CLAUDE ESTIER
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that he has absolutely no diplomatic acumen. After all , the
United States could have an important card to play today, but it
doesn't because it is boxed into a simplified scenario . It is
incredible that the United States today is led by President
Reagan , although I don ' t know if his predecessor would have
done better.
Kurzweil:
From what you have said, it seems to me that you are with
the West and against the politics ofthe Soviet Union . How do you
work this out, having some Communist ministers in the
government who are more closely allied with the Soviet Union?
Estier:
I think we ' d better not confuse these things . France is a
country, I repeat , that is neither procommunist nor neutralist.
France is neither Sweden nor Switzerland; it is active in the
Atlantic alliance . No French party, including the French
Communist party, has ever demanded France's withdrawal from
the Atlantic alliance. That is a given . Besides, the French
Communist party-and we are aware that it is sympathetic to the
Soviet Union-is not in charge of the French government .
Because the majority that carried the elections in May and June
1981 consisted of two-thirds Socialist- and one-third Communist–
party members , it seemed only natural to our president, Franc;:ois
Mitterand, to establish a government in the image of this
majority. As it is, we do not have a two-thirds-one-third situation,
but thirty-six Socialist ministers and four Communist ministers.
There are also other political reasons for including the
Communists , since having the Communist party in the gov–
ernment rather than outside helps to put into effect our social
and economic policies.
Kurzweil:
Okay. On to another subject. We all know that oil, or the
need to have it, influences the politics o f every country, and that
this had a great deal to do with the relations with Israel and with
the so-called Third World, even before the war in Lebanon. This
necessity of appeasing the Arab countries-how do you think it
will influence friendship with Israel, on the one hand, and
anti-Semitism in France , on the other? That's a broad question.
Estier:
It's a very broad question. I won't answer it all. But I think
we must separate the two things. France has, simultaneously, an
Arab policy and a policy of friendship toward the State of Israel.
These two policies are difficult to carry out together, of course,
because when there is an open war between the Arabs and Israel,
