Ms. Marine Le Pen's Mysterious Visit to Florida

Marine Le Pen’s trip to the United States didn’t stop in New York. On Saturday, November 5, the president of the National Front was actually in Palm Beach, Florida. There, she met William J. Diamond, member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a group that presents itself as an “American Pro-Israel Lobby.” This stop in the southern United States was all “behind closed doors.”

Mr. Diamond is the “king maker,” or more clearly put, a man of influence who is the whole package, an intermediary between political personalities and AIPAC. According to Jean-Yves Camus, a commentator on Israeli political life, a king maker at AIPAC is “a rather zealous man of influence.” Mr. Diamond is also one of the directors of the Palm Beach Synagogue. He’s especially close to the former mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani, who is often cited as an example by Marie Le Pen for his “zero tolerance” policy when he was the leader of the Big Apple. It’s also Mr. Giuliani who officiated the Mr. Diamond’s marriage.

Today, Mr. Diamond is a supporter of Republican Primary Candidate Herman Cain. Ultra-conservative, owner of a pizza chain, and black, Herman Cain is the new favorite of the American right. Elsewhere on Saturday evening at the home of Mr. Diamond, delegates of Mr. Cain were present for the meeting with Marine Le Pen. Recently, several women have accused him of “sexual harassment,” dating as far back as the 1990s.

Bypass Strategy

“Diamond wanted to see from up close what Marie Le Pen was saying. He called a week beforehand to ask to meet her. They wanted to make sure they were on the same page,” said Louis Aliot, the National Front’s second in command. On the menu of discussion topics: Islam, Arab revolutions, immigration. As for the last point, Mr. Aliot indicated that the individuals he met in Florida subscribe to the same school of thought as the National Front, and in some cases have “even harsher views.”

The one who served as intermediary between Ms. Le Pen and Mr. Diamond was once again Guido Lombardi, head researcher for the National Front in the United States, a close friend of the Tea Party, former European representative of the Northern League — the xenophobic party that is taking part in Silvio Berlusconi’s Governmental Coalition. According to Ron Prosor, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, it’s another point for the extreme right candidate. Mr. Aliot wants to believe that this meeting “will have an influence on the French Jewish community. William Diamond has some intermediaries in France who aren’t with the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions.” What could end up being Marine Le Pen’s strategy for winning over French Jews: bypass the RCFJI — whose president, Richard Prasquier, has a very firm wall up vis-à-vis the National Front — to directly approach Israel’s right and extreme-right networks.

We understand the objective of Marine Le Pen’s American voyage a bit better now: to strengthen her political ties. “It wasn’t to have international stature. She already has one. It’s a question of networking,” Mr. Aliot admitted.

A trip to Israel for the National Front leader isn’t on the to-do list “before the presidential election,” at least according to Marine Le Pen’s entourage. And even if the relationship with some of the Israeli right seems to be warming up a bit, numerous obstacles still stand in the way of a visit by Ms. Le Pen to Tel-Aviv.