Latest / FDD Morning Brief / France under fire | feat. Simone Rodan-Benzaquen

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France under fire | feat. Simone Rodan-Benzaquen · FDD Morning Brief

• 0:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's Monday, October 19th, the multi-front war in the Middle East is now 1,100 and 8 days old, but hey, who's counting?
• 0:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm your host Jonathan Shanzer.
• 0:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back to the FDD Morning Brief.
• 0:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Big news this morning is completely unrelated to the multi-front war.
• 0:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: We track here on this program or at least,
• 0:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: At first, blush, it's not directly related.
• 0:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Namely, Paris is burning.
• 0:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to get into that in just a few minutes.
• 0:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: But first, a few observations about the ongoing mess in the Middle East.
• 0:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to start with this one.
• 0:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Donald Trump has given his quote, complete and total endorsement to quote, Warrior Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the forthcoming Israeli election.
• 0:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure this was widely welcomed by BB and Israeli coup party, but I've got to ask,
• 0:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: whatever happened to the notion that we don't interfere in the elections of other countries and they don't interfere in ours.
• 1:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: You think that's an outdated concept?
• 1:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Fine, what about this?
• 1:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: America is currently in a hyper-partisan era, so anything that Trump embraces will almost certainly be rejected by his detractors.
• 1:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Just what Israel needs as anti-Israel sentiment seems to be skyrocketing here in America, not to mention it's first cousin anti-Semitism.
• 1:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Just as we steer into elections of our own, I've said it before, the elections in Israel and the United States can't come soon enough, but also at this, I miss some of our old norms.
• 1:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: They served to purpose what passes for normal now is bound to backfire in about a dozen different ways.
• 1:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right wing is really extremists are back in the news, and I'm frankly tired of these headlines.
• 1:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: This time a group of Judean or maybe Samarion psychos descended upon a Washington Post photo journalist and Peter senseless.
• 1:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Senseless is the right word to use here, because beating up an American journalist makes zero sense.
• 2:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: You want to live in the biblical homeland of the Jewish people great, explain how beating up a middle-aged woman advances that noble agenda.
• 2:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: All this chaos is leading the international community to conclude that there are extremists on both sides, fully equivalent, which I really don't buy, these angry clowns are a tiny, tiny minority of Israel, but perception is reality.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if they keep this up, you can bet that more European sanctions are coming, maybe even punitive measures from Washington too.
• 2:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: The reporter assists since come out and slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the attack, which I find.
• 2:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: on journalistic.
• 2:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying BB there's no responsibility.
• 2:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: The buck stops with him.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's leave it there.
• 2:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Arrests have now been made thankfully, but there is a legitimate question about resources.
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Shinbat, the Israeli Security Service, that usually tackles this problem.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, they're spread thin because of the war that needs to change.
• 2:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: In the end, this violence is a sad and predictable byproduct of a grueling three-year conflict
• 3:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: tensions are boiling across the region, Judea and Samaria are not immune.
• 3:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Bottom line, this problem needs to be solved.
• 3:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Quanto, it's not just hurting Israel's image.
• 3:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's hurting innocent people too.
• 3:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now for your headlines, headline one, and this one is a doozy.
• 3:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Egypt's national defense counsel agrees to provide Saudi Arabia with all necessary support in its war against the hooties.
• 3:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: For all you history buffs out there, you may recall that Egypt employed up to 70,000 troops to Yemen back in the 1960s in Gamal, Abdul Nasir.
• 3:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: the Egyptian president called his call this his country's Vietnam back then they were fighting forces aligned with Saudi Arabia this time the tables have turned forces that are fighting against Saudi Arabia fascinatingly it's the Turks and the Pakistanis who are not joining this these guys are the actual treaty allies with Saudis they're not deploying just the Egyptians.
• 4:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Here's hoping they put all those American armaments to good use over there in Cairo, the Saudis could use the help.
• 4:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: By the way, we all can.
• 4:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Have I, too?
• 4:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: This war is hitting home for Saudi Arabia.
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Check this out.
• 4:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Saudi Arabia on Saturday announced that five Saudi nationals had been executed.
• 4:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: for committing acts of terror against the Saudi state and its people, a statement by the Saudi Ministry of Interior named the five men saying that they had committed, quote, terrorist crimes that include joining a foreign terrorist organization, opening fire on security forces, security facilities, security vehicles using weapons and explosives, the possession of weapons and live ammunition and aiding funding and carrying out terrorist operations in the kingdom.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, that's a mouthful, but just note, there's no specific mention of the terrorist group, and it's not exactly due process.
• 4:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: So let's watch this space folks.
• 4:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Fear can often lead to some dangerous policies in authoritarian states.
• 4:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: And while new story circulating out there, a purportedly providing documents that prove the Netanyahu government was steering Qatari cash into Gaza, pursuant to an agreement with the tiniest, little dirt bag country in the Middle East.
• 5:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's Qatar.
• 5:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: This stuff doesn't exactly make Qatar look good.
• 5:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Nor does it cast a warm and fuzzy sheen on BB, but let me also say this, none of this is new.
• 5:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: We've been here.
• 5:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: hearing about it for three years, one gets the distinct sense that these reports are last stitch efforts to sway voters in Israel as we steer into those elections in eight days.
• 5:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right, it's time for our interview.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Today's guest is Simone Rodan Benzack and the FDD envoy for European Affairs.
• 5:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: She's done a bunch of good work for the American Jewish Committee in the past and she's advised several European governments as well.
• 5:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right now, she's based in Paris, right in the belly of the beast.
• 5:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we figured that now would be a good time to have her on the show.
• 5:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Is it time for a two state solution?
• 5:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And France has the Intifada been globalized?
• 5:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's bring her on and find out.
• 6:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back to the FTD morning brief, Simone Rogan, Benzacke.
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hi, John, very nice to be with you.
• 6:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Great to have you, glad nothing's burning in the background behind you.
• 6:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not yet.
• 6:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'd like the cynicism there.
• 6:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Good.
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's pretty much in keeping with this program.
• 6:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right, let's start with the basics.
• 6:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, why did these protests begin?
• 6:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: This was a school children
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: problem, at least as it's been framed.
• 6:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you're in a quasi or maybe full on socialist country where everything should be free and taken care of by the state.
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: So what's the beef?
• 6:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, you're right.
• 6:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: The original protest that started actually weeks ago were indeed about school.
• 6:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: They were about high schools.
• 6:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: They were about a few kids who had put some videos online in particular on TikTok saying that there are classrooms where in a terrible state that they have no teachers.
• 7:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then everything became viral pretty quickly.
• 7:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, some of the complaints can be whether you agree with it or not, but can be seen as relatively legitimate.
• 7:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you know, overcrowded classrooms, that certain classrooms are not, you know, there is rain coming down the roofs, even in a socialist state.
• 7:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: But maybe especially in a socialist state, but, you know, yeah.
• 7:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it's very, very clear that this very quickly has become manipulated.
• 7:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it has become manipulated in particular by several groups.
• 7:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you have, and the government has actually pointed towards it.
• 7:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: You have radical far left groups who have done so.
• 7:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you have in particular a politician, his name is Jean-Luc Mélenchon, from the Unbound Party, who is really trying to make this his issue.
• 7:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he has really created a very clear concept around it.
• 8:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a revolutionary concept.
• 8:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: His idea is to create conflict about everything.
• 8:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: The only way, let's not forget, we were six months ahead of a presidential election.
• 8:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: If we actually have the time to have a reasonable conversation about a program, about a presidential program, in particular his.
• 8:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: that are not particularly reasonable and are not particularly practical or functionable, well, he might actually not make it to the second round, to the of the presidential election.
• 8:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: But if he creates chaos, and he creates a situation where you can't have a conversation, like in any democratic, a democracy about any issues, well, then that you will find yourself in
• 8:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Marine Lupin, who is gaining ground every single day, obviously, with the situation like this, and an opposition figure, and the only sort of real opposition figure in this is him, because he manages to bring together the young people and people from within the immigrant backgrounds.
• 9:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, the level of the actual level of getting into the second round is relatively low.
• 9:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's around, you know, 18, 16, 17%.
• 9:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: So if you can manage that, you will get into the second round.
• 9:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: I say, I mean, I hear you, but the idea that, well, you have to choose between guy who's fomenting chaos and anybody else, I'm gonna probably choose anybody else.
• 9:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is not exactly the way that I'm gonna get convinced, I don't call me crazy, but I don't wanna see my country burn, so I'm gonna vote for the other guy.
• 9:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: That just doesn't sound, I mean, it's not logical, but okay.
• 9:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, it is logical.
• 9:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let me tell you why it's logical because you only need to get to the second round.
• 9:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: He and he doesn't need to win.
• 9:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: He has a win-win situation, either Maurin Le Pen wins and that's according to all polls currently the case.
• 10:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Or he can convince everybody that, you know, he is actually the saver he will save us from fascism.
• 10:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: But even if he loses, he will still be the opposition
• 10:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, maybe it's a good time.
• 10:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's just back up then.
• 10:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm gonna throw you a curveball.
• 10:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: I hadn't actually thought to ask you this, but let's talk about Marine Le Pen.
• 10:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, this is a central figure in France who is now coming up rapidly in the rear view.
• 10:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: France could really, I mean, experience a massive change soon with the rise of her party, explain.
• 10:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, absolutely.
• 10:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Listen, she's currently polling between 32 to 35% according to all polls.
• 10:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: She will be the winner of the elections.
• 10:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, who is Marine Le Pen?
• 10:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Marine Le Pen comes from a party background that is really anti-Semitic, provisionalist.
• 10:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: And she, that was led by her father.
• 11:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: But she has really tried to transform the party and has tried to convince voters that she is becoming a reasonable normal politician and to a great extent she actually has there are still a lot of elements within her party that are extremists and there was just recently the case that even the heads of her party they found
• 11:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, social media posts and writings of him that is Jordan Bardela.
• 11:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: There was only 15 years ago where he was hugely, hugely anti-Semitic, but the way she has portrayed herself was nevertheless that she is a reasonable, normal politician.
• 11:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, that being said, whether that's true or not, there are some very, very serious questions in particular with regards to foreign policy.
• 11:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Marin Lupen has always been rather anti-Ucraine and pro-Russian.
• 11:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: She has herself financed her party in the past and the elections through Russian banks.
• 12:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: She has also had a rather anti-European stance.
• 12:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: There were some questions in the past, whether she would be leaving the European Union or not.
• 12:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: But potentially, this could mean a very big change in French foreign policy if she ever got elected.
• 12:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we all remember Brexit, and now we're talking about possibly Brexit, that possibly.
• 12:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Brexit doesn't sound as, I don't know, it's good.
• 12:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, but maybe we'll go with that.
• 12:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, good background here, although I got to say, hearing anybody still be V-C, it's been, you know, 80 years, maybe let's not steer into that.
• 12:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: It didn't work real well for France last time, but okay.
• 12:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, getting back to the protests, let's talk about this.
• 12:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they spread rapidly, right?
• 13:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that means that there had to be activists on the ground that were willing participants that they were either useful idiots or they were arsonists.
• 13:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: right, literally and figuratively, right, they spread this fire.
• 13:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: So let's talk about why everything spread as fast as it did.
• 13:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then if you don't mind, let's just talk about what has been the target of these riots, what has been burned because I don't think it's random, is it?
• 13:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we will know more, but the government, and I have spoken to even to intelligence officers here on the ground, makes it very clear that much of it comes, indeed, from the far left groups around Jean-Luc Mélenchon, which I have just described.
• 13:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: But in that, there are also many other actors.
• 13:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: You have Islamist Muslim Brotherhood organizations, including student organizations that are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, who have really pushed that.
• 14:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can actually just go on Al Jazeera or AJ+.
• 14:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you will see the propaganda that has been happening over the past few days.
• 14:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's not forget that we have an French speaking AJ+.
• 14:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: channel here on the ground, including on social media.
• 14:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: So you really have a mix of this.
• 14:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: When you look at the demonstrators, if I can call them that way, it's a mix of people.
• 14:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: You really have what we call the black block.
• 14:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: The sort of anti-far demonstrators who come very, very prepared.
• 14:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, even within the sort of relatively peaceful student marches come and create chaos.
• 14:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: You have people from within the Ballure, the what we call the suburbs, but we're basically immigrant background suburbs, who have come into shops and basically destroyed everything and have mostly plunder.
• 15:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hermes, all of those shops, there's nothing left.
• 15:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's literally it's crazy and then I think there is something really important you have had and I don't think this isn't incident and accident you have really organized attacks against institutional buildings against town halls against mayors themselves against prefects and I think there is something truly
• 15:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: truly targeted in trying to bring the Republic down.
• 15:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's similar to some extent with very different reason what you have on January 6, but there is an element that you have here that is very, very clearly attacking our institutions and our democracy.
• 16:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, two thoughts, one is you mentioned AJ plus just so everybody understands this was a channel.
• 16:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's really just an online account, you know, but it was actually ordered by our justice department to register as a foreign agent six years ago.
• 16:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is refused to do so.
• 16:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is a Atari outlet that has been fermenting well.
• 16:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: foreign influence, and it's amazing that the Qataris have not rigged that in.
• 16:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: The other thing is, you know, as a guy that lives in DC, we've seen this, not just January 6, I mean, so clearly there's a parallel there, but also there were the anti-Trump
• 16:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Black Lives Matter protests that ended up destroying huge numbers of businesses in the heart of Washington, DC, right?
• 16:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: The beating heart of the United States or nation's capital, this is of course exactly what is happening in Paris where you see these shop windows destroyed and I guarantee you they're going to be businesses that are not going to want to return.
• 17:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: and it's going to erode the economic lifeblood of Paris.
• 17:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that is obviously just a shame for anybody who knows this beautiful city.
• 17:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to zoom out though for a minute and ask you about just some broader trends in France.
• 17:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is a country that is, well, it's going through some pretty, I don't know, drawing changes in recent decades.
• 17:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: So maybe just explain all of this in context, if you would.
• 17:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sure, so first of all, you have to understand the economic situation of France.
• 17:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: In particular, this moment is really, really, really bad.
• 17:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have 5.4 percent deficit.
• 17:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have a debt that is 120 percent.
• 18:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's today the third most indebted country in Europe.
• 18:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you know, this is sort of supposed to be the motor of the European Union.
• 18:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we have not been able, or this current government has not been able to put any reforms in place, whether it's the question of retirement age, etc.
• 18:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so for the last few months, everybody has been speaking about the, you know, the next potential sort of, you know, situation of France like Greece.
• 18:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, huge financial and economic crisis.
• 18:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: So this is where we are currently.
• 18:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, the fact that we have these rights will just add another layer of catastrophe of to an already catastrophic situation.
• 18:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: The other thing is, we have, we have really a problem I think of obviously.
• 18:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: like most Western democracy of huge polarization.
• 18:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: An inability of people to have any sense of, what is common, what is France actually about.
• 19:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have, on the one hand, people who believe in the great replacement theory, and that immigrants are taking over the country and French people will not exist anymore.
• 19:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: And therefore, you're a sense of cultural insecurity.
• 19:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: And on the other hand of the spectrum, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, we will tell people, yes, indeed, what we are trying to do is a new France, sort of as a direct response to that.
• 19:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we have huge, huge polarization.
• 19:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have,
• 19:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And of course, a big problem of Islamism in this country, we have, you know, you don't, and by Islamism I don't only mean the terrorist attacks that we had in 2014, 15 and 16 in this country.
• 19:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I mean by that, the influence of Muslim Brotherhood organizations that have infiltrated our institutions,
• 20:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um, so this is so hard situation.
• 20:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and it obviously, it doesn't sound great, but now I want to broaden out a little further and thank you for giving us that context.
• 20:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: At the same time that all this is happening, the erosion of social cohesion, the cultural upheaval, the debt, the Islamization, etc.
• 20:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: You've got the French.
• 20:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: You have traditionally been, well, metallurs in the Middle East.
• 20:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're back at it again, right?
• 20:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, historically it's like Tunisia Algeria Morocco, but also don't forget it's also Lebanon and Syria.
• 20:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And now what we have is the French actually imposing
• 20:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: you know, like sanctions on the Israelis for, you know, settlement activity, which, of course, we condemn, but the idea that the French, right, that their own country is burning, and they're turning around and going after the Israelis, and imposing punitive measures, one doesn't get a sense that perhaps they're appeasing their Muslim brotherhood or Islamists within their midst.
• 21:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, give us a sense of where we are right now with French foreign policy
• 21:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, listen, France has mostly lost its influence.
• 21:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Most of what France, French foreign policy currently does, is a lot of noise, whether it's a Lebanon trying to play a role, whether it's in Syria trying to play a role, whether it's by recognizing a Palestinian side, what has it really changed?
• 21:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, most of it is trying to pretend that it is still the great French nation.
• 21:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think you are absolutely onto something.
• 21:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: It is that there is a form of foreign policy that has much more to do with internal policy than anything else.
• 22:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a way of appeasing.
• 22:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's also, it's clearly a sense of weakness.
• 22:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think, you know, when French president Emmanuel Macron recognized the Palestinian state, first by saying that there were certain conditions only to be then using those conditions to basically not care at all about it because as we just saw one of those conditions was for example for Palestinian elections to take place.
• 22:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: in 2026, of course not happening, or that pay for a slave should not be happening, of course, still happening.
• 22:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was very clear that he was doing it for a different reason.
• 22:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I and many others told him at the time that we would pay paying a price for this, that this was an expression of weakness.
• 22:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: and that our enemies here in the ground in elsewhere very well understood this message.
• 23:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I have to say, I think it's not that there is an exact direct link between the Palestinian recognition and what we are currently seeing on the ground.
• 23:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: But there is a sense of that our enemies from within and from without have understood that we are weak and that you're not willing to stand
• 23:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, well, and I think those principles are pivoting in real time out of a sense of the need to survive.
• 23:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: But the fact that there could be linkage at all is something that, well, I don't like.
• 23:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: OK, last question for you.
• 23:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is not only isolated in Paris, right?
• 23:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: We've seen it, obviously, it's in Marseille, but it's also spreading elsewhere in Europe, or we about to see sort of a contagion effect, the globalization of this French antifata.
• 23:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, absolutely possible.
• 23:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: First of all, year absolutely right.
• 23:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not only in Paris and Marthait, it's all over France.
• 24:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Every single like their hotspots all over the French, all over all over the country.
• 24:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: It has also happened in Belgium.
• 24:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have seen it in Italy.
• 24:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: And to some extent, even though it's different, we have seen things like this happening also in Albania.
• 24:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: My answer is yes, I think it's absolutely possible.
• 24:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: First of all, we have to understand that many of these organizations are often interlinked, that
• 24:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: that they speak.
• 24:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Some of those inter, some of these far left movement, some of these islamist movements, they are connected.
• 24:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: For example, Greta Thunberg was in Paris to come, you know, she's changing causes every two minutes.
• 24:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: We go from the environment to the palace scene in course.
• 24:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: She's a mascot for every stupid cause out there.
• 24:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, she's a muppet, but
• 24:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it's a symbol and it shows that these movements are connected.
• 25:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we'll have to see, first of all, obviously, the use of social media definitely plays a huge role.
• 25:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, what you used to be something that would be able to you will be able to organize on the ground, you can do it now internationally, you can do it now on a European level.
• 25:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, I think there is a big possibility that we'll be seeing more of this across the continent.
• 25:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: And again, let's not forget that there are a lot of actors outside of Europe who have an interest of seeing us weakened.
• 25:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 25:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, well, you read my mind there.
• 25:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, China, Russia, maybe some of the Middle Eastern countries, maybe the Iranians for that matter.
• 25:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 25:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to have to watch this space.
• 25:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: But foreign influence, we just talked about it on the last episode with Jacob Breach here at FDD.
• 25:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is increasingly a problem.
• 25:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when you start to see this stuff spread like wildfire on social media, you've got to know that this is not organic.
• 26:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is.
• 26:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: going to have to we're going to have to analyze this further.
• 26:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right, we're going to leave it there.
• 26:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: I want to thank you Simone, Rodan Benzackin.
• 26:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: You've joined us as now a repeat offender.
• 26:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the club.
• 26:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for joining us today on the FTD morning brief and please stay safe.
• 26:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you very much, done.
• 26:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Holy maid.
• 26:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, this episode has blown by past time to close up shop, but don't worry, you can always read more of our stuff between now and Wednesdays episode just visit our website at dd.org.
• 26:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can find some of Simone's written work there.
• 26:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you're more of a visual learner we got you.
• 26:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can head on over to FDD social media accounts for some seriously entertaining and educational content.
• 26:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: And yes, this is the part or I remind you to please head on over to FDD dot org slash invest to support our work.
• 26:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Every donation is tax deductible and highly appreciated.
• 27:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: So you Wednesday folks will be ready with more insights, more analysis, more interviews because, well, that's our jam.
• 27:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Until then, I'm Jonathan Shanzer as always signing