THE Janissaries were the elite fighting force of the Ottoman Empire. When they advanced into battle it was to shrill and alarming war music. But what made them more terrifying was the slow rolling stride of their march in which for every two steps forward, they took one step sideways. This inexorable advance in strict formation, utterly contemptuous of the hails of enemy arrows and javelins, served to confuse and then terrify their opponents, who often broke and ran before these ferocious shock troops actually reached their ranks.

Ariel Sharon and his fellow Zionists would seem to have made a study of Janissary tactics. Time and again they have taken two steps forward and then stepped confusingly to the side. The Israeli premier did it again yesterday when he greeted 200 French Jews who had responded to his call to flee what he called the rising tide of anti-Semitism in France and make their homes in Israel.

This had outraged President Chirac’s government. The attacks on Jewish cemeteries and synagogues have caused widespread revulsion and alarm in France. Unfortunately there is less alarm about more numerous attacks against the country’s Muslim community. However, until Sharon’s intervention, no one was suggesting that these racist crimes against both communities signified that the French authorities had lost control of the situation.

So annoyed were the French at Sharon that Chirac went so far as to say that the Israeli premier would not be welcome in France until he had explained himself satisfactorily. A senior French politician commented acidly that Sharon had missed a golden opportunity to keep his mouth shut. The news that Sharon was going to Tel Aviv airport to welcome in person the arriving French Jews appeared to be rubbing salt into the Chirac’s wounds.

And then came the Janissary side step. Far from increasing the injury to French pride, Sharon surprised everyone when he gave a carefully studied speech in which he praised France for its action against racists. Indeed he seemed to be going out of his way to lower the tensions with the French government. This unexpected volte face clearly so stunned the Elysée Palace that it was unable to produce an immediate reaction to the speech.

Once again the Zionists have pulled off a coup. First, the two steps forward. They have alarmed French Jewry so that these 200 new immigrants to Israel are unlikely to be the last. The world will thus once again have been served the picture of embattled Jewry fleeing from oppression. The second forward step is that Israel will be boosting its population and, by extension, the number of soldiers it can deploy against the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

And the side step is to apologize generously for the offense the two forward steps have caused. But as ever with Zionist encroachment policies, the apology is not matched by a reversal of the offensive advance. Israel’s friends will point to its sincere regrets while quietly rejoicing in the further strengthening of its position. Wiser observers will be sickened.