Larmes de crocodile

In "An Open Letter to my Israeli Friends" published in the Israeli daily Haaretz, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin explains, apparently with a straight face, that

Between France and Israel, and between the French and the Jewish people, there is a heartfelt relationship that led the father of the great philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, in the midst of the Dreyfus affair, to say that "it is worth moving to a state that tears itself apart over the fate of a little Jewish captain."

Uh, huh. It's a positive that France "tore itself apart" over the Dreyfus affair? There shouldn't have been a Dreyfus affair to begin with! And it shows that huge swaths of the population were so anti-Semitic that they helped tear the country to pieces!

de Villepin isn't done yet. He also notes:

The Holocaust is a part of our common history, as recently noted by President Jacques Chirac, for whom France "will always be inconsolable" for this "irredeemable mistake."

Thanks much, Jacques. That's mighty nice of ya. So France turned its Jews in to the Nazis (except in notable cases like Le Chambon-sur-Lignon which, as a town, saved thousands of Jews) but at least they feel bad about it, folks!