{"id":47,"date":"2026-04-16T19:00:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T19:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/?p=47"},"modified":"2026-04-16T19:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T19:36:15","slug":"dreyfus-repaired-israel-betrayed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/dreyfus-repaired-israel-betrayed\/","title":{"rendered":"Dreyfus Repaired, Israel Betrayed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By Jimmy Bitton<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This week, France\u2019s National Assembly voted unanimously to posthumously promote Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish officer falsely convicted of treason in 1894, to the rank of brigadier general. Framed as an act of reparation, the move is being hailed as a moral stand against antisemitism and a symbol of France\u2019s commitment to historical justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the timing and context raise troubling questions. While honoring a Jewish victim of the past, France continues to undermine the Jewish state of the present. The same government that calls Dreyfus\u2019s persecution a stain on the Republic now threatens sanctions against Israel and flirts with unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state\u2014even as Hamas holds hostages and continues its genocidal war against the Jewish people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is not moral clarity. It\u2019s moral theater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dreyfus was the scapegoat of a French military apparatus steeped in antisemitism. Today, Israel is the scapegoat of a global diplomatic apparatus infected with a newer, more socially acceptable antisemitism\u2014one that masquerades as \u201chuman rights advocacy\u201d while denying Jews the right to defend themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>President Emmanuel Macron recently declared that recognizing a Palestinian state is a \u201cmoral duty.\u201d Yet he has not conditioned that recognition on the Palestinian Authority ending incitement, nor on Hamas releasing Israeli hostages, renouncing terror, or accepting the right of Israel to exist. France speaks the language of peace while rewarding the very forces that perpetuate war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Worse, France\u2019s approach lends credibility to baseless claims of genocide against Israel, echoing the blood libels that once fueled European antisemitism. If Macron truly seeks peace and justice, he should begin by recognizing Hamas for what it is: a genocidal terrorist organization that uses Palestinian civilians as human shields and Israeli civilians as targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To honor Dreyfus today is easy. He is safely in the past. He poses no political risk. The challenge is to defend Jews when it does cost something\u2014when it requires confronting fashionable moral narratives that invert aggressor and victim, terrorist and soldier, hostage-taker and hostage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Modern France must decide: Will it be the republic of \u00c9mile Zola or of \u00c9douard Drumont? Will it stand against antisemitism in all its forms\u2014including its anti-Zionist disguise\u2014or will it seek absolution by honoring Jewish corpses while isolating Jewish sovereignty?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Symbolic justice cannot mask diplomatic betrayal. If France wants to atone for Dreyfus, it must begin by standing with Israel today\u2014not just with words, but with policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jimmy Bitton This week, France\u2019s National Assembly voted unanimously to posthumously promote Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish officer falsely convicted of treason in 1894, to the rank of brigadier general. Framed as an act of reparation, the move is being hailed as a moral stand against antisemitism and a symbol of France\u2019s commitment to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50,"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions\/50"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}