Here is a superb column by the always superb Nidra Poller in the Washington Times:
…While security officials warn that a domestic or international incident could enflame tinderbox banlieues at any moment, Miss Royal and Mr. Bayrou tiptoe through the immigrant suburbs singing the praises of diversity and blaming the ills on discrimination. Miss Royal went one step further. She participated in a ceremony of allegiance organized by ACLEFEU (“assez le feu,” literally “enough with the fire”), an association formed in Clichy sous Bois in the aftermath of the November 2005 uprising. Whether or not members of the association personally indulged in the mayhem, they draw their legitimacy from the inherent threat of violence.
To put out the fires, ACLEFEU compiled a “Notebook of Grievances,” gathered from all corners of the realm, and drafted a 12-page “Social Contract,” an extravagant wish list that would destroy whatever is left standing after the fires of rage and revolt. The contract imposes a radical revamping of political institutions “” 6th Republic, Zimbabwe-style economic reforms expropriate the rich to indulge the poor, abolish the value-added tax, free public transportation for the underprivileged. Delinquents will be judged as victims of society; foreign professional degrees will be accepted without qualification exams; the media, schools and government will transform public attitudes toward banlieue “youths”; no one will look askance at women in the hijab “” or miniskirts. Mayors who don’t build the obligatory amounts of public housing will be ousted. And, of course, all illegals will be given residence permits.
ACLEFEU convoked all presidential candidates to sign the contract before March 5. Miss Royal was the first to comply. The ceremony was featured on primetime news and proudly displayed on her official Web site. Dressed with exceptional modesty, she paid honors to the two teenagers whose accidental death, while fleeing from the police, was the pretext for three weeks of savage violence. Messrs. Bayrou and Sarkozy stayed away, but all the little far-left candidates dutifully signed the contract.
The whole affair was swallowed like honey. There was no analysis of the Socialist candidate’s simple-minded act of dhimmitude, no outrage, no indignation. No one chastised Miss Royal for courting the punk jihad vote. No one said it was a reminder of the darkest hours of the jihad conquest. No one seemed to understand the deal: the fire this time, then the ballot box, and if our demands are not met “” heads will roll.
Opinion-makers missed the point, but voters were watching and they will decide whether they prefer Mr. Sarkozy’s “chosen not imposed” immigration or Miss Royal’s dhimmitude pact.