At least one world leader understands the existential threat Putin poses to Europe and to Jews

Robert Zaretsky
March 10, 2025

The day after Donald Trump spoke to Congress, Emmanuel Macron replied with his own State of the Union address — more precisely, the European Union. The contrast could not have been more stunning and consequential for the future of Europe. And, of course, for the future of European Jewry.

Under the Capitol’s dome, Trump spun two hours of nonsense to an audience of cheering Republicans and cheerless Democrats. Predictably, the speech was larded with flattering shout-outs —  “Thank you, Elon. You’re working very hard. He didn’t need this. He didn’t need this. We appreciate it”   — and threatening shout-outs: “Good luck Marco. Now we know who to blame if anything goes wrong.”  There were the inevitable put-downs — a “Pocahontas” here, a “worst president” there — and a litany of lies, damned lies, and statistics alleging that Elon had uncovered “hundreds of billions of dollars” and that Social Security databases show that money has been paid to “3.5 million people from ages 140 to 149.”

But Trump folded one of his most dangerous and damnable lies into the 15 minutes he devoted to foreign policy. Like “taking candy from a baby,” he intoned, Ukraine has pocketed “perhaps $350 billion” from the American government. In fact, the United States has allocated half that amount for Ukraine, which notwithstanding Trump’s repeated insistence that Europe has provided barely 100 billion euros, is less than what Europe has in fact ponied up for the country.

Trump’s remarks on foreign policy lasted about 15 minutes, a couple of minutes longer than the entire address Macron gave the following day. As he prepared to speak from the Elysée palace, Macron was aware that Trump had earlier that same day ended intelligence sharing with Ukraine and had delayed but not canceled tariffs for Mexico and Canada. With the flags of France and European Union standing by his side, Macron bracketed a somber gaze on the camera and cut to the chase:

“The United States of America, our ally, has changed its position on this war, lessening its support for Ukraine and raising doubts about what is to come. At the same time, the United States intends to impose tariffs on products from Europe. Meanwhile, the world continues to be ever more violent, and the terrorist threat has not lessened. All in all, our prosperity and our security have become increasingly uncertain. Clearly, we are entering a new era.”

The contours of this new era, Macron continued, had been forged in Russia, transforming the Ukrainian conflict into a global one. “It has deployed North Korean soldiers and Iranian equipment on our continent, while helping those countries to further rearm,” Macron said. “President Putin’s Russia violates our borders to murder his opponents and manipulates elections in Romania and Moldova. It organizes digital attacks against our hospitals to keep them from functioning. Russia is attempting to manipulate our opinions, spreading lies on social media. This aggressiveness seems to know no boundaries.”

These facts alone confront France and Europe with existential challenges. But worse was to come. The unprecedented menace posed to Europe by Moscow, already terrifying, had been suddenly compounded by the unexpected threat brewing in Washington. Macron condemned the prospect of “incomprehensible tariffs” that Trump plans to impose on European goods. Of course, he did not describe Trump’s threats of tariff as tantamount to economic sabotage at this critical moment in history. But this fear could be heard in the dramatic pauses when he concluded, “I want to believe that the United States will stand with us, but we must be ready if that’s not the case.”

As for the efforts required for such readiness, Macron emphasized the imperative need of “massive, shared financing” for a rapid reinforcement of Europe’s military, industrial, and technological capacities. Extraordinarily, the newly formed German government under the newly elected chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has made a similar proclamation. But in this moment of extraordinary events, perhaps the most extraordinary was Macron’s announcement that he would hold discussions with EU leaders on the extension of France’s nuclear deterrent across the entire European continent. “Whatever happens,” he added, “that decision has always been, and will always be, up to the President and Commander in Chief of France.”

As he uttered these words, Macron undoubtedly had in mind the man who oversaw the development of France’s nuclear “force de dissuasion,” Charles de Gaulle. It is no surprise that the man who, in the words of André Malraux, “was equal to his myth” has long been on Macron’s mind. Indeed, de Gaulle has been not only on Macron’s mind, but on his desk at the Elysée which displays a leather-bound edition of de Gaulle’s memoirs — a desk which, moreover, was used by de Gaulle when he became president of the Fifth Republic in 1958. During the battle against COVID, Macron repeatedly invoked the martial imagery and patriotic rhetoric associated with le Général, reminding the French that “De Gaulle tells us that France is strong when it knows its destiny, when it stands united, when it seeks the path of cohesion in the name of a certain idea of ​​France.”

In his speech, Macron returned to the same phrase — “une certaine idée de la France” — with which de Gaulle famously begins his memoirs. But this time he riffed on it, to great effect: “When it comes to defending democracy, we believe in a certain idea of the truth, a certain idea of free research, a certain idea of respect in our society, a certain idea of freedom of expression that eschews hate speech, and a certain idea of humanism.”

Some might dismiss Macron’s language as empty rhetoric or childish cosplay, noting that he has often invoked de Gaulle, to little effect, over the seven years he has resided at the Elysée. But the actions that Macron has already taken, both in his directions to his government to begin revising the budget with an eye to increased military spending, and in his efforts to galvanize the other EU member states, suggest otherwise. De Gaulle believed that history happens in the clash between will and event. While he will never be equal to the myth of de Gaulle, Macron may well prove equal to the unprecedented crisis now facing France and Europe.

But this crisis has countless precedents for European Jewry: precedents that, after centuries of antisemitism, climaxed in the Shoah. There has been much debate over whether Putin is antisemitic, but the evidence for such a claim continues to mount. Most recently, he opined that “ethnic Jews” were tearing apart the Eastern Orthodox Church. “These are people without any beliefs, godless people. They’re ethnic Jews, but has anyone seen them in a synagogue? I don’t think so,” he said. “These are people without kin or memory, with no roots.” The Jew he most despises is Ukraine’s leader Volodomyr Zelenskyy, whom Putin describes as the West’s sock puppet. “The western nations have placed an ethnic Jew, with Jewish roots and ancestors, as the head of Ukraine…because, as a Jew, he is easily manipulated.” These and similar statements perhaps point to the influence of Alexander Dugin, the prolific Russian ethno-nationalist who has a persistent predilection for Nazi imagery and ideas.

All of this suggests the existential threat Putin poses for Europe by Russia is a notch more than existential. But that hardly matters. The present existential menace we face is neither divisible nor a matter of degrees, but instead it concerns us all. De Gaulle, it happens, had a certain idea not just of France, but also of what is truly at stake in our age. “The only important conflict is over the future of humanity,” he said. “It is that we must save.”

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