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The Case Against

France

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Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!

From






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Hypocrisy! Appeasement! Double Standards!

By Daryl Cagle, Slate.com, March 2003

To






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“In an interview with [Israeli] Army Radio Thursday, French Ambassador to Israel Gerard Araud took a far less conciliatory stance than he took just a couple of days ago in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

‘I think you have an anti-French neurosis,’ Araud said. He complained that Israel accuses France of everything and ‘all anti-Semitic graffiti in Paris’ gets top headlines.”

The Jerusalem Post, December 9, 2004






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Perhaps you should ask yourself

You said, Mr. Ambassador, that Israelis are wary of France because of the 1967 arms embargo France imposed on the

beleaguered Jewish state…

WHY?






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“In the 1967 Six Day War, when Israel's existence was threatened, France's president Charles de Gaulle took a pro-Arab direction and instituted a weapons embargo on the Middle East. In his press conference on November 27 of that year he included a much publicized anti-Semitic statement, calling the Jews ‘an elitist and domineering people.’

This is often considered the beginning of post-Holocaust anti-Semitism in the democratic mainstream of Europe.

Freddy Eitan, a former Israeli ambassador and journalist, in a forthcoming book on France's Middle East policy, mentions that, despite the embargo, France supplied Mirage planes Israel had already bought to Libya; they were afterwards transferred to Egypt and used in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.”

The two faces of FranceBy Manfred Gerstenfeld, The Jerusalem Post, December 20, 2004

The writer recently co-edited with Shmuel Trigano The New Clothes of European Anti-Semitism (in French). He is now working on a book on the expanding abyss between Europe and Israel.






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The ’67 embargo is but one of many reasons for Israeli antipathy toward France.

Perhaps, Mr. Ambassador, you should ask yourself...

Why, in spite of the British Mandate and the horrors of World War II, is France currently more despised in Israel than England and Germany?






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Why do so many people throughout the world have such antipathy towards France?

Why do so many people, real and fictitious: from Mark Twain to Howard Stern; from Monty Python to Marge Simpson, dislike the French?






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More France related quotes on MidEastTruth.com

"France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.”

"France has usually been governed by prostitutes." Mark Twain

"We can stand here like the French, or we can do something about it.”

Marge Simpson






http://www.mideasttruth.com/cafr.html

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“French-bashing is everywhere in the American media. I am French, and I must say if Americans knew completely what's happening in France, the French-bashing would be far harsher.

Jacques Chirac has been a friend of Saddam Hussein for more than thirty years. He allowed the sale of nuclear facilities to Iraq that were destroyed just in time by Israel. He sold Iraq the planes that were been used to gas thousands of Kurds. And Saddam is not the only friend Chirac has. Chirac has never met a ruthless dictator he did not like. Worse, Chirac is unprincipled and greedy. It is common knowledge in France that he stole a lot of money when he was the mayor of Paris, and everyone knows that if he had not been re-elected in May 2002, he would be in jail now. To hear him speaking about morality or international law nauseates every decent Frenchman.

And Chirac is not the only politician of this stripe in France. These days, it is becoming hard to find a French politician ready to speak about human rights, freedom or democracy. All of them seem to have the same speechwriter or to belong to the same totalitarian political party; all of them are anti-American, anti-Israeli and "pacifists.”

They regard Western civilization as something filthy and abhorrent.”France is Not a Western Country Anymore

By Guy Milliere, FrontPageMagazine.com, March 31, 2003






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Antipathy towards France may have something to do with French people opposing President Bush and the U.S. more vigorously than Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

Perhaps it's that few in France cared about Iraqi civilians and Kurds who were tortured and gassed under Saddam? Might it have something to do with France providing the Iraqi dictator with weapons, in violation of the United Nations’ sanctions on his oppressive regime? Or the sad reality that many of the French officials opposed to the coalition’s invasion of Iraq just happened to be on Saddam’s payroll?

Finally, perhaps people rightly wonder why--even today, after Saddam’s overthrow--France obstinately refuses to come to the aid of Iraqi civilians as they embark on the perilous road to freedom and democracy.

"Polish troops discovered an ammunition depot on Sept. 29 near the region of Hilla and there were four French-made Roland-type missiles," [Poland] Defense Ministry spokesman Eugeniusz Mleczak said."It is not the first time Polish troops found ammunition in Iraq but to our surprise these missiles were produced in 2003.”

Reuters, October 3, 2003






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Dick Wright, The Columbus Dispatch, OH, March 2003






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Perhaps it's because France is willing to sell its soul to the devil:

By the end of the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq was France's single largest arms customer; Iranians referred to Chirac as ''Shah-Iraq.'' In 1981, Israeli fighter pilots-including a 26-year-old Ilan Ramon, who died (…) on the space shuttle Columbia-destroyed the Osirak reactor shortly before it was due to deliver nuclear capacity to Iraq. Chirac, echoing the views of many world leaders at the time, described the Israeli raid as ''unacceptable.''”

Chirac's other Iraq policyBy Joshua Glenn, The Boston Globe, March 2, 2003

Building the chronically belligerent Saddam Hussein a nuclear reactor.“Chirac freelanced a deal to sell Saddam two nuclear reactors, and arranged to have French nuclear scientists and engineers train their counterparts in Iraq…. Not only did Chirac help build Iraq's ''Osirak'' reactor-the Israelis dubbed it ''O-Chirac''-near Baghdad, but he also sought to ship Iraq weapons-grade uranium, even though a safer grade was available. (France's president, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, scotched the plan.)

1975 - Saddam Hussein (center) was accompanied by Jacques Chirac (wearing glasses), then France's prime minister, on a tour of a French nuclear power station.






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“The first, Jacques Chirac, described the second, Saddam Hussein, as a personal friend, showed him around a French nuclear reactor and invited him to his home for the weekend. It was about this time that the prime minister was nicknamed Jacques Iraq.”

French industry stands to loseBy John Laurenson, International Herald Tribune, March 7, 2003






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“…In 1977 French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing gave asylum, and therefore international respectability, to Ayatollah Khomeini. The French thus helped pave the way for the first fundamentalist Muslim state, which then exported terrorism internationally.”


Harboring the Ayatollah Khomeini while he planned the fundamentalist Islamic revolution.

The damage, both to Iran and within the Middle East, endures to this day…






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Admiring and assisting the father of modern terrorism, Yasser Arafat.

During his illustrious, decades long career as the head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, Arafat invented airplane hijackings, was responsible for the deaths of more Jews than anyone since Hitler, and sought the destruction of the State of Israel.

And yet…

“French Foreign Minister Jean Sauvagnargues was the first Western official who met Yasser Arafat in Beirut, in 1974. A year later the PLO opened its first European diplomatic office in Paris, with a charter calling for the elimination of Israel.”


…while the former Palestinian leader has been lauded by France's prime minister Jacques Chirac as "a man of courage and conviction."






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Welcoming Suha Arafat, notable for having robbed tens of millions of dollars designated for the destitute Palestinian people.






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J.D. Crowe, Alabama, The Mobile Register, March 2003






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“Where are the mass protests in the streets of the world's capitals against France's military intervention in the Ivory Coast?

This month, French peacekeepers in the former French colony launched a pre-emptive assault against the Ivorian air force. They also interfered with the internal politics of the troubled nation and sought regime change -- or at least they have been accused of both by President Laurent Gbagbo.

They acted without authorization by the United Nations Security Council.

They violated both the UN Charter and the terms of the peacekeeping resolution that established their specific mission in the West African nation.

The Security Council did sanction their attacks after the fact. Nonetheless, the French acted unilaterally, and only sought and received a UN cover story later. There wasn't even a coalition of the willing. No Brits, Aussies, Poles or Dutch to help out; just French troops, jets, helicopters and armoured personnel carriers.

While the French have achieved their military goals quickly and easily, they have failed to stop the destruction of much of the I.C.'s infrastructure.”

No Blood for ChocolateBy Lorne Gunter, The National Post, November 22, 2004

How would you explain your double standards, Mr. Ambassador?






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Perhaps it's because France has committed countless atrocities in its drive to colonize territory around the globe -- some of which it maintains control of to this very day:

Political sovereignty in Corsica, the Caribbean, South America and even Antarctica; manipulation of the economy and infrastructure over former African colonies, complete with puppet governments.






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The current situation in the Ivory Coast illustrates France’s manner of dealing with governments of former colonies it disapproves of; its soldiers have completely demolished the Ivory Coast’s air force, and shoot live ammunition into crowds of unarmed demonstrators.






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French soldiers shoots unarmed civilians in the Ivory Coast

Link to VIDEOS from the events on MidEastTruth.com








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Or maybe, Mr. Ambassador, it’s France’s bloody history, and its leader’s unwillingness to recognize it?

Algeria“An estimated 200,000 Muslims died during the conflict. The recent controversy over torture was sparked when senior officers who served in Algeria openly admitted the widespread use of torture and summary execution of captives who had committed atrocities against civilians….

…However, many French politicians jumped to the defence of the veterans. ‘I'll never do anything to harm the memory or the honour of the men who fought for France,’ President Jacques Chirac told an interviewer. ‘In these sorts of events, the best thing is to stand back and

let history do its work.’”BBC News, February 7, 2001






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France supplied significant military aid to Rwanda's Hutu leaders

“From 1990, the government in Paris was supplying large amounts of military aid and advice to Rwanda's Hutu-led government. This, it is alleged, continued after the Rwandan army started training the Hutu militias, who were to carry out the massacres.”

BBC News, April 21, 1998

RwandaFrench military provides support to the Hutu-led regime, which stands accused of killing up to a million Rwandans in l994.

A French soldier in Rwanda. BBC.

Tutsi survivors recounted on one occasion pleading for protection from French troops, their cries for help falling on deaf ears. 1000 Tutsis lost their lives near Bisesero in western Rwanda as French troops stood by.

BBC News, April 3, 1998






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And yet, France has the audacity to condemn Israel and the U.S., time and again, for their presence in the Palestinian territories and Iraq, respectively.

Unlike France, Mr. Ambassador, Israel and the U.S. did not invade these areas to exploit their people and plunder their resources. A war of aggression threatening Israel’s existence forced her to engage in this conflict; an unprecedented attack on the U.S. on 9/11 2001, and a threat by Saddam Hussein who swore to attack the U.S., made the U.S. invade Afghanistan and Iraq.






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Perhaps it’s France’s blindness to terrorism

2003: “France voices objections to placing Hamas and Islamic Jihad on the European Union's list of terror organizations… Diplomatic advisor to President Chirac, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, is quoted to have said to the Israeli ambassador in France,

Nissim Zvilli, that there is no proof that these two organizations are terror groups. ‘if we find that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are indeed terror groups opposed to peace, we may have to change the EU's stand,’ said Gourdault-Montagne. ‘However, we mustn't limit ourselves to one, clear cut, position.’”

France: No proof Hamas and Islamic Jihad are terror groups-The Jerusalem Post, August 25, 2003-

Hamas and Islamic Jihad

Engineered suicide bombings leaving hundreds of dead Israeli civilians. These two terrorist organizations’ sole agenda is Israel’s destruction. Still, all this

is “no proof” for France.

2005: “French President Jacques Chirac on Monday rebuffed Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom's request to add the militant Hezbollah organization to the European Union's list of terror organizations…. France has played the primary role in blocking the addition of the Hezbollah to the list to date.”

Haaretz, February 8, 2005

“Hezbollah has a political party and the entire Lebanese context must be viewed.” - France’s Foreign Minister Michel Barnier. "Show me another political party with 12,000 rockets.” - Israel’s Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.

Haaretz, February 14, 2005

Hezbollah

A terrorist organization that used suicide bombers against U.S. targets 18 years before 9/11 and shot missiles at Israeli towns is a political party in French eyes.

Hassan Nasrallah - a political leader in French eyes.






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Hizballah/Hezbollah (Party of God) “Activities: Known or suspected to have been involved in numerous anti-US terrorist attacks, including the suicide truck bombing of the US Embassy and US Marine barracks in Beirut in October 1983 and the US Embassy annex in Beirut in September 1984. Elements of the group were responsible for the kidnapping and detention of US and other Western hostages in Lebanon. The group also attacked the Israeli Embassy in Argentina in 1992.”

“Location/Area of Operation: Operates in the Bekaa Valley, the southern suburbs of Beirut, and southern Lebanon. Has established cells in Europe, Africa, South America, North America, and elsewhere.”

- Background Information on Foreign Terrorist Organizations, The State Department






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Perhaps it's the French government’s assault on religious freedom, with its 2004 decision to ban the hijab, skullcap and prominent Catholic symbols of faith from public schools.

A French protester against ban on religious symbols

It is not difficult to imagine, Mr. Ambassador, how a similar ruling in the U.S. or Israel would be judged by your compatriots...






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By Stuart Carlson, The Washington Post






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Perhaps it's the hypocrisy in the French media:

“Let me give you [Mr. French Ambassador] one example that might clarify to you the reason for the hostility [of Israelis to France]: over a year ago an important [French] newspaper published a front page article about two Palestinians who were killed by the Israeli army. So far, we have no objections, until we discover buried deep within the same newspaper, somewhere at the bottom of its ninth or tenth page, a report about dozens of "locals" who were killed in Africa by soldiers of the... French Army.

So, Mr. Ambassador, if we already talk about "neurosis", you should check yourself. What is it about the diminutive Israel, that wins her front page coverage? But this is not just a curiosity. I would suggest to you, Mr. Ambassador, to check the number of reports about "Israel's criminal acts", as opposed to the reports about what is going on in the Arab world. About human rights abuses in Israel, as opposed to Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Or, to be exact, how many Arabs or Muslims were killed in one month by Israel, chose any month you'd like, as opposed the number of Arabs or Muslims who were killed, in the very same month, by Arabs and Muslims. I think that you can guess the results. Israel, in self-defense, sometimes also including making mistakes, does not hurt one percent of Muslims or Arabs, as opposed to their self-hurting, due to oppression, due to self-destruction, due to a thousand and one other reasons. But, by the information the French public is exposed to, the proportions are opposite…






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…A visitor from another planet, if he would coming across your reports, would think Israel is a destruction machine. And then you shake your heads and wonder at the results of your polls which designate Israel as the greatest threat to world peace. Not Iran. Not Sudan. Israel.

So I hope, Mr. Ambassador, that you start to understand that if there is a "neurosis", it is not on the Israeli side.”

A letter to the AmbassadorBy Dror Ben-Yemini, Maariv, December 10, 2004 (translated from Hebrew)






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French state-owned TV, France 2, is responsible for airing and distributing one of the most iconic and inflammatory images ever produced during the entire Israeli Palestinian conflict.

“The scenes were filmed by its Palestinian cameraman, Talal Abu Rahma, who was the only one to capture images of what Enderlin characterized then as the killing of a child by gunfire from the Israeli position. Enderlin was not present during the shooting.”

The mysteries of an iconic video frameBy Doreen Carvajal, International Herald Tribune, February 7, 2005

The story of

Muhammad al-Dura






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The images of the child, terrified, then dead, has fueled attacks on Israelis and Jews not only in Israel but throughout the world…

Egypt and Tunisia issued stamps in memory of the Palestinian child. Egypt also named a street in his honor.

Suicide bombers invoked Mohammed al-Dura as a martyr in their videotaped farewells, before their murderous missions. In the horrific video of the beheading of Daniel Pearl, the Mohammed al-Dura death scene is featured.

Palestinian television repeatedly broadcast a video in which a child actor, playing al-Dura, called Palestinian children to join him in heaven as martyrs.






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In recent months, however, “independent media analysts in France and Israel have provided what they call conclusive evidence that the video of the incident was staged.”

Any independent efforts to study the original footage have been met not only with sharp resistance but with intimidation and threats of a libel lawsuit.

German documentary producer, Esther Schapira, met with a brick wall when she requested a master copy of the tape from France 2.

European stations commonly exchange material. “If there was nothing to hide, what are they afraid of?” she asked.

A report broadcast by German ARD television concluded that A report broadcast by German ARD television concluded that al-Durra was shot dead al-Durra was shot dead by Palestinian militantsby Palestinian militants






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Four years after state-run France 2 television freely distributed the video, which was featured in every evening newscast in the world as the definitive image of Israel’s inhumanity and violence, this is what France 2 has to say today about the incident:

“The point is that four years later, no one can say for certain who killed him, Palestinians or Israelis.” - Arlette Chabot, deputy general director of France 2






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“If you read the newspapers, it's the same. At times it seems the only difference between the Soviet Union twenty years ago and France today is that in Soviet Union you had only one Pravda, and in France you now have at least ten such propaganda outlets: Different titles, same content. Their party line is clear in reporting on the personalities found in the present Middle Eastern crisis. Saddam Hussein, the "President of Iraq"? Well, maybe he has been brutal, but you know, in "those" countries... George W. Bush? He’s a "moron" - a former alcoholic, who has become a crazy fanatic, in fact the most dangerous man on the face of earth. Ariel Sharon? A fascist who loves to kill Arabs. Arafat? A great freedom fighter. When an American general speaks, it is merely propaganda, but when Tariq Aziz pontificates, it is pure truth. Almost everyday you hear anti-Semitic remarks, to boot.”

France is Not a Western Country AnymoreBy Guy Milliere, FrontPageMagazine.com, March 31, 2003






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A mere 60 years after the Vichy France government deported over 70,000 Jews to Nazi Germany and sent 650,000 French workers to Germany to help in the German war effort, France sees fit to criticize Israel's acts of self-defense.






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Let’s further examine, Mr. Ambassador, your government’s handling of recent incidents of anti-Semitism in France:

“Anti-Jewish violence went unchecked until after the presidential elections in spring 2002. Then France got a culture shock as extreme right-wing candidate Jean Marie Le Pen became Jacques Chirac's challenger, defeating socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin. It took Chirac until November 2003, however, when a Jewish school in Gagny was firebombed, to come down strongly against anti-Semitism. A few months earlier he had told a delegation of the Simon Wiesenthal Center that there was no anti-Semitism in France. On the way to their next meeting some delegates who had their heads covered were insulted by anti-Semitic remarks on the streets. France's policy today can best be described as that of a fireman-arsonist. It tries to extinguish domestic anti-Semitic flames, at the same time fueling hatred with attacks on Israel.”







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“The anti-Semitism has created a threat to the physical safety for French Jews. Almost every week, some Jews get mugged, simply for being Jews. Almost nobody pays attention to it. When an anti-Semitic act is so disgusting it is impossible to hide it, journalists will speak of "confrontation between communities." When confronted with the reality that these "confrontations" are always Muslims attacking Jews, the editorial response: ‘Just because there has yet to be a single documented case of a Jew attacking a Muslim yet doesn't mean it will never happen. . . .’”

France is Not a Western Country AnymoreBy Guy Milliere, FrontPageMagazine.com, March 31, 2003






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Anti-Israel bias in International organizations:

“At the United Nations, France has been particularly active in building Europe's anti-Israel voting record. Dore Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the UN, describes the French attitude thus: "The European collective is frequently neutral on issues at the UN. Then often in meetings of the EU diplomats the French ambassador tries to break the consensus and move the entire group in an anti-Israeli direction.

‘France plays a particularly negative role in the formation of an anti-Israeli European position at the UN.’

Gold refers also to the July 2004 resolution of the UN General Assembly supporting the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the separation fence Israel is building.

"The European countries had expressed their view that the ICJ's jurisdiction was questionable. Once the ICJ ruled against Israel they should thus have abstained or voted against a resolution calling on Israel to adhere to the ICJ's non-binding advisory opinion….

…Many anti-Semitism experts claim that France's anti-Israeli stance played a substantial role in the creation of an infrastructure for anti-Semitism in France.”







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By Gary Varvel, Indiana - The Indianapolis Star-News, March 2003






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“Koehler met later privately with [former Israeli Justice Minister] Lapid and Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin. He asked Lapid what Germany could do to promote Middle East peace. Lapid said Germany could balance France's negative impact, so Israel could depend more on the European Union.”

Koehler: Germany must deal with anti-SemitismBy Lily Galili and Gideon Alon, Haaretz, February 3, 2005

Ask yourself, Mr. Ambassador:

WHY, a mere 60 years after the Holocaust, is Mr. Lapid -- who is himself a Holocaust survivor -- asking GERMANY to “balance” FRANCE?






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The material we’ve displayed is but a sampling, Mr. Ambassador, of the immoral, hypocritical, anti-Semitic and anti-Israel activities practiced by your compatriots. It is not an “anti-French neurosis”.

If France truly is concerned with her reputation in Israel and elsewhere in the world, we urge you to look inward, and assess your own policies and questionable morality, before calling others’ into doubt.

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The Cast Against France - MidEastTruth.com