Anyone who remembers the horrors that de Gaulle inflicted on French Algeria when he handed over that territory to the Algerian terrorists in 1962 will find remarkable similarities between what was done then by the French leader and what is now being proposed by Ahud Olmert in Samaria, usually referred to as the West Bank.

In the case of French Algeria, over a million Europeans -- Christians and Jews -- were forced to abandon their farms, vineyards, businesses, schools, churches and synagogues and take to the boats for Metropolitan France. It was a surrender of Western Christian civilization to the Muslims and set the stage for the slow takeover of France itself by Islam.

De Gaulle had been brought to power in 1958 to defend French Algeria and its millions of French citizens, which included many loyal Muslims. In Algiers he made a powerful speech in which he told the cheering citizens, "Je vous ai compris," (I have understood you.) And then he proceeded to methodically betray them in a most brutal and arrogant manner, destroying the most patriotic men in his army and replacing them with traitors. Of course, he had the backing of the communists and the left. As for the French and other Europeans in Algeria, they were labeled "right wing extremists."

The same situation now exists in Israel, where Olmert, following in the footsteps of Sharon, has had to rely on the support of the left to carry out his plan to evacuate the Jews from Samaria. He is willing to destroy their homes, farms, schools, and industries for the same reason that de Gaulle destroyed French Algeria: he didn't think it was worth saving. The result has been an unhindered march of several million Muslims into France and other countries in Europe.

Thus de Gaulle destroyed the work of over a hundred years to make Algeria a part of the French Republic, and bring its people under the protection of an enlightened Western civilization. France had invaded North Africa in the 1840s to put a stop to the piracy and kidnappings of the Barbary Arabs. Americans, in fact, fought their first foreign war against the Barbary States in 1800 to put a stop to Arab depredations and kidnappings. And after the French conquest, Europeans from France, Italy, and Spain settled there and built a thriving economy. And when oil was discovered, it made French Algeria all the more valuable to France. But when Algerian terrorists launched their campaign of "national liberation," they did it with the help of the Soviet Union and the entire communist world, including the French communist party. De Gaulle, whom we suspect was sympathetic to socialism, surrendered it all to the Reds.

Patriotic Frenchmen saw it all as a great betrayal. That is why there were attempts by former army officers to assassinate de Gaulle. But they never succeeded because the majority of the French people either approved of the betrayal or simply shut their mouths and accepted what had become inevitable.

In Israel, polls are taken almost daily to show that the majority of Israelis approve of Olmert's plan to destroy the Jewish settlements in Samaria, even though the surrender of Jewish Gaza has not produced any benefits to Israel. And many of the former Jewish residents of Gaza have not even been properly resettled in Israel proper.

There is even speculation that the Israeli army may have to go back into Gaza to stop the Hamas terrorists from lobbing missiles into Israel. Indeed, there is growing resistance to Olmert;s plan, which calls for the relocation of over 20,000 Jews who built beautiful, viable communities in Israel's ancient land of Samaria. This resistence is even growing among Israel's military leadership, who see nothing to be gained by an abject surrender to Arab terrorists of valuable land and the dislocation of thousands of Jews.

Meanwhile, de Gaulle's legacy has become the Islamization of France. Brigitte Bardot, the famous French film star, wrote a book in 2002, A Scream in the Silence, about the Muslim takeover of France. She wrote: "I am against the Islamization of France." For centuries our forefathers, the ancients, our grandfathers, our fathers gave their lives to chase all successive invaders from France." But today the French government acquiesces to its growing Islamic population, tolerating growing anti-Semitism in order not to offend its Muslim citizens. The will to survive as Christian France no longer exists.

The Jewish settlers in Samaria represent a Jewish will not only to survive, but to overcome tremendous obstacles to their success. To destroy their homes and communities is to replace the will to survive with the will to surrender. It's all right if a million Arabs are permitted to live in Israel with Israeli citizenship. But not a single Jew is permitted to live in Palestine. Some of the Jewish farmers in Gaza were willing to live under Palestinian rule in order to continue their highly successful farming. They were employing over 2,000 Arabs in their enterprises. But Sharon would not even permit that.

The horrible memories of what de Gaulle did to French Algeria are virtually unknown to the people of Israel. Thus, its hard lessons have not been learned. But as the philosopher Santayana once remarked, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

 
Samuel L. Blumenfeld is the author of ten books on education and literacy. His parents came to the U.S. from Poland in the 1920s, but the rest of the family that stayed in Warsaw were killed in the Holocaust. Since then, Blumenfeld has written many articles in defense of Israel and the Zionist cause. His articles are available in the Archives of WorldNetDaily.

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