The Phoenix Jewish news., 1958-06-13

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then French ties with eleme
the Algerian rebels. Since the AL
gerian nationalists draw both NOR
al and material support from Mas
ser, there is not likely to be any
meeting ground between de Gaulle
and Nasser-a situation which may
hold benefit for Israel.
HOWEVER, even before the cur
rent French political crisis, many
elements in French public life had
favored. and instituted, deem
phasis on Israel. Their point was
there was no need to antagoniZe
Arab sentiment in North Africa.
Meanwhile, circles close to Is
rael drew some comfort from the
announcement that Guy Mollet
would be a vice premier in de
Gaulle's cabinet, that Antoine Pi-
nay, Pierre Pflimlin and Felix
Houphouet-Boigny would be mem
bers of the ministerial council. All
are distinguished friends of Israel;
Mollet was premier OF France dur
ing the Suez operation and Hou-
phouet-Boigny had accompanied
Mrs. Golda Meir. Israels Foreign
Minister, during her recent tour of
French Equatorial Africa.
Among those political and busi-
ness leaders repeatedly considered
for important cabinet posts in re-
cent days were two French Jews.
They are Wilfred Baumgartner,
governor general of the Bank of
France, and David BIoch-Lainne,
one of the country's leading indus
trialists and financiers. Neither
has been particularly active in
French Jewish activities, but have
maintained contacts with the jew
ish community.
WHILE MOST Jewish community
and representative organizations
avoided participation in political
demonstrations of any political hue
these past few weeks, Jewish anti
racist groups and survivors of Nazi
concentration camps took active
roles in the anti-de Gaulist demon
strations of the past week.
Among the groups which lent
their support to the republican
forces were the Movement Against
RaciSm and Anti-Semitism and the
League for Human Rights. The lat
ter was led by Daniel Mayer, who
recently resigned from the French
parliament when he was elected
president of the league, a post in
which he felt there might be a
conflict of interests with his duties
as a deputy. At that time he
pledged to fight against racism
wherever he found it.
In one recent demonstration
Jewish survivors of Bergen-Belsen,
Auschwitz, and Maidanek concen-
tration camps paraded in striped
prison garb.
PARIS (JTA)-The Jewish COM
munity of Algeria has not been
asked to identify itself with the
new military-Gaullist regime in
that North African territory, it was
learned here from a reliable source
who had just returned from Al
giers.
The failure to invite the Algerian
Jews to make a public statement of
their views is seen as significant
here, in view of the fact that vir-
tually all bodies and communities
in Algeria have been asked to state
their views. 1t is interpreted as a
sign that the new regime consid-
ers the Jews neither for nor against
the military. This fits into the gen.
orally accepted thought here that
in the Jewish community of Algeria
as in the population at large, can
be found individuals of every po-
litical conviction.
The same source reported that
there has not been a single anti
Semitic incident in Algeria during
the past fortnight, when de Gaulist
civilians and the military moved
toward control of the territory, with
considerable opportunity for ex-
tremists to act against Jews.