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NEWS
In Elections for France's National Assembly , Candidates
Courted the Jewish Vote
By Arnon Yaffeh, Paris
Pictures of an Israeli Border Guard soldier holding a gun or
in action appear in campaign posters pasted on the walls in
Paris' 12th arrondissement. The soldier is Atty. Arno
Klarsfeld, the son of Nazi hunter Serge and Beate Klarsfeld,
a candidate for French President Nicolas Sarkozy's right wing-
party in the National Assembly elections.
It remains unclear whether the pictures were intended to
blemish his image and were posted by socialists or whether
they were intended to boost his image among Jews and pro-
Israel voters. During the intifadah, Klarsfeld spent a year
serving as a volunteer in the Border Guard. Upon his return
to France he was recruited by Sarkozy for special tasks in
the Interior Ministry. Rather than making him a government
minister, from the Elysees Sarkozy himself sent him out to
try to transfer control over the strategic Parisian
neighborhood to the right.
At the last moment the Socialist Party brought in a Jewish
candidate named Karen Taub, the chairwoman for the
Association for Soldier Welfare in France. Taub did not enter
the National Assembly, but her Jewish name adorned the
announcements and campaign gatherings for Socialist Party
candidate Sendarin Mastier. Meanwhile the Left denounced
Klarsfeld as "a soldier in the oppressive Israeli army."
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