Macron’s Bold Gesture on Antisemitism Can Be Admired, but His Record Is Decidedly Mixed
Does the president’s resolve that a soccer game with an Israeli team go on represent his definitive stance on the issue or is it just another political pivot?
President Macron will attend tonight at Stade de France at northern Paris a soccer game between the Israeli club Maccabi Tel-Aviv and the Qatar-owned French club Paris-Saint-Germain. This is intended, per the president’s office, as “a message of fraternity and solidarity after the intolerable acts of antisemitism” that followed a match in Amsterdam one week earlier between Maccabi and the Dutch club Ajax.
One cannot deny that Mr. Macron is taking a forceful stand here. On many accounts. First and foremost, he is preventing by his mere attendance any temptation or inclination to cancel the game out of concern for public safety, thereby effectively resisting the Israel boycott advocated by the BDS movement. That was not lost to two former presidents, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, who resolved to attend the game as well.
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