La Wépublique Fwançaise has just leaked information about an innocent invitation extended last summer for Israel to engage in "military celebrations" in Syria - but between the Winograd commission's final report and the investigation awaiting Monsieur Jacques in a few months for alleged bribe taking - whom can one believe - Jerusalem or Paris? However, a closer look at Pwésident Chiwac's meddling in Middle East affairs during his long tenure as Fwench Pwésident reveals that anything is possible. There is no love lost between la Fwance and the Levant: the only question is - whom does Fwance hate less? Young Bashar Assad ruined Chirac's dream of reviving his Middle East bébé – the Lebanon. The assassination two-years ago of former Lebanese Prime-Minister, Rafik El-Hariri, always a welcomed guest at the Elysée Palace in Paris, caused deep anti-Damascus sentiments chez Pwésident Chiwac. Hariri was the great architect of the reconstruction of Lebanon, the only state in the region where France can claim to have substantial influence. During his lifetime, he offered the best proof that France is capable of the kind of foreign policy that can get things going in a region where America gets stuck in the mud. His death, inspired if not downright ordered by Syria, compels Paris to seek revenge.
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Due to Israel's sour experience with France's support in the international arena, Israel was right to dispose of the French proposal in the dust bin.
France urges Israel: Go to war with Syria
by Uri Yablonka
While publicly condemning Israel's campaign in Lebanon last summer in the loudest possible voice, different messages were making their way via secret channels: Pres. Jacques Chirac urged Israel to topple Bashar Assad's Hezbollah backing regime. If that should come to pass, the French promised unlimited, continuous and constant support in the UN Security Council and the EU institutions.
France is famous for its pro-Arab stand and for being one of the harshest anti-Israeli critics in general and among the Europeans in particular. However, during the second Lebanon war, Israel received an unprecedented French proposal: invade Syria, topple Bashar Assad's regime and we shall fully support your military operations.
This proposal was made to the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs by none other than the French President, Jacques Chirac, famous for his deep hatred of Assad and for his displeasure with Syria's meddling in Lebanese affairs. The French suggested that Israel should declare Syria responsible for the hostilities on Israel's Northern border in its capacity as Hezbollah's main supporter and supplier, followed by IDF's invasion of Syria with the declared aim to oust young Assad from power. The French also urged Israel to restrict its military operations in Lebanon to
Hezbollah targets alone and to refrain from air strikes in Beirut, where a great number of
French nationals reside.
(It is still my strongest belief that when enemy aircraft are bombing the hell out of a city, there should be some kind of blackout, even a voluntary one. Could it be that the vast majority of Beirut reidents were confident that the IAF was really targetting the Hezbollah ? Could it be that they actually left their lights on as if to make it easier for the pilots to find their way ?)French support, however, would not be public, but would be mainly expressed in effective support in decisions and declarations meant to allow Israel absolute maneuvering span in its anti-Syrian campaign. France pledged not to make any statements or be involved in such actions that would interfere with IDF operations in Syria.
Who will do the dirty work?
Senior Israeli officials told Ma'ariv reporters that Chirac's proposal was motivated by his known opposition to Assad's regime, partly due to the apparent Syrian involvement in the assassination of Rafik El-Hariri, a close friend and business associate of Pres. Chirac. This proposal revealed Chirac's misunderstanding of the true nature of last summer's Middle East conflict. Senior officials remarked that Chirac was acting against all acceptable principles in the world arena, according to which Ehud Olmert was interested aiming a limited military operation in Lebanon, and had no intention of engaging Syria in an all out war: "The French asked us – What do you want from Lebanon? Go for Syria, they are the ones who started all this trouble. The French actually wanted us to do their dirty work for them." Another official said: "Chirac didn't understand Israel's interests at all. Israel was not looking for a pretext to attack Syria. Thus, as soon as Chirac understood that we were looking for ways to end the war rather than expand it, their messages stopped and the French resumed their usual attitude." Says the same official: "According to our estimates, even the US would not have objected too much had we decided to invade Syria at the beginning of the war."
The French condemnation
Just to recap, the second Lebanon war broke out Wednesday morning, July 12th, 2007, when Hezbollah terrorists snatched two IDF troops: Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. The same evening the government voted in favor of a military operation of an unprecedented scale, which started as a series on intensive air strikes and developed into a full-fledged war with incursions of large contingents of ground forces into Lebanese territory. During the first two days of the conflict Israel's response was met with unconditional US support – in fact the US extended their full support for the duration of the hostilities – along with the support of some other Western states, among them the UK. France, on the other hand, who still thinks of herself as Lebanon's guardian, immediately condemned Israel's attacks on South Lebanon as being "totally disproportionate. One may wonder, however, is there some wish or desire to destroy the entire Lebanon?" On several different occasions Chirac declared that the Israeli reaction to the kidnapping of the two reserve soldiers and the killing of several other troops was totally out of proportion. On Friday, two days into the war, Chirac also condemned Hezbollah for kidnapping the two Israeli soldiers. Only now it turns out that alongside his declarations, Chirac was exchanging messages with the officials in Jerusalem on perhaps changing the scope of the operation – launching a war against Syria instead of attacking Lebanon. Chirac's proposal was considered by the higher diplomatic levels of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but was not debated on the political level, possibly due to the fact that there was no plan or intention to go to war against Syria. The response issued by Office of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General: "We have no recollection of such message exchange".
Ma'ariv, March 18th, 2007
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