French Minister Meets With U.S. Jewish Leaders

The French minister of the interior and a leading candidate to replace President Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy, met with American Jewish community leaders yesterday in New York.

The meeting, which took place at the French Consulate on Fifth Avenue, was covered widely by the French press. Mr. Sarkozy later attended memorial events commemorating the fifth anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The meeting marked the first time a major French presidential candidate has publicly cultivated relations with the American Jewish community before an election, and it came as French parties are preparing to select their candidates for the presidential election in April.

French policy has shifted of late, as Paris has joined forces with Washington to help oust Syrian troops and officials from Lebanon. Now French troops are leading the U.N. force meant to ensure quiet on the Lebanese-Israeli border.

For the past three years, since the outbursts of anti-Semitism in France caught the attention of Americans, Mr. Chirac and his foreign ministers have touched base regularly with Jewish groups in New York, Washington, and Paris.

But the French political class has long portrayed the Jewish lobby as a malignant influence on American policy.

"I am a friend of America. I am a friend of Israel," Mr. Sarkozy, the head of the conservative party Union for a Popular Movement, said.

Among those attending yesterday's meeting were the chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Harold Tanner; the chairman of the policy council of the World Jewish Congress, Rabbi Israel Singer; the president of the American Jewish Congress, Jack Rosen, and officials from the UJA, American Jewish Committee, and Anti-Defamation League.

In a wide-ranging discussion, Mr. Sarkozy spoke about anti-Semitism in France, as well as attempts to rethink the assimilation of France (and Europe's) large and growing Muslim minority. He was at pains to underscore that not all Muslims are anti-Semites and not all anti-Semites are Muslims.

He said last fall's rioting by young Muslims over 27 successive nights was "a huge trial for France."

Mr. Sarkozy recently called Hezbollah a terrorist organization, although the European Union does not list it as such. He said yesterday that Israel was the victim of aggression but managed to lose the image war, so that the idea of Israelis as victims was replaced by pictures of dead Lebanese children.

Moreover, "on the Arab street, they think Iran was victorious," Mr. Sarkozy said.

"Israel must pay more attention to its international image," he added. "If Israel has a terrible international image, it cannot exclusively be the fault of everyone else."

Mr. Sarkozy said French authorities estimate that Iran will have nuclear weapons within two to three years. "The only response," he said, "is firmness. We must keep all options open, and not tie our hands to one single strategy. We should not give Iran advance warning about what the democratic world might do."

Iran is on the move in part because Iraq is no longer able to contain it, he said. "Iran has a free hand; they face no enemies." If he is elected, he said, dealing with Iran will be his "first priority."

"I cannot accept a head of state saying he will wipe Israel off the map," he added.

Israel should explore the possibility of talks with Syria in order to effect a split between Damascus and Tehran, the interior minister said.

And Israel should be "more proactive," he said. "When you are small, you must be swift."

Mr. Sarkozy praised initiatives by the late Prime Minister Rabin, as well as Prime Minister Sharon's decision to abandon the Gaza Strip.

He advised Israel "never to be the aggressor, and never to be caught standing still."

It is also helpful, he said, with reference to Lebanon, "to avoid winding up where everyone expects you to wind up." Mr. Sarkozy currently leads most French opinion polls by a narrow margin over his nearest potential rival, Ségolène Royal, a socialist.

But the interior minister is outflanked on the extreme right by the leader of the National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen. His political prospects depend on his continued ability to draw support from conservatives without losing the support of moderates, a dilemma familiar to American Republicans.