valdivia / Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect

Following a shocking election in France that brought a leftist coalition to power, French Jews are expressing deep apprehension about their future status in a country that in recent months has experienced a historic surge in antisemitism and souring relations with Israel.

Over the weekend, France’s coalition of far-left parties, the New Popular Front (NFP), won 182 seats in snap parliamentary elections, delivering a blow to Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party (RN), which was expected to perform better. However, NFP failed to obtain a majority of the 577 seats in France’s National Assembly, meaning it will need to build alliances with other parties in order to pass legislation.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Ensemble alliance now has the second largest faction with 163 seats. The RN and its allies won 143 seats, garnering the third biggest representation.

The largest member of the NFP is the far-left La France Insoumise (“France Unbowed”) party, whose leader, Jean-Luc Melenchon, has styled himself as the self-appointed leader of the coalition. His new position of power has French Jews worried.

“Melenchon is a person who is a threat against the Jews,” Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), told the Jerusalem Post after the voting on Sunday. He added that La France Insoumise (LFI) puts “a target on the back of all Jews who support Israel.”

Arfi also blasted LFI on X/Twitter, writing that it “has no place in government,” pledging to fight “its culture of violence and its antisemitic excesses.”

Shortly after the NFP’s victory, Melenchon called for France to recognize a Palestinian state, and supporters of the hard-left coalition, which includes socialist and communist parties, poured into the streets of Paris waving Palestinian flags. French flags were largely absent from the celebrations.

Melenchon in a 2017 speech referred to the French Jewish community as “an arrogant minority that lectures to the rest.”

Three years later, Melenchon suggested that Jews killed Jesus, echoing a false claim that was used to justify antisemitic violence and discrimination throughout the Middle Ages in Europe. “I don’t know if Jesus was on a cross, but he was apparently put there by his own people,” he said in an interview with a French TV station. He refused to apologize even after backlash from notable Jewish groups.

In the wake of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’ massacre across Israel on Oct. 7, Melenchon and his party issued a statement declaring the attacks “an armed offensive of Palestinian forces” as a result of continued Israeli “occupation.” Melenchon also failed to condemn a deputy who called Hamas a “resistance movement.”

As the NFP prepares to wield greater influence in the legislature, French Jews have expressed concern over what they expect to be even more hostility than what they have been facing.

“It seems France has no future for Jews,” Rabbi Moshe Sebbag of Paris’ Grand Synagogue told the Times of Israel following the ascension of the NFP. “We fear for the future of our children.”

Meanwhile, Jewish French intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy counseled in a post on X/Twitter, “Pray that Macron does not call on Melenchon [to become the next president] under any circumstances. Urge the social democrats to break their pact with this antisemite.”

NFP’s victory came amid a record surge of antisemitism in France in the wake of the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7. Antisemitic outrages rose by over 1,000 percent in the final three months of 2023 compared with the previous year, with over 1,200 incidents reported — greater than the total number of incidents in France for the previous three years combined.

Late last month, an elderly Jewish woman was attacked in a Paris suburb by two assailants who punched her in the face, pushed her to the ground, and kicked her while hurling antisemitic slurs, including “dirty Jew, this is what you deserve.”

In another egregious attack that has garnered international headlines, a 12-year-old Jewish girl was raped by three Muslim boys in a different Paris suburb on June 15. The child told investigators that the assailants called her a “dirty Jew” and hurled other antisemitic comments at her during the attack. In response to the incident, Macron denounced the “scourge of antisemitism” plaguing French society.

Now with the ascension of the far left, French Jews fear even an even greater spike in antisemitic violence. In an interview with The National — a UAE-based publication — a French Jew who requested only to be identified by his first name warned against the violence coming from France’s extreme left: “There is an urgent need to stop the far left, which has allied itself with radical Muslims — if we don’t stop it France will become even more dangerous for Jews.”

In addition to an expected increase in antisemitism, Israel-France relations are expected to nosedive, following comments by the incoming coalition. NFP has publicly called for the recognition of a Palestinian state and a break “with the guilty support of the French government for the far-right supremacist government of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to impose an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and enforce the order of the ICJ [International Court of Justice].” The ICJ is considering an ongoing case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of committing “state-led genocide” in its defensive war against Hamas in Gaza.

The NFP coalition’s platform also demands that Israel release all “Palestinian political prisoners,” many of whom have been imprisoned for terrorism offenses.

Under the Macron government, Israel became increasingly isolated from France. Last month, French officials banned Israeli arms manufacturers from attending Europe’s largest arms exposition, Eurosatory, citing Israel’s ongoing operations in Gaza.

The NFP coalition will likely seek to block arms sales to Israel as demands for a ceasefire grow.

Meanwhile, on Monday, France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement condemning what it described as “colonization in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

Although Melenchon has called for Macron to step down, the incumbent president announced that he will remain in office until his term ends in 2027.

The post French Jews Sound Alarm Following Far-Left Surge in Elections; France-Israel Relations Expected to Plummet first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.

Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.

“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”

GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’

Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.

“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.

“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.

“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.

After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”

RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL

Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”

Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.

“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”

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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco

Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.

People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.

“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”

Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.

On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.

Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.

On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.

“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.

Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.

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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.

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