He looked like such a nice old man.Former French Prime Minister Raymond Barre has come out with another gem of an anti-semitic quote for the press to have a field day with.

You will recall Barre is best known for his empathetic reaction to a Palestinian bombing of a French synagogue in 1980: This appalling attack was intended to hit Jews on their way to the synagogue, it has hit innocent French people who happened to be in the Rue Copernic.

Barre came out in an interview for France Culture last week defending Maurice Papon, a senior official under the Vichy regime, who organized the deportation of hundreds of Jews. Barre, who is clearly senile, if not deranged, from the caliber of his comments, stated that Papon has become a convenient "scapegoat" for the Jewish lobby.

“Mr Papon became a scapegoat. I am not passing moral judgment on the attitude that one should have had with regard to the deportation of the Jews or not. But I consider that this country is fundamentally hypocritical in seeking out a few scapegoats.”

“Don’t forget that all the French personnel who went to manage the part of Germany occupied by France [after the end of WWII] consisted in large part of highly professional civil servants who needed maybe to be eliminated on a national level but were able to continue to serve the country at the international level”.

Barre added: “I want to say that on this issue I consider that the Jewish lobby – and not only with regard to me – is capable of mounting disgraceful operations and I want to say this publicly.”

Pour ecouter a Barre en francais, cliquez ici. Sorry no English translation.