Of course he can. And after he’s free the media will also be free… to suddenly remember once again how important it is that he’s jewish. They’ll go right back to lobbying for his election as the first jewish president of France and demonizing French nationalists as jew-haters for opposing him.

For French, Arrest Forces Some Questions of Identity – NYTimes.com, by Joseph Berger:

“French-Americans, said Thomas Bishop, director of the Center for French Civilization and Culture at New York University, do not integrate into the American mainstream as easily as other ethnic groups, retaining stronger feelings for their homeland.

The devotion extends to their passion for French politics. Rather than dismiss Mr. Strauss-Kahn with tabloid descriptions of him as a “frisky Frenchman,” they may view his fall from power as that of a man with “a tragic flaw” who thought he could “get away with anything,” Mr. Bishop said.“

Berger doesn’t breathe a word about jews. If you were to substitute “the jews” into any of the pronouncements he or other pundits routinely aim at Americans or the French, then voila, they would magically transform into ugly tropes.

For example, see the article linked in the original post, Strauss-Kahn Has France Talking About a Presidential Run – NYTimes.com, which discusses the question of DSK’s identity before he was accused of sexual assault:

“But there have been other, uglier notes in the right’s reaction, circling around the fact that Mr. Strauss-Kahn is Jewish. Christian Jacob, a legislator and farmer, described him as an urban intellectual — a “bobo,” short for “bourgeois-bohemian.” Mr. Jacob said that Mr. Strauss-Kahn did not represent “the image of France, the image of rural France, the image of the France of terroirs and territories.” This notion of rootless cosmopolitanism, of being out of touch with the soil and the mystery of “la France profonde,” is an old trope for foreign and Jewish influence.

On Wednesday, Mr. Jacob denied any anti-Semitic feeling, saying that “as a farmer, I can’t recognize myself or identify with him.”“

As is clear from much of the jewish hand-wringing after his arrest, “the jews” feel quite free to question DSK’s jewish identity. The consensus seems to be, “yes, so what?” Meanwhile, those French who question DSK’s French identity are painted as jew haters. Jewish influence is today so strong that the old anti-jewish trope is quite unpublishable, if not unspeakable, and the new ugly trope, regularly repeated in media reports and opinion, is that the DSK affair reflects badly on Americans or the French, despite copious signs that the majority of Americans and French are appalled and alienated by him and his behavior. DSK and “the jews”, on the other hand, have expressed keen interest in his jewish identity, and what it means to them – a fact no paid pundit will mention much less blame for anything.

So sometime after cashing in on his Bar Mitzvah, DSK lost religion and “awakened” at the ripe old age of 18.

In other words, I was told I was a jew from the day I was born until the day (1967) I woke up and realized “hey, im a jew”.

From the WSJ: “David Bookstaver, a spokesman for the state court system, said that New York Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus approved Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s move to a new residence during a conference call with his defense attorneys and prosecutors on Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Bookstaver said he doesn’t know where Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s new residence will be or when he will be moved.”

Get another barf bag. Tracy goes talmudic on Fish for being too confusing about where he stands on “the jews”.