The French foreign ministry issued a summons in a formal gesture of displeasure to the American ambassador, a man whose personal history makes a mockery of the title.
Charles Kushner, a convicted felon who purchased his freedom with political donations and a family connection to presidential power, saw fit to author a public letter lecturing the French Republic on its moral failures.
This is not a story of a diplomatic misstep. It is a case study in audacious hypocrisy.
“France firmly refutes these latest allegations,” said a foreign ministry statement. “The allegations from the ambassador are unacceptable.”
Kushner’s legal biography reads like a manual for ethical bankruptcy: convictions for illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering—the last charge stemming from a plot to hire a prostitute to seduce his own brother-in-law, record the encounter, and mail the tape to his sister.
The United States attorney who prosecuted him, Chris Christie, described the crime as “one of the most loathsome, disgusting” acts he had ever encountered.
The only Democrat to vote for Kushner’s confirmation as ambassador entrusted with representing American interests was New Jersey’s US Senator Cory Booker, whose first federal campaign was financed by the billionaire’s son and daughter-in-law.
His weapon was a letter in The Wall Street Journal, accusing the French government of a “lack of sufficient action” against anti-Semitism.
The timing, aligning perfectly with those of war criminal and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own criticisms of France’s move toward recognizing Palestine, reveals the letter not as a principled stand but as a blunt instrument of geopolitical pressure.
The French response was a demand for explanation, a summons Kushner ignored, delegating the awkward confrontation to a subordinate—a move that speaks louder than any missive about respect or seriousness.
The entire spectacle is poisoned at its source.
America’s moral authority to condemn injustice abroad evaporates when its own emissary personifies a justice system corrupted by wealth and privilege, one where consequence is a commodity and impunity is purchased.
This hypocrisy is magnified to grotesque proportions against the backdrop of America’s unaddressed legacy of white supremacy and systemic anti-Black racism, a foundational disgrace that continues to define its domestic reality.
To lecture others under these conditions is not diplomacy; it is a performance of such profound self-delusion that it insults the intelligence of the entire world and reveals the lecture to be not a principled stand, but a cynical weapon.
This is particularly galling when America’s envoy is a living testament to the principle that consequences are for the poor and the powerless. For Kushner to posture as a moral authority on any subject, let alone one as grave as anti-Semitism, is not just ironic; it is a profound corruption of diplomacy itself.
This incident transcends a bilateral quarrel. It illustrates a collapse of standards, where diplomatic posts are rewards for loyalty rather than tests of merit, and where serious issues are weaponized for political theater.
The message is clear: in this new era, the credentials required for high office are not integrity or wisdom, but a willingness to perform shamelessness on command.
The French summons was not for a diplomat, but for a character in a play that degrades everyone involved.