and in more breaking news…France adopts anti-Israeli position over foreign minister
From the country that gave you opposition to the Egypt-Israel peace agreement of 1979 in deference to the prejudices of the Arab League, the BBC is reporting today that France has called for the removal of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. According to the BBC, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at their meeting in Paris recently that, “You need to get rid of this man… You need to remove him from this position.”
The BBC report noted that Arab leaders call Lieberman a “racist” and that, “He has also been a staunch defender of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, where he has a private residence.”
The latter point is a typical BBC half-truth. Lieberman has indeed defended settlements in the West Bank and he does indeed live in one himself. However, he has also said that, in the interests of peace, settlements could be dismantled including the one in which he lives. Those little details alter the picture painted by the BBC quite considerably, don’t they?
But the more important point concerns the broader thrust of the report. Who precisely does Nicolas Sarkozy think he is telling the leader of a democratic state who he can and cannot have in his cabinet?
If Sarkozy objects to Lieberman, then what does he have to say about Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority? Abbas, after all, wrote his Phd thesis in Moscow denying the extent of the Holocaust and simultaneously pushing the odious notion that Jews participated in the Holocaust to curry favour for Zionism. Surely, Sarkozy will be telling Abbas at their next meeting that he should step down too? Don’t hold your breath.
For the full report, click here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8126437.stm
July 1st, 2009 at 10:46 am
So true! The double standards applied to Israel and Palestine are truly breathtaking. The BBC and others can’t refer to Netanyahu without mentioning the words “hardline” or “right-wing”. But what does that make the holocaust-denier Abbas who said recently: “A Jewish state, what is that supposed to mean? You can call yourselves as you like, but I don’t accept it and I say so publicly.”