Introduction

In February 2026, French authorities filed charges against three key figures suspected of financing terrorism by funneling funds to Hamas; the arrests came not long after a similar case in Italy, where several persons were arrested on suspicion of raising money for the Palestinian terrorist organization. The arrests in France may mark a turning point in the awareness of authorities there regarding the need to block the entrenchment of Hamas in the country.

For decades, the West has looked at Hamas through the narrow lens of a regional conflict—a localized paramilitary force confined to the geography of the Gaza Strip and the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria. But the pogrom of October 7, 2023, did more than just shatter the security of the Negev; it propelled Hamas onto the global stage as a primary ideological reference, forcing the West to confront its shadow presence in the heart of Europe, and most acutely, within the French Republic.

France is no stranger to the scourge of terrorism. Since the dark years of 2015, the nation has bled under the nihilism of ISIS—a brand of terror that sought to destroy it through spectacular, indiscriminate slaughter. But the challenge posed by Hamas is of a different, more insidious nature. To the casual observer, Hamas does not exist in France; it has no barracks, no armed cells, no official headquarters. Yet, to ignore its presence is to mistake the absence of noise for the absence of danger. To understand the threat, we must return to the source: the organic bond between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Hamas is not an isolated phenomenon; it is the legitimate, albeit geographically specialized, child of the Brotherhood. While the parent organization seeks a global “civilizational” conquest, Hamas has historically focused its kinetic energy on the Palestinian cause. However, a dangerous symbiosis has emerged: as the Muslim Brotherhood gains ground in European social, educational, and political spheres, the ideology of Hamas triumphs in its wake. Every inch of territory conquered by “Brotherism” on French soil—in the suburbs, the schools, and the universities—becomes a fertile ground where the narrative of Hamas is no longer seen as terror, but as “legitimate resistance” that should be supported and encouraged.

We are witnessing a “Red-Green alliance” that has successfully shifted public consciousness. When 59 percent of young Muslims in the land of the Enlightenment prioritize religious law over the Civil Code, a figure that has doubled since the 28 percent baseline of 1995, and when nearly half of a community claims proximity to the Brotherhood’s ideology, we are no longer talking about a fringe movement. We are talking about the steady, calculated “Brotherization” of French society, a process that has turned the defense of a terrorist organization into a fashionable badge of identity. While nations like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan have recognized this existential threat and moved to ban the Brotherhood, and while the United States is moving in this direction too, France has inadvertently become a sanctuary where the “diplomats of the shadow” utilize the very freedoms of French democracy to dismantle its foundations.

The French Republic stands at a crossroads. The presidential battle of 2027, including the historic resolution to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist-linked threat, is but the first step in a long recovery. To ignore the logistical and ideological knots tying Paris to Gaza is to accept the slow fragmentation of its national sovereignty.

Research Question

How has the Muslim Brotherhood’s long-term ideological entrenchment in France enabled Hamas to win the battle for public opinion and establish a sustainable support infrastructure within the French Republic?

To answer the question, this report first maps the operational infrastructure of Hamas proxies and the “avatar” NGOs used to sustain financial flows (I). It then analyzes the ideological matrix of the Muslim Brotherhood and its organic bond with Hamas (II). A dedicated section examines the sociology of rupture, quantifying the generational shift toward Sharia law among French youth (III). The analysis then shifts to the cognitive battlefield, detailing Red-Green political alliances and cultural “Lawfare” (IV). Finally, the report evaluates the strategic response of the French state’s legislative crackdown (V) before assessing the future outlook for the Republican order (VI) and recommends measures Israel should take to handle this challenging picture.

1. Operational Infrastructure: Mapping Hamas’s Proxies in France

Hamas’s presence in France is characterized by a sophisticated, adaptive network that operates beneath the threshold of kinetic violence. Since Hamas has been officially designated as a terrorist organization by France through the EU since 2003, it avoids formal structures, operating instead through a decentralized network that exploits legal ‘gray zones’. This infrastructure provides the movement with three strategic pillars: the sustainability of financial flows, the pursuit of political legitimacy, and the creation of a “sanctuary” for logistical coordination. Unlike the spectacular terror of ISIS, Hamas utilizes a “long-game” strategy, embedding its operations within the legal and social fabric of the French Republic to ensure long-term resilience.

This strategy of civilizational infiltration finds its academic foundation in the work of French anthropologist Florence Bergeaud-Blackler. In her extensive research on Frérisme (Brotherism), she demonstrates that the movement operates far beyond the religious sphere, aiming for a total ‘conquest of minds’ within European societies. According to Bergeaud-Blackler, the Muslim Brotherhood functions as a global ideological system that utilizes the institutional and democratic freedoms of the Republic to subvert them from within. By creating an autonomous ‘ecosystem’—ranging from sports clubs to academic circles—the movement establishes a parallel society where the Hamas-aligned worldview can be normalized without ever firing a shot, a process she identifies as the cornerstone of their long-term entryism.

1.1. Institutional Resilience: The “Avatar” Strategy

The operational depth of Hamas’s influence in France is most visibly anchored in a sophisticated financial ecosystem identified by extensive ELNET research and investigative exposés in the Paris Match magazine as a ‘strategic lung’ for the movement. This network is characterized by the deliberate mutation of sanctioned entities into polished ‘charitable’ brands, most notably the transition from the Comité de Bienfaisance et de Secours aux Palestiniens (CBSP)—a founding member of the Hamas-directed Union of Good—to its modern “avatar,” Humani’Terre.

The structural foundation of this network dates back to March 1990 with the establishment of the CBSP. Originally founded as a primary French humanitarian vehicle to address the needs of Palestinian refugees, the organization officially dedicated itself to large-scale welfare projects, including sponsorship of orphans, medical assistance, and the installation of water purification systems across the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan. For nearly three decades, the CBSP operated as a prominent member of the Platform of French NGOs for Palestine, positioning itself at the forefront of French pro-Palestinian activism. Its ‘civil society’ credentials were most notably highlighted in May 2010, when the association played a central role in the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” (Mavi Marmara). During this high-profile attempt to breach the naval blockade, seven of the nine French activists detained by Israeli forces were members of the association, demonstrating the group’s deep-rooted involvement in international activism. In February 2018, in a tactical move to modernize its public image and distance itself from increasing international scrutiny, the organization was rebranded as Humani’Terre (or HTerre). Today, it maintains a nationwide presence with administrative hubs in Aubervilliers (93) and regional offices in Lille, Lyon, Marseille, and Nantes, continuing to present itself as a generic humanitarian NGO focused on emergency relief and sustainable development for Palestinians.

Behind this institutional structure stands a disciplined triumvirate of leaders who have managed a decades-long effort to avoid French surveillance. The group is anchored by Khaled Al-Shuli, a 65-year-old lawyer who was born in Nablus and lived as a refugee in Jordan before establishing his legal career in France, where he now serves as the strategic brain and institutional link to the global Hamas Shura. He works alongside Faysal Sellami, a 62-year-old accountant originally from Algeria who maintains a private practice while acting as the network’s operational director, handling the technical rotation of bank accounts and double-entry bookkeeping. The public face of the operation is Kamel Laifi, a 55-year-old community organizer born in Tunisia who has spent years as a mobilizer in the French suburbs, utilizing large-scale “Palestine Galas” to provide a human shield of religious legitimacy for their financial activities. These three men implemented a highly technical triangulation method to bypass TRACFIN alerts, ensuring that funds collected via Zakat (charitable tithes) were laundered through intermediary NGOs and shell accounts in Turkey and Lebanon before being funneled to Gaza-based associations, such as the Al-Salah Society, which are directly controlled by Hamas’s social infrastructure (Dawa).

This era of impunity reached its climax in February 2026 when the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) officially seized the case, leading to the formal indictment of Al-Shuli, Sellami, and Laifi for ‘financing terrorism’ and ‘criminal terrorist association.’ The judicial proceedings have since confirmed the staggering scale of the operation, detailing a network that managed a consistent annual flow of €3M to €5M, with cumulative suspect transfers exceeding €30M over the last decade. By subsidizing Hamas’s administrative costs in Gaza, this French network effectively freed up the group’s central budget for military rearmament, proving that the 2026 judicial crackdown was not merely a domestic criminal case but a critical blow to the international logistics of the movement.

1.2. The Crypto-Hawala Hybrid and Financial Opacity

As traditional banking channels become increasingly restrictive due to TRACFIN’s surveillance, the network has evolved its financial mechanics. The 2025 intelligence landscape highlights a shift toward a Crypto-Hawala hybrid model. Operatives in France often convert local cash collections—frequently in small, untraceable amounts from neighborhood associations—into stablecoins like Tether (USDT).

These digital assets are not necessarily sent directly to Gaza; instead, they are used to settle balances with Hawaladars (informal brokers) in transit hubs like Istanbul or Beirut. These brokers then release physical cash to Hamas officials in the region. This “off-ramp” makes the capital virtually invisible to European regulators once it leaves the domestic exchange. Furthermore, the Paris Match inquiry notes that some of this “French money” has been traced back to Hamas’s global investment portfolio, including real estate holdings in Turkey and Sudan, which provide the movement with a diversified and self-sustaining revenue stream independent of direct aid.

1.3. Diplomatic Proxies and “Lawfare”

The operational network extends into the political and judicial spheres via platforms designed to normalize Hamas’s narrative within French and European institutions.

The Diplomatic Front: Organizations like the Palestinians in Europe Conference (EPC), led by figures such as Mazen Kahel, organize large-scale gatherings that function as ideological rallies. These events are crafted to frame Hamas’s actions not as terrorism, but as “legitimate decolonial resistance,” effectively infiltrating mainstream political discourse.

The Judicial Shield: The Hamas infrastructure is protected by a network of “shadow diplomats” who utilize the French legal system as a weapon, a tactic known as “Lawfare.” Figures like Khaled Al-Shuli coordinate legal defenses for Hamas-linked associations across Europe, systematically challenging asset freezes and administrative closures. By exploiting the complexities and protections of French administrative law, they create a state of “procedural paralysis” that allows these proxy organizations to continue their activities even under official suspicion.

2. The Ideological Matrix: “Brotherism” and the Hamas Bond

Hamas’s influence in France is not a byproduct of chance, but the result of decades of patient ideological preparation by the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). To understand why Hamas’s narrative has found such fertile ground, one must analyze the “Brotherist” (Frérisme) strategy: a methodical project of societal transformation that prioritizes religious identity over national belonging.

2.1. Hamas as the “Kinetic Wing” of the Brotherhood

While the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe often presents a polished, “moderate” public face, its organic link to Hamas is foundational. Hamas’s own charter identifies the group as “one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine.” In France, this creates a dangerous symbiosis: the MB provides the intellectual framework and social “encasement,” while Hamas serves as the heroic, kinetic symbol of “resistance.”

• This “variable-geometry” strategy allows the movement to use different faces:
  
  The Public Face: Projecting moderation and utilizing democratic institutions to gain legitimacy.
  
  The Private Face: Promoting a “dual discourse” that emphasizes the supremacy of Sharia law and frames the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a catalyst for anti-Zionism, which frequently mutates into antisemitism.

2.2. The 46 percent Metric and the “Separatist Mindset”

The success of this ideological grounding is quantified by alarming social trends. According to internal and governmental data, nearly 46 percent of French Muslims express proximity to the ideological figures or themes championed by the Brotherhood. This proximity is not merely religious; it is political.

This “separatist mindset” is most pronounced among French youth of Muslim origin, who are encouraged to view themselves as part of a global Ummah rather than a secular Republic. The 2025 Ministerial Report warns that this “societal entryism” (entrism sociétal) allows MB figures to integrate into local councils and school boards to gain influence over decision-making processes, while remaining within legal boundaries.

2.3. Institutional Entryism: Schools and “Islamization of Knowledge”

A central pillar of the Brotherist project is the educational system. Anthropologist Florence Bergeaud-Blackler describes this as the “Islamization of knowledge”—a systematic effort to infiltrate European institutions and schools.

Educational Networks: The state has identified a network of roughly 280 associations and several key private schools—such as the Al-Kindi school in Lyon and Ibn Khaldoun in Marseille—linked to the Brotherhood.

The University Path: The movement leverages “anti-Islamophobia” narratives as a “refined weapon” to deflect criticism and delegitimize academic research that is critical of political Islam.

2.4. The Middle East Paradox

A striking feature of the French situation is the geopolitical disconnect. While countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the UAE have designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization and dismantled its networks, France has remained a primary base for its operations. As the movement faces growing challenges to its ability to operate in the Arab world due to state crackdowns, it has pivoted toward Europe—and France in particular—as its new strategic arena for ideological continuity.

3. Sociology of Rupture: Quantifying the Generational Shift

The most critical threat to the French Republican model is no longer an external military or paramilitary force, but a profound internal “rupture” driven by a generational shift in core values. Data from the IFOP/CRIF Survey (2024-2025) and recent parliamentary commissions reveal a sociological landscape where a significant portion of the population has drifted away from secular democratic norms toward an Islamist-influenced worldview. This transformation is not accidental; it is the measurable outcome of a decades-long “long-game” strategy of social encasement and ideological isolation. This strategy is substantiated by the 2025 Retailleau Report, which documents a 120 percent increase in secularism violations (atteintes à la laïcité) in schools over five years and the doubling of independent private schools (hors-contrat) since 2015.

3.1. The “Sharia First” Generation and Social Encasement

The primary indicator of this rupture is the emergence of a “Sharia-first” mindset among youth. Recent statistics reveal that 57 percent to 59 percent of young French Muslims (under age 25) prioritize religious law over the Civil Code of the Republic. This preference is not merely a private religious conviction but a political statement of non-allegiance to the secular state. This generational tilt is fueled by what the 2025 Ministerial Report describes as a “cradle-to-grave” social ecosystem. By providing alternative sports clubs, private tutoring centers, and charities, the Muslim Brotherhood effectively replaces the State’s role, isolating individuals within a closed ideological loop that frames the Republic as an “oppressor.”

3.2. Political Symbiosis: The Red-Green Electoral Alliance

This sociological shift is reinforced by a strategic “Red-Green” alliance that has successfully moved Hamas’s narrative from the fringes to the center of political discourse. The IFOP Survey highlights that 17 percent of voters for the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) describe Hamas’s actions as a “legitimate act of resistance.” A recent survey conducted for the LFI found that 54 percent of the party’s sympathizers think that Israel does not have a legitimate right to exist. This is not a random overlap; it is a deliberate electoral symbiosis. Far-left movements have adopted a narrative of “strategic victimhood,” aligning the decolonial struggle with Islamist objectives to mobilize the Muslim youth vote in the suburbs (the banlieues). This alliance has effectively transformed Hamas into a domestic political lever, normalizing the group as a symbol of global rebellion against the “Western order.”

3.3. Digital Encasement and the Normalization of Hamas

The rupture is increasingly digital. Algorithms on platforms like TikTok and Telegram create “digital ghettos” where young French citizens are constantly exposed to Hamas military aesthetics—the “Al-Qassam brand”—portrayed as a form of cool, counter-cultural identity. This “digital encasement” bypasses traditional parental and state authority, making the Hamas narrative the default reality for users in these echo chambers. When surveys show that general antipathy toward Hamas drops (from 61 percent to 54 percent) and sympathy reaches nearly 20 percent among the unemployed and youth in disadvantaged suburbs, it reflects a successful “cognitive conquest” where the line between religious identity and terrorist affiliation is intentionally blurred.

3.4. The Geography of Parallel Societies

Finally, the rupture is territorial. The 2025 Ministerial Report identifies “ecosystems of influence” concentrated in specific urban hubs, particularly in the Île-de-France (Paris and the surrounding metropolitan area). In these zones, the “silent rupture”—the 46 percent who claim proximity to Brotherhood ideology—creates a permissive environment that acts as a sanctuary for more radical elements. This geography of influence is anchored by religious bookstores and community centers that serve as distribution points for literature justifying the Hamas struggle. This territorial isolation ensures that the values of the Republic are not only rejected but are increasingly alien to a significant portion of the emerging generation.

4. The Cognitive Battlefield: Red-Green Alliances and Strategic Lawfare

The expansion of Hamas’s influence in France is most visibly contested within the “cognitive battlefield”—a space where the definitions of terrorism, resistance, and human rights are systematically deconstructed and reassembled. This front is defined by a unique symbiosis between the far-left political establishment and Islamist ideological hubs, creating a “Red-Green” alliance that has shifted the center of gravity in French public discourse. By leveraging democratic institutions and the legal system, this alliance seeks to normalize the Hamas narrative while delegitimizing the Republic’s efforts to combat radicalization.

4.1. The Political Nexus: The “Red-Green” Synthesis

The cornerstone of this cognitive conquest is the ideological alignment between the Muslim Brotherhood and far-left political factions, most notably La France Insoumise (LFI). Following the October 7 attacks, the refusal of LFI leadership to designate Hamas as a “terrorist” organization marked a pivotal shift. By adopting the vocabulary of “decolonial resistance” and “armed struggle against occupation,” these actors provided a secular veneer to an Islamist paramilitary terrorist group. This synthesis is not merely rhetorical; it is electoral. By framing the Palestinian cause as the ultimate struggle for social justice, the alliance has integrated the “Brotherist” narrative into the broader grievances of the French banlieues, transforming a foreign terrorist group into a domestic symbol of rebellion against the “Western order.”

4.2. Legislative Lawfare: The Battle for the Right to “Obliterate”

A critical frontline in this battlefield is the legislative struggle surrounding Proposition de Loi n° 575, authored by MP Caroline Yadan. This legislation was designed to criminalize “renewed forms of antisemitism,” specifically targeting calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and the justification of terrorist atrocities.

The fierce opposition to this bill, led by a coalition of NGOs like LDH (Ligue des Droits de l’Homme), Attac, and the Syndicat de la Magistrature, reveals a significant cognitive shift. By framing the bill as “thought police” (police de la pensée), these actors are effectively defending the “right” to advocate for the annihilation of a sovereign state as a protected form of political anti-Zionism. This stance creates a direct ideological bridge to the Hamas Charter, which explicitly declares that “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it” (Preamble, 1988 Charter). When French political and legal actors fight to maintain the legality of such rhetoric, they are providing a domestic legal umbrella for Hamas’s foundational existential goal: the total erasure of the “Zionist entity.”

4.3. Cultural Hegemony: The University Encampments

The cognitive war is also waged within France’s elite educational institutions, such as Sciences Po and the Sorbonne, which serve as laboratories for the normalization of the Hamas narrative. The 2024–2025 academic years saw encampments where students demanded the “de-Zionization” of the curriculum and the severance of all institutional ties with Israel. These protests, often organized by collectives linked to the “Brotherist” galaxy, serve a dual purpose: they romanticize the “Al-Qassam” military aesthetic as a heroic counter-culture while pressuring institutional leaders to adopt a “neutrality” that effectively silences the condemnation of terror. In these spaces, the Hamas brand is successfully rebranded as a “social justice” movement.

4.4. Shifting the Social “Criminalization” of Zionism

Ultimately, the goal of this cognitive battlefield is a moral inversion. Through the constant repetition of terms like “apartheid” and “genocide,” the Red-Green alliance seeks to shift social criminalization away from Hamas and toward the State of Israel and those who defend it. This strategy relies on the “Islamization of knowledge,” a process where academic and media discourse is filtered through a lens that justifies Islamist objectives as human rights imperatives. The success of this conquest is measured by the growing normalization, within the heart of the French Republic, of a designated terrorist group’s ultimate goal—the destruction of Israel.

5. Strategic Response: The State’s Counter-Offensive

By early 2026, the French State has fundamentally pivoted from a policy of passive surveillance to one of “active institutional friction.” This escalation follows a clear hierarchy of alerts: beginning with the foundational 2020 Senate Inquiry Report on Islamist radicalization, followed by the comprehensive 2025 Ministerial Report, which explicitly mapped the “Brotherist” entryism threat. This progression reflects an institutional realization that the Republic is facing a coordinated effort to normalize Hamas-linked narratives.

5.1. The Parliamentary Resolution: A Strategic Signal to the EU

On January 22, 2026, the National Assembly adopted a resolution urging the European Union to officially recognize the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. It is essential to note that this measure is non-coercive; it functions as a formal political signal rather than a legally binding domestic decree. By passing this resolution, French lawmakers are aiming to bypass the “legal shield” provided by the Brotherhood’s decentralized structure at the European level. The objective is to pressure the EU Council into a synchronized designation, which would allow for the simultaneous freezing of assets and the systematic shutdown of the movement’s international financial nodes across the Paris-Brussels corridor.

Yadan’s proposal, mentioned earlier, which was voted on in the Law Committee, is also an example of the will to fight Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology in the country.

5.2. Administrative Attrition: The Case of “Action Palestine” and “Palestine Vaincra”

The executive branch has intensified its use of the “Separation Principles” Law to dismantle the logistical hubs of Hamas’s proxies through administrative dissolutions. Unlike in previous years, when these measures faced judicial suspensions, the 2025 Council of State ruling marked a decisive legal turning point.

Collectif Palestine Vaincra and Comité Action Palestine: Following a protracted legal battle, the Council of State validated the dissolution of these entities in early 2025. The court ruled that their activities, ranging from calls for a boycott to the glorification of “resistance” that mirrored Hamas’s military rhetoric, constituted incitement to hatred and a threat to public order.

Operational Impact: These dissolutions are part of a broader “policy of attrition” designed to deprive the network of its most visible mobilizing platforms. By targeting these groups, the State is signaling that the era of “strategic ambiguity,” in which associations could promote Hamas-aligned objectives under the guise of human rights activism, has ended.

5.3. Political Resistance and the “Red-Green” Obstacle

The State’s strategy faces significant domestic hurdles. The acrimonious debates of January 2026 revealed a deeply polarized National Assembly, where far-left factions have labeled these security measures as “repressive overreach.” This political polarization complicates the State’s ability to act uniformly, as every administrative closure is met with immediate “Lawfare” challenges and public protests designed to frame the defense of the Republic as an attack on legitimate political dissent.

6. Outlook and Conclusion: Toward an Irreversible Societal Rupture?

As of 2026, the French Republic stands at a civilizational crossroads. The growing influence of networks linked to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood is no longer merely a security concern; it has become a catalyst for social decomposition. The trajectory of the coming years depends on the State’s ability to sustain its institutional offensive against an ideological pressure that has now embedded itself within public debate and daily life.

6.1. The Importation of the Conflict and the Explosion of Antisemitism

The most alarming sign of this rupture is the unprecedented explosion of antisemitism, used as a tool for “territorial marking” and ideological intimidation. Since October 2023, France has shifted from a latent antisemitism to a climate of uninhibited and barbaric violence. Statistics confirm this tipping point: after a fourfold increase in acts in 2023, the record levels of 2024 and 2025 demonstrate that this is a structural shift, not a temporary spike.

The horror of this reality is manifested in crimes where hatred of Jews is explicitly linked to the conflict in Gaza. Women and young girls have been targeted for sexual violence specifically because they were Jewish, with attackers referencing the situation in Gaza to justify their crimes. Synagogues have faced repeated arson attempts and explosive attacks, while in many neighborhoods, insecurity has become a daily reality for worshippers who are routinely harassed, spat upon, or physically assaulted when leaving religious services. This violence is not incidental; it is the direct result of a rhetoric that, by dehumanizing the “Zionist,” ultimately designates every Jewish citizen as a legitimate target.

6.2. 2026–2027: The Political Moment of Truth

The upcoming electoral cycle represents a potential critical turning point for the management of this threat. The municipal elections in March 2026, followed by the presidential election in 2027, will determine whether the current policy of institutional firmness will be consolidated or abandoned. In many municipalities, the “Palestinian question” has been imported into domestic politics, heavily weighing on local electoral balances and community relations.

The state’s approach to the influence of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood will differ radically depending on the outcomes of these votes. Either the Republic will confirm its resolve to dismantle “Brotherist” ecosystems through continuous administrative and legislative action, or a change in political majority could lead to a relaxation of pressure—and potentially a form of complacency toward these networks—under the guise of maintaining “social peace.” This is a decisive moment: the 2026 results will serve as a barometer for the resilience of the Republican model against the rising tide of communalism.

Conclusion: The Lights of the Republic at a Crossroads

France, once the beacon of the Enlightenment, has in recent years taken a darker turn—or more precisely, a “Green and Red” one. The nation that gave birth to fundamental freedoms now appears to prioritize the diplomatic recognition of an entity under terrorist influence over the defense of the only democracy in the Middle East. This shift is occurring even as its very own children were held hostage by the most barbaric antisemites of the 21st century.

The awakening of the French people must be immediate, or the fall will be fatal and the climb back too steep to surmount. The warning signs are undeniable: in 2025, over 3,300 French Jews made their Aliyah, a staggering 45 percent increase compared to the previous year. If France does not react with absolute firmness, it will find itself deprived of its Jewish community—a community that has shaped its history and identity for centuries.

To paraphrase a vital Republican truth expressed by the former French prime minister Manuel Valls: Without the Jews of France, France is no longer France. The Republic must decide, and decide now, whether it is to remain true to its lights or succumb to the shadows of a new “Red-Green” order.

Israel has a pivotal role to play in the fight against the sophisticated presence of Hamas in France and against antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and the expansion of “Brotherism.” This mission is not about interfering in French domestic politics, but about a targeted, strategic partnership to dismantle the networks that threaten its security, as well as French Republican values and the security of the Jewish community. To be effective, Israel should take the following actions:

Intelligence Synchronization: Systematically provide French security and judicial authorities with the declassified evidence and intelligence dossiers used to designate these specific associations as terrorist entities in Israel. Providing this “actionable proof” will allow the French government to synchronize its own terror lists based on verified links to Hamas operational command.

Financial Blockade: Leverage Israeli financial intelligence to assist TRACFIN in mapping the “triangulation” routes used by French NGOs. By providing the digital and forensic trail of money transfers passing through Turkey and Lebanon, Israel can empower France to permanently block the flow of laundered capital to Hamas-controlled committees in Gaza.

Institutional Focus: Prioritize the exposure and dismantling of Brotherhood-linked infrastructure rather than engaging with French political parties. By focusing on the associations and “avatar” NGOs, Israel maintains a professional security-based approach, avoiding accusations of political interference while striking at the movement’s logistical heart.

Diplomatic Reciprocity: Utilize the current period of diplomatic reconciliation to demand a zero-tolerance policy toward organizations that camouflage terror support as humanitarian aid. Israel must push for the explicit categorization and judicial pursuit of these actors, ensuring that French-Israeli cooperation translates into a concrete dismantling of the “Red-Green” financial and ideological ecosystem.

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