TEL AVIV – French Ambassador to Israel Gerard Araud stunned Israeli diplomats during a lecture he delivered at his office Wednesday, after telling his listeners Israel enjoys a favorable French attitude compared to Arab countries.
"Israelis think sometimes they are discriminated against compared to the Arabs, but that's not true. You enjoy a favorable attitude," he said, and pointed to a series of joint Israeli-European projects to back up his claim.
The ambassador also chose to resort to humor when addressing French arrogance, hinting that Israeli haughtiness is worse. Araud also shared with his listeners his views regarding the "misunderstandings and wrong perceptions" in relations between the two countries.
The envoy, who heard scathing criticism over Europe's one-sided policy expressed by Israel's ambassador to the European Union, Oded Eran, replied: "We, the French, are always blamed for arrogance within the EU, but when I listen to my colleague Oded Eran, I believe that if we let Israel join the EU, it will only help France's reputation."
Araud also attempted to get to the root of European-Israeli misunderstandings, and noted one of the problems was the negative European stigma when it comes to the words "occupation" and "colonization."
"Those are two words that you cannot justify or defend in any way in Europe," he said.
The envoy also sought to counter what he called the myth among Israelis regarding the influence exerted by the Muslim minority on France's foreign policy.
Alleged Muslim political influence
“First of all,” he said, “the numbers presented are completely mad. In the press here, I hear that (the population of) France is 10 percent Muslim, meaning 10 million people. Demographers who deal with the issue put it at just 6 to 7 percent.”
Araud added that even those numbers are misleading.
“Ninety-five percent of those (Muslims) aren’t extremists or militants. They also aren’t involved or integrated within our political system,” he said. “You can see a number of Jewish names but hardly one Muslim name. Maybe in another 20 years, you can complain. At present, it’s a completely mistaken view.”
Araud said that in Israel it’s also very commonplace to quote marginal officials hostile to Israel when the French themselves barely notice them at all. But sometimes being anti-Israel is in the eye of the beholder.
The French ambassador recalled his visit to Israel as a young diplomat in 1982.
“They said I was so anti-Israel. Why? Because, as European diplomat, I said that there has to be a Palestinian state and one must talk with the PLO. Today that’s the expressed policy of the State of Israel. Maybe the problem was that we were right too early.”
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