The Spotlight's On

If the world has learned anything in the past few weeks, it is that there is one foreign leader we cannot trust to stand up to the terrorists and racists in our midst. That leader is French President Jacques Chirac, and his recent sins of omission deserve the world’s scrutiny.

Last week, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad proved himself a vicious anti-Semite during a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. He pronounced proudly that “The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12, but today the Jews rule the world by proxy…they get others to fight and die for them.” I guess we shouldn’t be surprised by Mohamad’s remarks. After all, his speech was greeted by a standing ovation, and universal acclaim by conference attendees. What should really frighten us, however, is President Chirac’s resounding silence in the face of Mohamad’s words.

At a European Union (E.U.) summit just after Mohamad’s now infamous comments, President Chirac prevented the body from including a denunciation of the Malaysian Prime Minister’s speech in a statement released by the E.U. Chirac insisted that the summit was not the appropriate place to express his condemnation of Mahathir’s insidious words. That begs the question, then, of what an “appropriate” venue to denounce racism would be. Surely one would have thought that a meeting of the world’s great liberal democracies—nations committed to the ideals of freedom, and pluralism—would be the ideal pulpit from which to take a strong stand against racism. What better place to face down the ugly visage of anti-Semitism than the meeting of an organization born out of the ashes of Adolf Hitler’s racist weltanschauung? Sadly, Chirac passed up the opportunity to take an unambiguous stand against racism with nary the blink of an eye.

If Chirac’s Malaysian fumble was the worst example of French moral equivocation, then one might be inclined to forgive him. After all, everyone is entitled to make some mistakes. However, the events of this past week barely begin to tell Chirac’s story. For months, the French government was the principal European nation blocking the addition of Hamas to the E.U.’s official list of terrorist organizations. Including Hamas would not only raise awareness of the organization’s true nature, but it would also allow E.U. nations to take real steps to combat the group—such as seizing bank accounts, preventing money laundering and halting recruiting drives. Hamas did eventually make it on the list, but French waffling gave Hamas more time to raise money and recruit members. Who knows how many people died while Chirac kept the EU on the sidelines?

The most important war going on right now is a war of ideas, and it is being fought in the parliament halls, cabinet rooms, and presidential palaces of our global community. It is a war for the ideas of freedom, equality, and inclusion. We must fight this war despite the reluctance of some, for it is a war that we cannot afford to lose.

—Zachary K. Goldman is an advertising manager.