"We shall act, we shall pass laws, we shall punish," Macron told Jewish leaders as he toured the cemetery. Many French Jews are on edge after the government announced a 74 percent jump in anti-Jewish offences in 2018 after two years of declines. Tensions mounted last weekend after a prominent French writer was the target of a violent tirade by a "yellow vest" protester in Paris on Saturday. "It would be false and absurd to call the yellow vest movement anti-Semitic," Philippe told L'Express magazine in an interview published Tuesday. A recent Ifop poll of "yellow vest" backers found that nearly half those questioned believed in a worldwide "Zionist plot" and other conspiracytheories.

Source: The Local February 19, 2019 20:03 UTC