Foreign Affairs
Related: About this forumHollande asked Netanyahu not to attend Paris memorial march
French President Francois Hollande conveyed a message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend asking him not to come to Paris to take part in the march against terror on Sunday, according to an Israeli source who was privy to the contacts between the Elysees Palace and the Prime Ministers Office in Jerusalem. The fact that this message had been conveyed was first reported by Channel 2.
After the French government began to send invitations to world leaders to participate in the rally against terror, Hollandes national security adviser, Jacques Audibert, contacted his Israeli counterpart, Yossi Cohen, and said that Hollande would prefer that Netanyahu not attend, the source said.
Audibert explained that Hollande wanted the event to focus on demonstrating solidarity with France, and to avoid anything liable to divert attention to other controversial issues, like Jewish-Muslim relations or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Audibert said that Hollande hoped that Netanyahu would understand the difficulties his arrival might pose and would announce that he would not be attending.
The source noted that one of the French concerns - not conveyed to representatives of the Israeli government - was that Netanyahu would take advantage of the event for campaign purposes and make speeches, especially about the Jews of France. Such statements, the Elysee Palace feared, would hurt the demonstration of solidarity the French government was trying to promote as part of dealing with the terror attack
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.636557
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Last edited Mon Jan 12, 2015, 06:54 PM - Edit history (1)
So unfortunate to have these disagreements about our vision for the solidarity event.
BillZBubb
(10,650 posts)That's what he does. Too bad what the French want, or the Americans, or anybody. It is what Netanyahu wants.
Raskolnikov1817
(1 post)Good. While I fully support Charlie Hebdo and fully identify with the "Je Sui Charlie" slogan, something commemorating people who some crazy islamists hated for no good reason should not be attended by a man who is very justifiably hated by most muslims. Netanyahu is one of the greatest criminals of our time, and the greatest crime of US foreign policy since Clinton has been our continued support for the apartheid regime in Palestine