bloggie

Via Daniel Pipes:

They go by the euphemistic term Zones Urbaines Sensibles, or Sensitive Urban Zones, with the even more antiseptic acronym ZUS, and there are 751 of them as of last count. They are convienently listed on one long webpage, complete with street demarcations and map delineations.

What are they? Those places in France that the French state does not control. They range from two zones in the medieval town of Carcassone to twelve in the heavily Muslim town of Marseilles, with hardly a town in France lacking in its ZUS. The ZUS came into existence in late 1996 and according to a 2004 estimate, nearly 5 million people live in them.

Comment: A more precise name for these zones would be Dar al-Islam, the place where Muslims rule.

French Govt Website With List of Sites

If I were in charge of State, I would hold a press conference on this dramatic admission this morning and:

1) Call on France to exercise restraint in patrolling the Occupied Zones.

2) Remind France, as an occupying power, it is responsible for the health, education, safety, welfare and sanitation of the persons living in the 751 occupied territories.

3) Remind France of international human rights law.

4) Call on the parties to enter negotiation immediately on a Road Map to a Two-State Solution, since adding to the cycle of violence solves nothing.

5) Laugh.

So why aren't you in charge of State? That's a super plan.

You saw Hucbald's link at LGF, too, eh?

I was gonna post it here, but you beat me to it. It's amazing: even parts of the country I thought would be worth visiting are infested. Shameful.

I'm not volunteering, but it would be great if somebody put together an overview that showed what percentage of French land is "occupied".

Spiny Norman -

No, I found this at one of my new favorites, New English Review. Glad to hear it's being dicussed at LGF too, though.

What I find very interesting is the lack of the problem in the Vaucluse (sp?), and the rise of a strong anti-Islam movement there. So strong, it apparently is in charge of the local towns and departments.

That province was historically the strong-hold of Royalist sentiment and the last part of France to fall to the Revolution. Perhaps from the old, the old heart of France still beats and will fight?

I must be really dense because I don't understand what this means:

Those places in France that the French state does not control.

My error above: the historic province of France I was speaking of is, in fact, the Vendee and not the Vaucluse. Apologies.

The political party I was speaking of is the Movement For France. Here is some info on them from Wikipedia (obviously written by a French person writing in English, I think):

The Movement for France (French: Mouvement pour la France), or MPF, is a conservative, traditionalist and nationalist party, founded on November 20, 1994, with a marked regional implementation in Vendée. It is led by Philippe de Villiers, once Communication Minister under Jacques Chirac. Philippe de Villiers may be tied to the legitimist right-wing tradition analyzed by famous historian René Rémond.

The party resists increases in European integration and campaigned for a "no" vote in the 2005 referendum on the European constitution. It is also strongly opposed to the possible admission of Turkey into the European Union. While this view is not uncommon, the MPF distinguishes itself here in its stridency and the fact that it does not believe, as do some other political leaders, that Turkey should be admitted at some point in the future, after a set of criteria have been met.

It contested the 1999 European Parliamentary Elections in alliance with the Rassemblement pour la France of Charles Pasqua, the combination winning 13 seats. Standing by itself in the 2004 Elections it gained 7.6% of the popular vote and returned 3 MEPs. They are member of the Independence and Democracy Group in the EP.

It also made campaign against Euro.

Many MFP posters display Villiers prominently and attack outsourcing as well as the European Constitution (as of summer, 2005).

In September 2005, Philippe de Villiers caused a polemic by declaring that terrorism comes from the Islamism, which comes from Islam . Moreover, he published a book in April 2006 “the mosques of Roissy”, inquires helped by confidential notes of the French secret service (DST), in which it revealed the presence of terrorist to the international airport of Roissy. The ministry for the interior opened a lawsuit for the revelation of these notes, the Moslem community of France felt aimed thereafter.

At the time of the riots in suburbs of November 2005, it took again the slogan of Ronald Reagan: “France, love it or leave it”.

Good morning Fay -

These are the infamous "no-go" zones, the places where the Police rarely respond to calls, where the institutions of the French state don't really run to. These are the most violent, crime-ridden, high-unemployment, drug-dealing, public housing project cesspools that decades of bad public policy have created.

And they are, except for the overseas departments like Guadaloupe, overwhelminly North African and Islamic in their demographics.

In other words, some Muslim gang leader's word counts for more than the French state's word on these particular street corners.

Thanks Jourdan. So it's basically another French surrender.

Good morning to you to, hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

Fay, how did the apple and onion stuffin turn out?

Spiny Norman -

That matches my experience. Over the past two years I've gotten to know exactly two French immigrants, quite by chance. One is a businessman, very smooth, very rich, American wife, drives a big BMW. The other is an Oregon organic guy, khaki rucksack, student, poor, French wife (who knocks men unconcious at 30 yards just by breathing), struggling.

These two guys could not be more different. And they both tell me the same thing: France is done, I'm here for the future of my children, and I hope you Americans don't get suckered in to fight for them again.

Seriously. Without any prompting from me, these are these guys' views. Amazing.

Did they offer any opinions on Israel and Jews?

bigel -

I'm sorry, no. That didn't come up. I will make some discrete inquiries if I can and see what comes up. That will be an interesting social experiment.

I'm quite certain you will be very disturbed at what you hear -- from both of them.

And I won't seem so crazy afterwards.

Well, bigel, I promise not to varnish or white-wash what I hear. We'll see.

Stormi, over here.

From opinions like that I can't tell for 100% certainty whether or not they harbor any anti-semitic sentiments themselves (I genuinely doubt it), or just detest the Muslims more.

Yitzhak Shamir once said that Israel must treat attacks on Jews outside of Israel as an attack on Israel.

If there are massive pogroms against Jews in France, might this spark Israel into nuking France? Granted, it would be the end of Israel, but if Iran has the bomb at that point, Israel would likely see the writing on the wall and decide to end Jewish existence (and maybe all civilization) at the time and place of its choosing.

Robert appears to have a reading problem.

the historic province of France I was speaking of is, in fact, the Vendee

ВАНДЕЯ

Хай Париж вигукує ідеї,
Хай п'яніє від повстанчих мас —
Вже селянська лагідна Вандея
Ніж гострить і вдарить в слушний час.

Ой, дарма кричать вони зухвало,
Начебто бракує ліхтарів.
Буде крові їхньої замало,
І очей замало для круків.

Та червоні плями не вгасають,
Всмоктуються в землю, йдуть углиб.
І труйзіллям зрада виростає.
І гірким від неї буде хліб.

Поростуть бур'яном перелоги,
Висохнуть криниці і струмки…
Ми у світ покликані для того,
Щоб усе зробити навпаки.

З-під землі проступить кров гаряча,
Крук крукові очі поклює…
Я побачу, я іще побачу,
Як Вандея перша повстає.

--Leonid Kyselyov, 1968

Yeah, I remember you saying that, Stormi! It is uncanny!