The pro-Israel statements of Nicolas Sarkozy, who was sworn in as the new president of France on May 16, as well as the Jewish connection of his and his foreign policy team, have alerted Arab capitals and public opinion to a possibly imminent break with Paris’ balanced approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Acting on a campaign pledge to a clean break with France’s political past, Sarkozy has grouped a foreign policy team that could vindicate Arab fears.

Franco-Israeli relations have undergone many upheavals in the past; the high point was the “Golden Age” of the 1950s, when France was Israel’s main ally, weapons supplier and nuclear capability provider. The low point came after the 1967 war, during the presidency of Charles de Gaulle, when France imposed an almost complete arms embargo and embarked on a balanced approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Sarkozy is promising a 180-degree turnabout on de Gaulle’s legacy. His pro-Israeli views had prompted a flurry of contacts between Arab capitals and Paris, with governments seeking a reassurance of continuity.

Sarkozy has repeatedly called himself a friend of Israel in good times and in bad, the Israeli French edition of the Jerusalem Post reported on May 3, quoting him as saying that “makes me an ‘Atlantist,’ pro-Israeli and pro-American.” Israel hopes that Sarkozy will adopt a policy more in coordination with the US and in line with that of Britain and Germany than with what they see as a traditional “politique Arabe de la France” of recent decades.

Sarkozy is undoubtedly the most Israel-friendly president since the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958, The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California, reported on May 11. He is an admirer of the Jewish state and has warm ties with the French Jewish community.

His maternal grandfather, Aron Mallah, nicknamed Benkio, was a Greek Jew from Salonika who migrated to France before World War II and converted to Catholicism but nevertheless had to hide during World War II because of his Jewish roots. His wife Cecilia is also of Jewish ancestry. He is a 2003 laureate of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Humanitarian Award.

However his Jewish family background would never make a difference to Arabs, but the family’s active role in the Zionist movement certainly would alert them to a potential effect on his politics as much as would his Israeli friends like former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Sarkozy says he admired his grandfather, who bequeathed to Sarkozy his political convictions. Sarkozy’s Jewish connection is reinforced by similar sympathies of his governing team. His foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner was born to a Jewish father and a Protestant mother. Kouchner is also close to France’s ambassador in Washington, MP Pierre Lellouche, who is Sarkozy’s adviser on international issues.

The Jewish Journal online on May 11 quoted Sarkozy as saying in a 2004 interview: “Should I remind you the visceral attachment of every Jew to Israel, as a second mother homeland? There is nothing outrageous about it. Every Jew carries within him a fear passed down through generations, and he knows that if one day he will not feel safe in his country, there will always be a place that would welcome him. And this is Israel.”

Some Arabs interpret this as a direct encouragement of a dual loyalty and an indirect call for immigration to Israel.

However several factors could yet rein in a complete clean break with Paris’ traditional balanced approach to Middle East issues, a “hope” shared by all Arab governments and even by such controversial grassroots movements like Hezbollah of Lebanon and the ruling Hamas of the Palestinian Authority.

Arabs are already aware that Sarkozy’s grandfather was Jewish, but he himself grew up Catholic. His heritage “doesn’t mean he’s going to take Jewish positions,” said Shimon Samuels of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Paris. Moreover Arab leaders are already doing normal business with both Israeli and non-Israeli Jewish leaders.

Sarkozy could be following the leadership of the US, but this is the same leadership with the strongest Jewish connection that most Arab leaders are already in business with, which promises more of the same, but no drastic change.

— Nicola Nasser is an Arab journalist based in Ramallah, Palestine.