Free Will Classic

5:17 am, 7/7/04

Exodus
Remember how thousands of French Jews were thinking about fleeing France while they still can? Well, it's already starting.

The Jewish Agency, the quasi-governmental body responsible for settling immigrants, reported a doubling in the number of French Jews who arrived last year and in 2002, to more than 2,000 each year, compared with about 1,000 a year in the previous three years. By contrast, worldwide immigration to Israel has sharply declined during the Arab-Israeli violence.

Got that? Many French Jews consider it safer to live within a few miles of the suicide-bombing Palestinians than to actually live in France. The French ambassador to Israel tries to explain:

"It's a flow, not a flight," he said.

It's a flow the hell out of France, there, bud, with tens of thousands who are considering flowing for their lives. (Via American in T.O.)