| Joe Lieberman: Open Letter to the French People | |||
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| Netlore Archive: Did Senator Joe Lieberman pen an open letter excoriating the people of France for being soft on anti-Semitism? | |||
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Email example contributed by D. Cohen, 23 May 2002:
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Subject: LETTER BY SENATOR JOE LIEBERMAN RE THE FRENCH PLEASE FORWARD TO EVERYONE!!! Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 09:53:48 -0400 Subject: Fw: TO THE PEOPLE OF FRANCE - IN REMEMBRANCE Liberty, equality, fraternity! Does the French nation recall that slogan? The current French tolerance of and indifference to the wave of attacks upon French Jews speaks clearly of the decline of the French national character. The French have forgotten! Two hundred and some odd years ago the suffering French populace erupted in revolution against tyranny. They cried for and fought for liberty, fraternity, equality for all in every aspect of French society. The French have forgotten! But I remember! I still have in my mind the heartbreaking image of the Parisian gentleman from whose eyes the tears fell copiously as he watched the Nazi troops marching triumphantly into Paris. The face of that Frenchman still lives in my mind sixty years later. It is the same as the faces of so many French Jews today. The French have forgotten! But I remember! I remember the ecstasy, the flowers, the kisses with which the French people greeted their American and British liberators from Nazi terror. The French have forgotten! They have forgotten the dehumanizing result of terror upon themselves. They have forgotten the shame of Vichy France. Those who watch with indifference the attacks upon their neighbors sink into degeneracy themselves. The French have forgotten brotherhood and love of others than themselves. They have forgotten equal justice. They have forgotten that a nation without strength of morality and character is a nation already in the lower depths of degradation. So, just as the Swiss were part of the Nazi problem sixty years ago, the French are part of the problem of world terrorism today. As the French casually watch their Jewish citizens attacked let them remember how they, the French, acquiesced in cowardice at the rape of Czechoslovakia by the Nazis in 1938 only to suffer under the Nazi heel so soon after. My contempt for present day France is accompanied by great regret. We gave the lives of American boys to save them once. They have forgotten. However, we Americans have not forgotten. All Americans with integrity of character must boycott France. I hope large numbers of you will join me in this. If this e-mail is forwarded by just 1/2 of all recipients it could reach 10,000,000 Americans in a matter of days. Let's make the French remember! Joe Lieberman |
Over the last several months a letter attacking the people of France for being indifferent to anti-Semitism has been circulating over the Internet with Senator Joe Lieberman's name attached to it. This letter is a hoax. Senator Lieberman was not involved in any way with the writing or distributing of it. At this point the specific origins of the letter are unknown. But Senator Lieberman's office has referred the letter to legal authorities, who are looking into the matter.
Comments: This hoax first appeared in May 2002 after a particularly virulent outbreak of anti-Semitic incidents across France, including the firebombing of synagogues, the defacing of Jewish neighborhoods with anti-Semitic graffiti and physical assaults on Jews, including children. For all that it seemed to be a heartfelt response to those atrocities from a Jewish-American perspective, the document was a fake, neither written nor condoned by Senator Joseph Lieberman. A statement posted on his Senate home page read as follows:
Internet Hoax Warning
As of late February 2003, the true author of the letter was still unknown, but it had won a new lease on life in the meantime, circulating anew as anti-French sentiment spread among Americans irked by France's refusal to support the Bush administration's push for a military solution to problems in Iraq.
Sources and further reading:
Website of Senator Joe Lieberman
Contains a statement regarding this hoaxFrance Facing Anti-Semitic Attacks
CNN, 4 April 2002Is Anti-Semitism on the March Again?
Time, 10 June 2002France Says 'Oui' to Chirac's 'Non' on Iraq War
San Francisco Chronicle, 22 Feb 2003French-Bashing Increases Amid Iraq Issue
Associated Press, 20 Feb 2003
Last updated: 02/24/03
