Strauss-Kahn on Israel

[William Joyce]

Strauss-Kahn is French. He’s as French as Wolfowitz is American.

As with most prominent world bankers, this guy is as ethnocentric as they come:

“Every morning, when I wake up, I wonder how I can be useful to Israel.”
--Strauss-Kahn, 1991

In a recent post <http://www.thejc.com/dominique-strauss-kahn/7260/how-jewish-dominique-strauss-kahn> entitled “How Jewish is Dominique Strauss-Kahn?”, the Jewish Chronicle gives all the details: he's 100% casher.

The light-hearted JC item actually said: “Verdict: Il est un Juif. So we say he is 89% Jewish.”

In a 1979 book – Juifs et Français – his wife Anne Sinclair (heiress of the rich Schwartz Rosenberg family), was quoted as saying : “I could never have married a non-Jew”.

Her former husband was Yvan Levai, a Jew.

Strauss-Kahn has been honest enough to explain why he got into politics. In 1991, he declared to the weekly Tribune Juive:

“Every morning, when I wake up, I wonder how I can be useful to Israel.”*

He developed this idea in an 1991 interview with a French magazine (Passages, n 35, Feb-March 1991):

“I think that every Jew in the diaspora, and therefore in France, must provide assistance to Israel wherever he is. This is also the reason why it is important that Jews take political responsibility. In my functions and in my everyday life, through all of my actions, I try to bring a modest stone to the building of Israel.”*

Although the translation may not be very good English, the most important part is “THE reason....” He could have said “....One of the reasons”, but he just said “The”. I guess that before the paper got printed, the proof was checked by Strauss-Kahn, the journalist and the chief editor.

Strauss-Kahn was about to become the next French president as many socialists think he still belongs to the left wing, and people on the right know he shares their economic views.

Of course, all the French-Jewish ‘intelligensia’ rushed to defend him from the accusation of rape.

So I'm quite surprised that this fervent Jewish-Zionist has been so much bashed in Murdoch's New York Post and Zuckerman's New York Daily News.

* Everyone can check these original quotes (in French) on this ethnic site;

IsraelValley | EDITO: Israël France - Dominique Strauss-Kahn au FMI : un ami d'Israël à la tête du FMI. Grande joie en Israël dans les milieux politiques et d'affaires.

<http://www.israelvalley.com/edito/2007/09/28/13135/israel>

 

[waltky]

Pirates goin' after booty...

Sexual 'pirates' prowled IMF for women
5/20/2011 WASHINGTON — 'It's sort of like "Pirates of the Caribbean"; the rules are more like guidelines,' female economist says

It is an international island in the midst of the American capital, a sharp-elbowed place ruled by alpha male economists. The days are long, and employees are regularly pressed together for weeks on end during overseas “missions.” It is a climate in which romances often flourish — and lines are sometimes crossed. Some women avoid wearing skirts for fear of attracting unwanted attention. Others trade whispered tips about overly forward bosses. A 2008 internal review found few restraints on the conduct of senior managers, concluding that “the absence of public ethics scandals seems to be more a consequence of luck than good planning and action.” This is life at the International Monetary Fund, the lender of last resort for governments that need money and, under the leadership of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, an emerging force in the regulation of the global economy.

But with Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s arrest earlier this week and indictment on Thursday on charges that he tried to rape a New York hotel housekeeper, a spotlight has been cast on the culture of the institution. And questions have been revived about a 2008 episode in which the I.M.F. decided that Mr. Strauss-Kahn had not broken any rules in sleeping with a female employee. What may draw even more attention to the culture of the fund is the revelation of an affair involving a potential successor to Mr. Strauss-Kahn, who resigned as managing director on Wednesday. Kemal Dervis of Turkey had a liaison while working at the World Bank years ago with a woman who now works at the I.M.F., according to a person with direct knowledge of the relationship.

Interviews and documents paint a picture of the fund as an institution whose sexual norms and customs are markedly different from those of Washington, leaving its female employees vulnerable to harassment. The laws of the United States do not apply inside its walls, and until earlier this month the I.M.F.’s own rules contained an unusual provision that some experts and former officials say has encouraged managers to pursue the women who work for them: “Intimate personal relationships between supervisors and subordinates do not, in themselves, constitute harassment.” “It’s sort of like ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’; the rules are more like guidelines,” said Carmen M. Reinhart, a prominent female economist who served as the I.M.F.’s deputy director for research from 2001 to 2003. “That sets the stage, I think, for more risk-taking.”

'He wasn't punished'