Manfred Gerstenfeld interviews Freddy Eytan
“Prior to his election, François Hollande, President of France, had not developed close ties with the Jewish community, in contrast with the two previous right wing presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac. As far as Israel is concerned, Hollande follows a basic policy line similar to that of previous socialist leaders such as Leon Blum and François Mitterrand. Their guiding principle is support for the existence of a Jewish state in secure and recognized borders. At the same time, the Palestinian people should have self-determination in a state alongside Israel.”
Freddy Eytan is a journalist and former diplomat. He was Israel’s ambassador to Mauritania and also served in Israel’s embassies in Paris and Brussels. He is an expert on France’s Middle East policy and has published twenty books, among them Sarkozy, the Jewish World and Israel, published in French in 2009 by the Alphée publishing house in Paris.
“One key element of Hollande’s foreign policy is that he wants a strong France closely bonded with Germany in the European Union. He is suspicious of the United States and was furious with Obama for his second thoughts on overturning the Assad regime in Syria, reversing his position on the issue at the last minute. Since then relations between Paris and Washington have remained tense. In military operations, such as in Mali, Hollande prefers that France should go it alone.
“In his program for the 2012 Presidential elections, the Palestinian-Israel conflict only figured in 12th place. In the Middle East, apart from his desire to get rid of Assad, Hollande saw the rise of ISIS and in particular that of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt as a strategic menace. In contrast to Obama’s actions, Hollande has reinforced France’s relations with the Egyptian President General El-Sisi, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. He was also far less conciliatory toward the Iranian nuclear project than the Americans, who sought an agreement at any cost.
“Hollande keeps the Palestinian-Israel conflict separate from bilateral French-Israeli relations. Bilateral French-Israeli relations have significantly improved and are currently the best they have been since Israel’s honeymoon with the French socialists in the 1950s. Both countries now have more interests in common. The wave of Muslim terror in Europe requires collaboration and exchange of information between their intelligence services. Military relationships have improved, together with economic interactions. Nowadays several major French companies are represented in Israel including the EDF energy group and the Alsthom transport company.
“At the same time however, France maintains its ‘automatic’ favorable attitude toward the Palestinians. Chirac offered the PLO a diplomatic office in 1974. Mitterrand received Arafat in 1989 at the Elysee Palace in Paris, and under Sarkozy, France voted in favor of the Palestinians joining UNESCO.
“In line with this automatic stance, under Hollande’s leadership France supported a scandalous motion ignoring the Jewish connection with the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Israeli Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu sent a strongly worded letter to Hollande to protest the motion. In Hollande’s somewhat bizarre reply, he explained that there had been a technical error and a misunderstanding. French Jewish leaders, including the Chief Rabbi Haim Corsia reacted far more forcefully than the Israeli foreign office, which limited itself to the publication of a communique on the matter.
“Another negative development is the almost obsessive French plan for an international conference on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. France sees here an opportunity to insert itself in the vacuum left by the Obama administration.
“The French parliament, with its socialist majority, voted in favor of the recognition of a Palestinian state. This was an important, albeit symbolic vote. Only the government can formalize such a decision, something it has not done. Hollande had to take into account here the power of the pro-Palestinian left wing in his socialist party, as well as the Green party. As Hollande is the least popular post-war French president to date, he will need all the support he can get if he wants to have a chance in the 2017 presidential elections.
“Under Hollande’s presidency, France has known a number of murderous terrorist attacks by Muslims, both against non-Jews and Jews. Since last November a state of emergency has been declared. Since the murders of four Jews in Toulouse in 2012 the security around Jewish synagogues and schools has been greatly reinforced.
“France’s current Prime Minister Manuel Valls, has on many occasions expressed great admiration for French Jewry. Both Hollande and Valls have come out strongly against anti-Semitism. Yet they viewed Netanyahu’s calls urging French Jews to move to Israel in a bad light, seeing this as interference in the country’s internal affairs.
“All deadly terrorist attacks against Jews have been committed by French Muslims. Despite the state of emergency and the massive presence of police and the military in the streets, there is still a feeling of insecurity in the country. This feeling is particularly strong among Jews.
“The first round of the French presidential elections will be held in April 2017. The political campaigns have already begun. It is already apparent that this will be a rude and noisy battle, which will strengthen extremists in both the left and right camp. What that means for the Jews remains to be seen.”
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By William K. Langfan
Mr. Ayrault, I am a 94 year old Jewish American recipient of your Legion of Honor for my service in France during World War II. I feel that I have the right to respectfully ask you to read the PLO original 1964 Charter which called for the destruction of Israel when Israel was within her 1967 borders. Please study Clause 24 which states, “This Organization does not exercise any regional sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip . . .”
I also would like you to study the rest of my letter which might compel you to have second thoughts about a Palestinian-Israel peace conference at this time.
Are you aware of the fact that Oslo, the last “Peace” Agreement between the Palestinian Leadership and Israel, resulted in Israel’s conveyance of a large segment of the ‘West Bank’, and Palestinian failure to change one word of their absolute obligation to eliminate the clauses of their PLO Charter to destroy Israel?
I am prepared to give a Wells Fargo $250,000 check to you or the first person who presents a document validly voted by the Palestinian National Council which lists the alleged annulments of the charter and which contains the new language of the alleged partially annulled clauses. Clause 29 of the original 1964 Charter and Clause 33 of the 1968 Amended 1964 Charter clearly state that the Charter cannot be changed unless two-thirds of the members vote for a change. No such document exists; therefore, any attempt which allegedly has changed the Charter is null and void.
Are you aware of the fact that the other two political Palestinian parties, Hamas and Fatah, also have a charter and a constitution calling for the destruction of Israel?
Have you ever read any of MEMRI and PMW recent frequent exact translations of Palestinian T.V., newspaper articles, Palestinian leaders’ speeches, and clergy Friday sermons?
Respectfully,
William K. Langfan
bernard ross Said:
Is BB reading my posts… he almost gets it:
bernard ross Said:
you should see my family around a picnic table
honeybee Said:
see, this is how the blood libels begin
it should read that the muslims say that “jews are sons of apes and pigs”
bernard ross Said:
Going to a family reunion I shall you know after our picnic.
Keli-A Said:
Yes, barak will say i am a fascist… golan will say I echo the nazi regime of the 30’s…. livni will beg the foreigners to give me “tough love”….Herzog will say I am not a zionist… that a true zionist would make his prime goal the building of homes for muslims on the Jewish homeland…..Yaalon would torture and incarcerate me with no evidence of extremism….. he would say that it is not extreme to say that Jews are sons of apes and pigs… it is only extreme to want wannabe jew killers dead before they kill jews.
If you teach your children that jews are sons of apes and pigs its a reliable indicator that you are not seeking peace with the Jews. If you make a treaty with the jews but your people and parliament daily blood libel the jews then it is a good indicator that any peace treaty you signed is unreliable and unstable…. I have felt all along that BB has arranged his MO around his understandings with the gulf arabs and that he sought to maintain his power when he drops the shoe. The fact that he now has liberman is not an indication that he has changed his MO or goals… liberman is also a 2 stater…. plus the left will support any giveaway that BB offers… in fact their pressure will be to give more… which is why BB prefers them. BB must maintain control of the right… brand those further right as extremists and moving the others to the center. I think that polls have shown that most Israelis are willing to give up most of YS for an overall peace deal with the arabs. BB has never put in a land claim for YS, therefore only security and refugees are the issue. I expect the gulf will lower the bar on refugees and that the security to fall under the existing jordan treaty if the pals confed with Jordan. this has been talked about a long time but the streets of both sides needed to be brought to the center(which includes the delegitimization of the settlers to make Israelis willing to give it away)… perhaps that is what the long wait has been about, playing the drama while moving the narrative. There is no longer any narrative in Israel of building new settlements outside the existing blocks, thanks to BB.
Keli-A Said:
Blame me, I put a burr under his saddle yesterday, but them again, that’s all speculation.
bernard ross Said:
Sir, I do believe you are an extremist 😉
apparently Langfan’s letter needs to go also to the GOI and BB who keep talking about having talks with those who teach their children that jews are sons of apes and pigs… folks who teach their children such things do not deserve to be alive, never mind get peace.