Le Pen Deputy Visits Israel
Louis Aliot, vice president of France’s National Front party, is visiting Israel to try to drum up support for Marine Le Pen in elections this spring.
Le Pen is the leader of the controversial political party founded by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. She has been trying to distance herself and the party from the anti-Semitic and xenophobic opinions expressed by her father, who once called the Nazi gas chambers a “detail of World War II.” He was convicted in Germany for inciting racial hatred for the statement.
Aliot arrived in Israel on Monday for a 48-hour visit. He and Le Pen have been a couple for the last two years, according to the French daily Le Parisien.
Aliot met with about 40 French Jews in order to present them with Le Pen’s platform. He also met with some Israeli political officials, none Knesset members, according to Haaretz, and visited the Western Wall. He was scheduled to visit churches in Bethlehem on Tuesday.
“This is the first time a National Front leader has visited Israel. It’s true that relations were tense for a time, but it’s time to warm up the atmosphere,” Aliot told Haaretz.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
