re: #156 MJ

…and let’s not forget in that illustrious list our own stately State Department — second in the number of employees who rate “Lawrence of Arabia” as their favorite all-time film to either (or both):
1) The British Foreign Office
2) The French Quai d’Orsay

The latter being possibly the most insular “government within a government that ever lived — at least during the Gnral de Gaulle — Franois Mitterrand — (and) Jacques Chirac years.

I believe that Sarkozy (Jewish by blood on both sides — and given his mother being a Jew, he is a Jew no matter how the subject may be finessed) is valiantly attempting to chip away at some of the Quai’s unfettered and unchecked powers from the little I’ve read on the subject.

Of limited interest: one of Sarkozy’s grandfathers supposedly founded a Rabbinical school in Thessaloniki, Greece — one hopes some of that rubbed off on his grandson.

Sarkozy also of course has the French Navy hunting Somali pirates off the Gulf of Aden (to the best of my knowledge, we are not).

And most importantly, he’s taken on France’s prostituting-in-essence Arabist Foreign Policy, for one which, at the very least makes Iran and the nuclear bomb the top of his Foreign Policy agenda. He is refreshing indeed. Let’s see if he can bring the Quai d’Orsay into line (a most difficult task)
——————————
An Aside: As a Jew myself, I say not without some pride to my non-Jewish Lizard allies (may we always be bonded!) that as the Jews learned in WWII and for at least two thousand years prior, no matter what a parent may do to conceal his or her Jewish blood, their offspring is “passed the yoke” whether the parents like it or not. Ideally it should be looked on as, at the least, something “special.” For many understandable reasons however, if often is not. Whether “something special” or an “internal virus” (from the point of view of some Jews), the point here is that it cannot be “washed off.”