Jean-Luc Mélenchon, 68, a French politician, founder of LFI – the La France Insoumise (Unsubmissive France) party and member of the National Assembly for the 4th constituency of Bouches-du-Rhône, was interviewed on the French TV news channel BFM-RTL and was asked if the police should show restraint “like Jesus on the cross.”
Mélenchon replied: “Listen, I don’t know if Jesus was on the cross. I know who put him there, it seems that it was his own compatriots.”
That’s us, you understand.
French-Israeli politician Meyer Habib quickly tweeted: No Melenchon! A bit of history: Jesus Christ was condemned to death by crucifixion by the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, not by his Jewish compatriots (21’32)! Perhaps the temptation was too strong to recycle the good old anti-Semitic cliché.
Non ! Un peu d’histoire: Jésus-Christ fut condamné à la mort par crucifixion par le préfet romain Ponce Pilate, pas par ses compatriotes juifs (21’32)! La tentation était peut-être trop forte de recycler le bon vieux poncif antisémite du peuple déicide https://t.co/cayk4sg6nD
— Meyer Habib (@Meyer_Habib)
We went to Wiki for more Mélenchon quotes: In August 2014, Mélenchon said during a speech in Grenoble: “We’ve had enough of CRIF (Representative Council of Jews of France).” He added: “France is the opposite of aggressive communities that lecture to the rest of country.” So Jews who complain about anti-Semitism are not true Frenchmen.
In July 2017, Mélenchon said France bears no guilt in the Holocaust, and criticized Emmanuel Macron for admitting publicly that Vichy France was the legal French government at the time, thus conceding the French State’s responsibility in the deportation of the Jews. Marine Le Pen, on the far-right, made similar comments. Opposites attract Jew haters.
In November 2019, Mélenchon accused CRIF of practicing “blatant, violent and aggressive sectarianism, namely against me” after it had asked him not to attend the memorial ceremony for Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll. When he (and Le Pen) insisted on showing up the police accompanied them away.
In December 2019, Mélenchon accused British Jews of weaponizing accusations of anti-Semitism to destroy UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, saying Corbyn “had to endure, unaided, churlish anti-Semitism claims from England’s chief rabbi and various influence networks linked to Likud. Instead of riposting, he spent his time apologizing and making pledges … It showed a weakness that troubled the popular sectors [of the electorate].”
In another interview, with Journal de Dimanche, on Sunday, Mélenchon called for a massive military build-up and preparations by France for major wars. Which is something you don’t normally expect from a dyed in the wool leftist. But something you absolutely expect from Marine Le Pen.
As a shocked World Socialist Web Site put it: “The call for an arms race as a source of ‘collective enthusiasm’ is a nationalist appeal to war fever that has nothing to do with left-wing, let alone Marxist politics. It is, on the other hand, a political conception that right-wing and fascist regimes of the 20th century Europe understood quite well, as they sought to divert class tensions outward through war. This is however an increasingly central element of the Mélenchon’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.”
But no matter how much he despises Jews, Mélenchon – like Le Pen – adores Israel.
Following the killing of major general Qasem Soleimani, Mélenchon tweeted: “We must equally condemn the USA and Iran as warmongers. My condemnation of the USA does not exempt Iran from the fact that it is a theocracy that wants to destroy the State of Israel.”
He then stated on French news channel LCI: “The current government of Iran claims it wants to destroy the State of Israel. This is an intolerable project which in itself creates incredible tension in the region, and obviously favors extremes on either side.”