Sarkozy: Israel has no better security partner than France

Jerusalem Post ^ | 11-9-11 | TOVAH LAZAROFF

[SJackson]

French president responds positively to request by World Jewish Congress official to push for unprecedented sanctions against Iran.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised to stand with Israel against Iran during a 90-minute meeting he held with the World Jewish Congress at the Elysée Palace in Paris, according to sources from the gathering who spoke with The Jerusalem Post.

“Israel has no better security partner than France when it comes to Iran,” Sarkozy assured the Jewish leaders, according to the sources.

RELATED: PM: Iranian nukes endanger Mideast, world peace Sarkozy gaffe rekindles talk of US-J'lem tensions

The head of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald S. Lauder asked Sarkozy to push for unprecedented sanctions against the Iranian regime to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Sarkozy responded positively to Lauder, the sources said.

France has always taken a tough stance against Iran’s nuclear program and will continue to do so, Sarkozy assured the Jewish leaders, according to the sources.

France favors “seriously ratcheting up sanctions” against Iran, Sarkozy said, according to the sources.

Diplomacy is the best way to avert a nuclear Iran, he said, but at the same time he implied that a military option was on the table. He was very vague about France position with regard to a military option, the sources said. But he had a clear reaction to media reports that Israel might independently strike Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Sarkozy also said that it would be a mistake for Israel to unilaterally attempt a military strike against Iran, according to the sources. Such a strike “would be disastrous,” Sarkozy said, according to the sources

[Eleutheria5]

Couldn’t read the whole article. Suffice it to say that since moving to Israel, my experience with French expatriate Jews has been that they are the most agreeable, decent people. They are regular guests in my house, and I’ve been at times a regular guest in theirs. I don’t know what the present-day attitudes of French society within France is, having only passed through de Gaulle Airport once on my way to the US, but one famous Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville said in Democracy in America that nations are not like men. Each generation can start afresh. Whatever Frenchmen did or did not do to Jews during WW II, one should not hold the present generations accountable, so long as they do not continue in their forefathers’ path. Same with the Germans, Ukrainians, etc. What is of interest is what the French and France are doing right now vis a vis its Jews and Israel.

I feel great pain for France right now, and fear that one day an Algerian mob will break into the Louvre and destroy the Mona Lisa for exposing her face in public instead of wearing at least a hijab. Whatever the previous generations’ crimes, the present generation does not deserve to become yet another conquered part of the Daar ulIslaam.

[2001convSVT]

With partners like France, who needs enemies!

[Jewbacca]

I was completely unaware of that story.

My family was treated very unfairly by the French, but I still speak French, and have a strange fondness for France.

I am putting this town on my to-do list now.

[Wuli]

The forever petulant French; a bane to “peaceful” coexistence with all of its allies and partners.

Where does it come from? Answer: French culture and history; and it is inseparable from France and the French.