PARIS - On August 12, Charles Enderlin, bureau chief of the French TV channel France 2 in Jerusalem, was awarded one of France's highest distinctions, the Legion of Honor, by the French consul general in Jerusalem. The news has elicited bitter reactions within the French Jewish community. Enderlin, a Franco-Israeli Jew, is a controversial character among mainstream Jews in France, not only because of the Al-Dura case (the ongoing legal battle surrounding France 2's footage of the killing, allegedly by Israeli fire, of Mohammed al-Dura, a Palestinian boy, in the first days of the second intifada, ), but also because many French Jews tend to view Enderlin's general coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as greatly biased in favor of the Palestinians.

Regardless of what people may think about that case, Enderlin's status among France's mainstream Jews is an apt illustration of how they feel about expressing open disagreement with Israeli policies outside of Jewish circles. To many of them, the freedom of expression enjoyed by Israelis themselves in this regard is barely conceivable. Serge Benattar, editor in chief of Actualite Juive, the weekly that best represents mainstream French Jewish views, once remarked - with an apparent straight face - in an interview with the Israeli economic daily Globes, that if the criticism of the Israel Defense Forces that appears routinely in the Israeli press was printed in the French press, it would surely fuel anti-Semitism.

It isn't even clear to what extent many Jews in this country dare to voice criticism of Israel's conduct among themselves. When I discuss Israel with relatives and friends here, I often wonder if they have any critical sense at all. Whether we're talking about the occupation, the security fence or the settlements, the argument that Israel has the right to defend itself against terror is often the only one put forth, and almost always the one mentioned first. The view underlying many comments and opinions expressed by French Jews, in informal conversations as well as via their representative institutions, seems to be that Israel is a besieged country that can do no wrong. Or that if it errs, it does so only marginally, with all the extenuating circumstances humanly imaginable.

This isn't just my own subjective assessment. It is a phenomenon regularly reflected in statements by community leaders purporting to speak on behalf of all or most French Jews. This was dramatically illustrated by Richard Prasquier, president of France's main Jewish umbrella organization, the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), when he told a major French daily during the operation in Gaza earlier this year that "95 percent of the Jewish community in France agrees with Israel's policies and what its army does." Sharp criticism in the French press of that statement led Prasquier to rephrase, and refer to "a broad majority of France's Jews" instead. Needless to say, no polls had been conducted that could have supported either formulation.

This virtually unquestioned consensus goes even further, in that even those rare Jewish public figures who do, to various degrees, use negative terms to portray Israel's handling of the Palestinian issue are then reviled by their mainstream brethren and systematically viewed as self-loathing Jews. One example can be seen in the paroxysmal reactions to Rony Brauman, the Israeli-born founder of Doctors Without Borders and a staunch opponent of the occupation, who is generally looked upon as a traitor within the Jewish community.

These attitudes seem to be aimed principally at deflating any public criticism of Israel as an occupier of the Palestinian territories - an aspect of the Jewish state that is rarely the object of candid debate within Jewish institutions. Over the past decade, it has even become common practice among community leaders to characterize any condemnation of the occupation as anti-Semitic.

Admittedly, Israel's fiercest opponents in France today, mainly a brand of radical Muslims and representatives of the extreme left, often use anti-Zionist rhetoric as a guise to spread their deeply anti-Semitic worldview. But the portrayal of virtually any criticism of the occupation as anti-Semitic also seems to allow mainstream Jewish figures to avoid a debate that would touch on the heart of the matter. Yet some of those same Jews do not hesitate to display the Israeli flag in demonstrations against anti-Semitic acts, as was the case in protest marches following the murder of Ilan Halimi in 2006. At the same time, community leaders such as the CRIF's Prasquier regularly warn against the danger of "importing" the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into the dynamic of Jewish-Arab relations in France.

There is no obvious explanation for these widespread, firmly entrenched attitudes among France's Jews. Fear of fueling even more anti-Semitism is undoubtedly a factor. Another, less tangible cause might be the unspoken guilt many Jews feel toward Israel for having chosen to remain in France and not make aliyah, preferring to worship the Promised Land from afar. Yet I can't help thinking that this is not the kind of support Israel needs from Jews in the Diaspora. Readiness to speak bravely and candidly to all segments of the society at large would clearly be a much smarter approach. Among other benefits, it would help dispel a source of common confusion that mars the debate among opponents of the occupation: the blurring of lines between the legitimacy of the settlements and the legitimacy of Israel's right to exist.

Corinne Mellul is a political commentator in France.

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