François de Canson: 'If we do not speak of peace, who will do it in our place?'

Building on the success of previous editions, the RSMed 2024 aim to bring together the perspectives of operators, academia, and defense industries in order to decipher current major international issues for the benefit of strategic reflection. Over two days, more than 2,700 visitors, around fifty speakers, and 15 countries represented by researchers, diplomats, journalists, chiefs of staff, industrialists, engineers, and students took part in these meetings, along with François de Canson, vice-president of the Région Sud.

DEMOCRACIES UNDER AGGRESSION

Weighing every word carefully, the regional elected official asked: 'Why are the RSMed important here in Toulon, in the Région Sud, and on the shores of the Méditerranée? Perhaps above all to recall the invariants, invariants that Renaud Muselier recalled during the October 7 commemorations in Marseille. Israël is engaged in an existential war like Ukraine, and Arménie against Azerbaïdjan. These three countries face the same basic reality: they are democracies under aggression. On Israël, we must be clear, whether or not we agree with the policy pursued for years by Netanyaou. On October 6, 2023, Israël was not bombing Gaza! It was indeed the acts of Hamas on October 7, 2023, that constitute the triggering event with the chain reactions that we know. One year later, it is difficult to conceive of peace as long as Hamas has not released the hostages or returned the remains. To cut short any overinterpretation or extrapolation of these words, I will be clear: no death is acceptable, and the overall flare-up on this shore of the Méditerranée is a tragedy that is, unfortunately, repeatedly playing out.' François de Canson added: 'These three countries possess treasures that we share, fragile and to be safeguarded, civilizational treasures, our freedom in the face of various obscurantisms that do not hide their desire to undo an international order whose legitimacy they contest. It is in this that we are primarily concerned. What is the consequence? For the past year, we have had to grieve what was taken for granted, and many certainties are collapsing. Party, music, festival... 1,200 dead, 251 people abducted. It is the end of the idealized vision of Israël as the ultimate safe haven. For international observers, for several years Israël had entered a process of normalizing its relations with its Muslim neighbors via the Abraham Accords. Here again, the end of the utopia. But above all, what we thought had been buried since the end of the Second World War is resurfacing. No, the horrors of the 1940s are not all eradicated; the impulses of dehumanization are still there.'

SURGE OF ANTISEMITISM

With real repercussions in the Hexagon. The first is a surge in antisemitism with more than a 300% increase in antisemitic acts in the first half of 2024 and more than 1,000% compared to the 1990s! Furthermore, 6 out of 10 cases are personal attacks, and 13% of these antisemitic acts take place in schools. It is also a political repercussion with a dual, blurred message, according to the vice-president of the Region: 'While the left is generally characterized by a secular and Dreyfusard stance, we lost our way a bit during the last elections when the classic republican left did not find the key to opposing the antisemitic rhetoric of its most revolutionary fringe. Holding these RSMed makes sense, today more than yesterday, in France, in the Région Sud, and in Toulon in particular.' 'I have a special thought for the sailors who set sail off Liban. A country which, after 4 wars with Israël since 1978, the explosion of the port, the financial collapse of their country, and without governance, must absorb the displacement of one million people (1/5 of its population). If we do not speak of peace when the subject has never been so burning, then when will we? Who will do it in our place?' asks the regional elected official.