Former Israeli Defense Minister Urges Jews to Flee France After Rise of Far-Left: ‘There Is No Time’

Former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman is urging French Jewry to flee France, warning that “there is no time” following the far-left’s triumph in the country’s parliamentary elections.

As Breitbart News reported, French President Emmanuel Macron’s alliance with the New Popular Front delivered a victory over Marine Le Pen’s populist right, which has raised concerns about antisemitism, with many French Jews feeling increasingly uncertain about their place in France.

The unexpected shift in political power has sparked fears within the roughly 500,000-strong Jewish community, boosting worries about the potential implications for its safety and rights.

In response, Lieberman expressed his concerns regarding the matter.

“In light of the victory of the radical left in France, I call on all French Jews to immigrate to the State of Israel,” the Israeli parliamentarian wrote on Monday, warning that “there is no time.”

Lieberman, who heads the Yisrael Beytenu Party, slammed Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the new kingmaker in French politics, for having “spoken out more than once against Jews and the State of Israel.” He also described Mélenchon’s far-left France Unbowed Party as “representing pure antisemitism” and an expression of the “significant rise” in Israel hatred. 

The matter comes as French-Jewish leaders express deep concern over rising antisemitism, advising young Jews to emigrate to Israel, especially in light of the recent political victories of Mélenchon and his far-left party.

Prominent French Rabbi Moshe Sebbag of Synagogue de la Victoire told the Times of Israel that it appears that France has “no future for Jews” and advised young Jews to move to Israel.

Mélenchon, who has vowed to recognize a Palestinian state, is seen by 92 percent of French Jews as contributing to the increase in antisemitism. 

Similar to the United States and other Western countries, France has experienced a rise in antisemitism since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack in Israel. The French government reported more than 360 attacks on Jews in early 2024, a 300 percent increase from the previous year.

As Breitbart News reported in June, “[T]he Jewish community in France was left horrified as a 12-year-old girl in Courbevoie was subject to antisemitism-inspired gang rape by a group of boys … alleged to have dragged her to an abandoned building where they … raped her.”