Emmanuel Macron sought to set up a meeting with U.S. Jewish leaders on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly later this month in New York City, but the only available times for the French president were during Rosh Hashanah.
It won’t take place for that reason, although the leaders wouldn’t have met with Macron anyway, a source invited to the meeting told JNS.
“I think the organizations, for the most part, would not have participated,” the source said. “The guy has a 15% popularity rating in France. It’s not our job to help him out.”
Macron has said that France will recognize a Palestinian state this month. The source, who told JNS that AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee would have likely been among those invited to meet with the French president, said Jewish leaders would have balked at the meeting for broader reasons than Paris opting to recognize a Palestinian state and rising Jew-hatred in France.
It’s more “the climate” that would let the president say, “‘Look, the American Jews met with me,’ regardless of the content,” the source said. (JNS sought comment from the French embassy in Washington and from Macron’s office.)
If American Jewish leaders had met with Macron, they would have taken a hard line with the French president, including his “statements on Israel, the failure to respond to antisemitism,” his decision to recognize a Palestinian state and to try to convince others to do so, per the source.
The source also told JNS there was sufficient pressure that Jewish leaders would have decided to decline a meeting if the High Holidays hadn’t been a factor.
“God saves us every time,” the source said, of the Jewish calendar, preempting the leaders.
