"No lessons to be learned": Laurent Saint-Martin considers the American ambassador's comments on anti-Semitism "unacceptable"

The final blow. On Monday, August 25, on TF1, the Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade, Laurent Saint-Martin, denounced "erroneous and unacceptable remarks" following a letter from the American ambassador to France, Charles Kushner , in which the latter criticized "the lack of sufficient action" by President Emmanuel Macron against anti-Semitism.

"France has no lessons to learn in the fight against anti-Semitism," the minister declared on the set of TF1's Bonjour! La Matinale.

In response to these allegations, the Quai d'Orsay summoned the ambassador on Monday so that he could explain "the contents of this letter," Laurent Saint-Martin said.

This meeting will also serve to remind him of "international law, which stipulates that one must not interfere in the internal affairs of the State in which one is resident, just as an ambassador," he continued.

In a letter addressed to the President of the Republic, and seen by AFP on Sunday, Charles Kushner expressed "his deep concern about the surge in anti-Semitism in France and the lack of sufficient action by (his) government to combat it."

These criticisms come a few days after Benjamin Netanyahu's violent attack on the French president, whom he accused of "fueling the anti-Semitic fire" by calling for international recognition of the State of Palestine.

For the Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade, Laurent Saint-Martin, the United States is undoubtedly targeting the wrong people. From the beginning of his first term in 2017, "the President of the Republic himself stated that we must fight anti-Zionism because it is a new form of anti-Semitism," he assured.

"The President of the Republic, the common base, the majority, France behind his voice has never ceased to fight ardently against the rise of anti-Semitism," he insisted, maintaining that it would be right for the ambassador to apologize.

"To target the wrong people in the fight against anti-Semitism is to target the wrong anger, the wrong fight, and to not allow ourselves to fight this scourge together. I believe that Americans and French people must come together, rather than divide themselves," the minister declared.

Anti-Semitic acts have been on the rise in France since October 7, 2023, the date of the unprecedented attacks by Hamas against Israel and the outbreak of the war in Gaza.

Another point of disagreement: France's recognition of the Palestinian state. While the American ambassador sees this initiative as opening the door to extremists, for Laurent Saint-Martin, "it's quite the opposite."

"What France is doing, through the voice of the President of the Republic, is a lasting peace solution, the two-state solution. It is precisely isolating Hamas," he retorted.

At the end of July, Emmanuel Macron announced that France would recognize the State of Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September. Subsequently, more than a dozen Western countries, including Canada and Australia, called on other countries around the world to do the same.