A VICTORY FOR TRUTH
By Avi Davis

There seems to be second chances in life after all. Philippe Karsenty’s successful appeal regarding the defamation suit brought against him by the France 2 television network was a resounding victory, not just for Karsenty himself, but for the cause of European longevity. Although the verdict of the judge in this case does not judicially “ prove” that the shooting of Muhammed al- Dura was a hoax, the vindication of Karsenty’s allegations – that Palestinian operatives staged the shooting and that France 2 collaborated in its cover up – is a statement to the world that even in politically correct, multicultural France, truth still might be a valued ideal. The fact that the French system of justice ultimately rejected the pernicious media manipulation and outrageous propaganda of France 2 as the basis of a law suit, should provide hope that there remain in France citizens who refuse to be swept into the anti-Enlightenment world view of the French intelligentsia.

Karsenty’s case has often been compared to a French case 100 years ago, the celebrated Dreyfus Affair. While there might be enough dissimilarity between the two cases to render a comparison unhelpful, Dreyfus’ story still does bear repeating.

In 1894 Captain Alfred Dreyfus was a young artillery officer of Jewish background who was in the midst of advanced artillery training with the Army's General Staff. A spy in the German consulate discovered a discarded list in a waste paper basket, detailing the production of a newly designed French Howitzer gun. A culprit was sought.

Dreyfus was suspected for a number of reasons: His artillery training, the German origins of his family, his annual trips to Mülhausen to visit his ailing father, and the fact. that his handwriting was similar to that on the list found at the Consulate. But more persuasive was the fact that Dreyfus was a Jew, a categorization in fin de siecle France, which automatically rendered him suspect. The evidence, proferred by the military investigators, was nevertheless thin at best, and when this was revealed, the French General Staff, fearing exposure of its own failed security measures, set out to fabricate documents that would ultimately implicate Dreyfus and seal his fate. The caustic political and judicial scandal that followed divided French society between Dreyfusards and anti-Dreyfusards, rousing anti-Semitic conduct and rhetoric. Few historians today doubt that anti-Semitism became the fuel that fanned the flames of the Dreyfus Affair.

The accusations against Alfred Dreyfus were eventually demonstrated to be entirely baseless. While the court and its appeals went on for years, it was not until 1906 that he was fully exonerated and reinstated to his position as a Major in the French Army. He later served during the entire period of the First World War as a Lieutenant- Colonel.

The ten year debate over Dreyfus’ innocence wrought a moral cleavage in French society which indisputably weakened the country prior to the First World War. Yet what remains outstanding about the Dreyfus Affair – and is reflected in much of what Karsenty had to endure over the past four years - is the fact that members of the highest echelons of French society were involved in fabricating the hoax. In Dreyfus’ time it was the military. In Karsenty’s, the media. In both cases, anti-Semitism (although in France today it is conveniently disguised as anti-Zionism) powered the hoax and the subsequent cover up.

Karsenty’s trial has not received nearly one tenth the attention of the Dreyfus Affair and that is because no major French news source wishes to be tarred with the same brush as France 2. But his victory does have significance for French society. It is a reminder that all modern democracies must rely on the search and reinforcement of truth as a guiding social principle for continued progress and survival. Abandoning the quest for truth will weaken the society and make it increasingly difficult to defend against the purveyors of ruthless ideologies who traffick in falsehood and misrepresentation and who are bent on the destruction of Western democracy.
What truth, then? Truth about Judaism; truth about Islam; truth about the Arab- Israeli conflict and truth about the deep threats that Europe faces from the scourge of Islamic fundamentalism. It should be finally recognized by French society that the weakened state of their polity is due to the kind of moral relativism, cultural ambiguity,collapse of national identity and policies of appeasement which eventually brought down the Third Republic. It is exactly the same kind of willful blindness to internal threats and an unwillingness to face external realities which now imperils the future of France.
If one can draw a clear moral line between the Fall of France in 1940 to the internal damage wrought by the Dreyfus Affair nearly fifty years earlier, then the Karsenty trial really does convey a powerful message. It is a warning that the country may yet again be threatened by an internal corrosion that cannot be arrested once set in motion.

The Western Word - An International Weekly Digest   5-23-2008