PARIS: French authorities say they’re irked over repeated accusations by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon according to which France is anti-Semitic, indeed, they say, they’re doubly upset because Sharon chose a congress of American heads of Jewish organizations to make the charges which they consider as “unfounded.”

Moreover, they note that in spite of the gravity of the claims the matter has rarely been broached through the usual diplomatic channels.

Then too, say the authorities, their major concern in the face of Sharon’s campaign is that such invective on his part could very well become self-fulfilling, as words of such harshness, they fear, have a good chance of bringing about the very acts of anti-Semitism that he says he would like to see stopped.

Sharon, speaking on Wednesday in Jerusalem, said he was “very worried” about the fate of the “700,000 French Jews who have to face a dangerous wave of anti-Semitism,” and said that Israel was “watching very closely the situation in France,” brought about, in his eyes, by the existence of “six million Arabs.”

As for the figures advanced by Sharon, French sources say that the number of French Jews is closer to 500,000, while the number of French Muslims stands at somewhat more than five million.

As for France’s Arab population, which comes in large part from the three Maghreb countries of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, Sharon noted that “there are close to six million Arabs in France,” and that as a result, “(French) Jews could find themselves in grave danger.”

Which is why, he added, “we are making preparations to receive them over here.” He added: “We are watching the situation very closely and with much concern.”

Only last month French authorities expressed shock and dismay when Israeli vice minister Michael Melchior characterized France as “the most anti-Semitic country in the West.”

A claim followed by the summation of French ambassador Jacques Huntzinger to the Israeli Foreign Ministry to be told that Israel was “preoccupied” by a list of 312 “incidents of anti-Semitism” that Israeli diplomats accuse the French government of more or less condoning because, says a governmental report, “the incidents are not taken seriously by French authorities who hesitate about taking action.”

Vedrine asked Peres to “put a damper” on the accusations and reminded the Israeli Foreign Minister of his own treatment by Israeli authorities last September when he was the target of aggressive Israeli security officials when he attempted to visit with Chairman Arafat to discuss the reopening of Orient House, closed on Aug 9 by Sharon.

According to Vedrine’s entourage at the time, the aggressive behaviour by the Israeli security officials even took the form, at one point, of fisticuffs between the Israelis and the French Minister’s bodyguards. The matter came close to taking on the proportions of a full-scale diplomatic incident when Israeli police attempted to break into Vedrine’s suite at France’s Consulate General in Jerusalem, located theoretically on French territory.

Israel’s ambassador to Paris, the historian and academic Elie Barnavi, has attempted to cool tempers by telling Israeli national public radio that France was doing what it could, although he did make a series of statements that further miffed the French, firstly that French authorities were “helpless” in their fight against anti-Semitism which, he went on to say, was “a phenomenon of the extreme Left.”

The anti-Semitic incidents in France, he went on, “were the result of frustration on the part of young Arabs from Maghreb Africa living in the French suburbs.” Overall, noted Barnavi, “only 10 per cent of the French can be considered as expressing anti-Semitic sentiments,” and if that is so, he concluded, it’s largely because the Jewish community in France is, in his words “increasingly well integrated.”

And it’s the very realization that French Jews have become more French than Jewish which is apparently at the center of Israel’s recent claims of French anti-Semitism, as the accusations seem to be part of an important communications campaign launched in December by Israeli authorities who want to encourage French Jews to emigrate to Israel.

In launching the campaign, the Israeli officials said they were ready to make a cash payment of 9000 dollars to any French Jew willing to emigrate.

French authorities say, however, that according to their information, French Jews have become so well integrated over the years that there were virtually no takers for Sharon’s recent offer. The authorities said that last year alone, only 1200 French Jews decided to emigrate to Israel, a drop of 20 per cent over the previous year. This year, in spite of the campaign and the promised financial assistance, the French officials they expect for that number to drop even further.

Although Ambassador to France Barnavi hasn’t yet reacted to Sharon’s most recent spate of anti-French invective, he did note last month, in reacting to previous declaration by the Israeli prime minister, that he wasn’t happy at all with the Israeli decision to pay French citizens to emigrate to Israel.

Indeed, he noted, “not a single French Jew will emigrate as a result of the proposed financial assistance.” He also admonished Sharon for the tone of his declarations, and said that “we mustn’t play on fear and push Jews in France into leaving their country for such reasons. Those who will come to Israel will do so only because they firmly believe in Zionism.”