Israel counts on France

By Peter Lyukimson, Israel. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza

In the context of worsening Israeli-US relations, the Israeli authorities have special hopes that France will torpedo the Iranian nuclear program. In this aspect, the visit of French President Francois Hollande on November 17 deserves special attention.

It is noteworthy that the French president said two weeks prior to arriving in Israel that he wanted to make a speech at the Knesset. Speaker of the Israeli Parliament Yuli-Yoel Edelstein responded that he would boycott the visit of Hollande and urged other MPs to follow his example. The scandal ended when Hollande agreed to make a speech at the special session of the Knesset on November 18. Edelstein changed his mind about the boycott and met the French leader and his wife Trielweiler together with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara at Ben Gurion Airport.

The main topic of the visit was named development of bilateral relations. The French delegation includes Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, Minister of Finance Pierre Moscovici and a set of ministers, about 40 large French businessmen, members of the Jewish community, public organizations of France and 60 journalists.

On Sunday night, after talks with Peres, Francois Hollande went to a meeting with Netanyahu. Then he had a briefing meeting with journalists. The leaders discussed economic relations between Israel and France, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the situation in Syria and, obviously, the Iranian nuclear threat. Israeli journalists highlighted Hollande’s statement that “France would never put up with a nuclear Iran.”

In order to understand the winds blowing in Jerusalem, it is worth recalling the previous week’s events, both the ones reported by world mass media and the ones discussed by a small group of politicians and journalists.

The former concerns the widely-quoted statement by Benjamin Netanyahu. He said that the agreement to freeze the program in exchange for easing sanctions the US and the UK are inclined to sign “is a bad agreement that cannot suit Israel.” The IAEA report stating that Iran slowing uranium enrichment down did not inspire Netanyahu either. According to the Israeli version, Iran is so close to building an atomic bomb that Iran could unfreeze the nuclear program under any excuse and get hold of a bomb in just a few weeks.

Major tensions in US-Israeli relations were provoked by a session where Secretary of State John Kerry tried to find support from senators and congressmen for the upcoming agreement with Iran. Attendees of the session noted that Kerry’s speech was clearly anti-Israeli and was concluded with a call for US legislators “not to believe in what Israel says.” Meanwhile, as senators say, attempts by Kerry to justify the need to sign a deal with Iran and ease sanctions were unconvincing.

Whatever the case, relations between the US and Israel have never been so openly tense before. Discreet crises in relations between the states happened even during presidency of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, though they were never highlighted.

Curiously, last Thursday, Israeli Minister for Industry, Trade and Labor Naftali Bennet said in the US, reflecting the mood of the Israeli authorities, that he would gladly sign a free trade agreement with Iran, but as long as the Iranian authorities stick to the plans for destroying Israel, the Jewish state will maintain the right to a preventive strike on its nuclear facilities. The potential for such a strike was discussed by the Israeli military last week.

At the same time, Israel understands that, should a deal with Iran be signed, its hands would be tied. Hitting Iran would mean standing against the world and facing some of the worst repercussions possible.

In this situation, the only hope of Israel is France, the authorities of which suddenly said that Iran was tricking them and it was not ready to sign the deal. If the US and the UK approve the agreement (Russia and China will support it for sure), France will use the veto right to prevent events Israel would not want to happen. This is the moment that gives the French president’s visit the special meaning no one could ever think of when it was only being planned.

“We have no complex of pogrom victims, but when someone threatens to destroy us, we take it more than seriously. I would like to remind that those who tried to lift a hand against Jews always ended up badly!” Benjamin Netanyahu told a joint press conference with Francois Hollande. Netanyahu started his speech with words about the importance of cooperation between Israel and France in medicine, science, education and advanced technologies and quickly skipped to the Iranian problem, emphasizing that Israel will not put up with the deal the West and Iran were planning to sign.

“Mr. President, you said at the ceremony at the Ben Gurion Airport that it was better to be the minority, but be right, than be the majority, but be wrong. I totally agree with you. The deal discussed in Geneva is a bad deal. I believe that it is disadvantageous and dangerous. I thank you for your position calling for harsher conditions of the deal, but I am very concerned that it could eventually be signed and would instantly ease sanctions that took years to impose. Moreover, in exchange for ease of sanctions, Iran makes no concessions. I, as well as you, want a peaceful, diplomatic solution to the problem. I agree with Secretary of State Kerry that it would be better to make no agreement at all than make a bad deal. Look how cheered the Iranians are at the opportunity to return to Geneva and sign the agreement. As expected, they say that they will not demand the right to uranium enrichment. They, as well as everyone else, understand that this agreement allows them to continue uranium enrichment. Iranians insist that they have the right anyway. It is absolutely clear that such a deal is advantageous to Iran and terrible for the rest of the world. Today, the choice is between a bad deal and military intervention. On the contrary, with every day of economic pressure on Iran it grows, so, by acting patiently and persistently we can sign an advantageous deal. We need to increase pressure and reach an agreement that would stop the Iranian nuclear program peacefully.”

At the same time, Netanyahu gave a rather clear hint in his speech that, if the West makes the deal with Iran, Israel will make the choice for the military option to settle the Iranian problem. “In this situation, I will have to think about preventing a second Holocaust, about protecting the interests of our state and our people. Israel maintains the right to self-defense in any case!” Netanyahu said. Hollande responded with a promise to maintain pressure on Iran and gave just the same clear hint that military intervention was unacceptable and that he insisted on further diplomatic efforts.

Today, Hollande will visit the Old City of Jerusalem, meet the President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas and speak at the Knesset. On Tuesday, the French president will visit tombs of victims of the Toulouse Shooting, attend a conference on French-Israeli economic cooperation and meet members of the Jewish community of France, the number of whom has recently grown, in Tel Aviv.