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Socialism is not popular in the United States of America. Social Security and Medicare is about as close as most Americans want to be to an all-pervasive government. But the Socialist Party of France is one of that nation's two largest parties. From what I hear the French government, even when the Socialists are in power (they are not right now) is not much more intrusive than our Federal government. In fact it seems like Socialist is more of a term left over from a prior century than an apt name for the French Socialist Party.
So maybe Ségolène Royal's first dip into foreign policy should not have surprised me or anyone else. But it did. For those of you who are not hip to the new French Royal-ty, Ms. Royal is a very exciting person. She is the Socialist Party candidate for President in the upcoming election. She is leading in the polls. For a candidate she is young; her glamour seems to combine Jack and Jacqueline Kennedy in one pretty package.
Ségolène was not humming the International or Solidarity Forever as she went on her first foreign policy foray. Palestinians need not apply to be treated as equal human beings in the Royal playbook.
Israel is the place to be if you want to be counted in the Royal elite. She stated she supports the security barrier Israel is erecting. This is equivalent to supporting more Israeli ethnic cleansing. Israel would not exist as a state if it had not conducted ethnic cleansing when it was founded and several times since.
She also said she would not talk to Hamas. Democracy is okay by Ségolène unless people vote for recognizing inconvenient truths, like that their lands have been stolen, their farms and businesses destroyed, and their relatives murdered.
Israel is a fundamentalist religious state that has conducted a 60 year long campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing. It possesses atomic weapons. It is a threat to the stability of the region. It has purposefully, consciously, and repeatedly destroyed the Palestinian economy, including civilian infrastructure, which is a crime against humanity.
But that is all right with Ségolène Royal. Bashing Islam will probably help her win votes in the coming election.
I guess France is not very different from the United States. Not matter which party you vote for, you get pretty much the same policies. Only the spin changes.