(Note: A slightly different version of the letter below was published by the Wall Street Journal on Aug. 30, 2025)
Ambassador Kushner is right to express his concern over the rise of antisemitism in France. And he’s correct to note “the lack of sufficient action” by the French government. However, it is worth noting that previous French governments were not only complacent in combating antisemitism. Rather, a number of them have enabled some of its worst purveyors.
Amin Al-Husseini, the founding father of Palestinian nationalism and an infamous Nazi collaborator, was briefly given refuge in France after World War II. Husseini had helped recruit Waffen SS regiments in the Balkans and served as Hitler’s chief Arab propagandist. He incited pogroms from Jerusalem to Baghdad. Yet France gave him a villa in the Parisian suburbs, two secretaries and a cook, with the director general of the Quai d’Orsay calling for the man nicknamed “Hitler’s Mufti” to be “treated with consideration.”
Three decades later France gave sanctuary to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the regime which calls for, and actively seeks, the destruction of the Jewish state. Like Husseini before him, Khomeini was provided with housing and security by French authorities. Khomeini left France for Iran, launching another regime committed to the genocide of Jews.
History tells us that antisemitism, like other deadly viruses, needs hosts to survive.
Sean Durns
Washington D.C.
Senior Research Analyst
Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA)