French Jews are leaving, but why?

Asks The IHT

JERUSALEM More French Jews have been immigrating to Israel or buying properties here as potential havens, and the Israelis and the French are debating whether the trend is the result of a surge in anti-Semitic attacks in France or just a cyclical oddity.

Yeah, right. Let me see if I can help the IHT out here.


Mother, baby attacked on train

From correspondents in Versailles, France 11jul04

A YOUNG woman and her baby have been attacked in a suburban train near Paris by unidentified men who drew swastikas on the mother's stomach.

Police today said it was an anti-Semitic assault.

The six attackers who were armed with knives clipped the 23-year-old woman's hair, and cut her tee-shirt and trousers before drawing three swastikas on her body.

The men of North African origin also overturned the pram holding her baby, aged 13 months.

They then took the mother's backpack, which contained her identity papers, a bank card and cash.

Police said the attackers erroneously assumed the woman was Jewish because she was living in Paris' posh 16th district.

"Only Jews live in the 16th district," one of the men told her.

Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin "firmly condemned" the attack and asked police to track down the attackers within the shortest possible time.

The attack was "all the more serious because it was marked by racism and anti-Semitism", he said.

Just a "just a cyclical oddity" according to the IHT.
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