Israelis ashamed at 'Je suis Bibi' show
A set of indignant, embarrassed, mocking articles from 1) Barak Ravid, 2) Simon Shiffer, Ynet OpEd, 3) Asher Schechter, why Israelis should feel ashamed of their PM; 4) The Telegraph, the annoyance caused by his ‘move to Israel’ message.
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Bibi checks he’s in with the right people: Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, François Hollande, Angela Merkel, Donald Tusk and Mahmoud Abbas at the rally in Paris. Photo by Philippe Wojazer / AP
Hollande asked Netanyahu not to attend Paris memorial march
Absence sought as part of attempt to keep Israeli-Palestinian conflict out of European show of unity; After Netanyahu insisted on coming, French made it clear Abbas would be invited as well.
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz
January 12, 2015
French President Francois Hollande conveyed a message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend asking him not to come to Paris to take part in the march against terror on Sunday, according to an Israeli source who was privy to the contacts between the Elysees Palace and the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem. The fact that this message had been conveyed was first reported by Channel 2.
After the French government began to send invitations to world leaders to participate in the rally against terror, Hollande’s national security adviser, Jacques Audibert, contacted his Israeli counterpart, Yossi Cohen, and said that Hollande would prefer that Netanyahu not attend, the source said.
Audibert explained that Hollande wanted the event to focus on demonstrating solidarity with France, and to avoid anything liable to divert attention to other controversial issues, like Jewish-Muslim relations or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Audibert said that Hollande hoped that Netanyahu would understand the difficulties his arrival might pose and would announce that he would not be attending.
The source noted that one of the French concerns – not conveyed to representatives of the Israeli government – was that Netanyahu would take advantage of the event for campaign purposes and make speeches, especially about the Jews of France. Such statements, the Elysee Palace feared, would hurt the demonstration of solidarity the French government was trying to promote as part of dealing with the terror attacks.
According to the source, Netanyahu at first acquiesced to the French request. In any case, the Shin Bet security service unit that protects public figures considered the arrangements for the prime minister’s security to be complex. And so, on Saturday evening, Netanyahu’s people announced that he would not be flying to Paris because of security concerns. Netanyahu told the French he would come to France on Tuesday for a Jewish community event.
The French apparently sent the same message to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Like Netanyahu, Abbas acceded to the French request and released a strange statement about the same time Netanyahu released his, that he would not be attending the event because of the bad weather.
However, on Saturday night, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett announced their intention to go to Paris and take part in the march and meet with the Jewish community. When Netanyahu heard they were going, he informed the French he would be attending the march after all.
According to the source, when Cohen informed Audibert that Netanyahu would be attending the event after all, Audibert angrily told Cohen that the prime minister’s conduct would have an adverse effect on ties between the two countries as long as Hollande was president of France and Netanyahu was prime minister of Israel.
Audibert made it clear that in light of Netanyahu’s intention to arrive, an invitation would also be extended to Abbas. And indeed, several hours after Abbas announced that he would not be traveling to Paris, his office issued a statement stating that he would in fact be at the march.
Hollande’s anger at Netanyahu was evident during the ceremony held Sunday evening following the march at the Grand Synagogue in Paris, an event attended by hundreds of members of the local Jewish community.
Hollande sat through most of the ceremony, but when Netanyahu’s turn at the podium arrived, the French president got up from his seat and made an early exit.
Upset at Netanyahu, Hollande also presumably preferred to avoid a rerun of the 2012 ceremony for the victims of the Toulouse shooting – to which Netanyahu arrived just as he was commencing his elections campaign.
The French weekly La Canard Enchaine revealed then that Hollande complained in closed talks after that event that he found it unfortunate that Netanyahu had come to Paris to conduct a “two-staged election campaign,” starting with a memorial for those murdered at the Jewish school in Tolouse, followed by a his speech at a ceremony there. The French president was quoted by the report saying that it was only because he came with Netanyahu to the ceremony that the Israeli prime minister toned down his speech.
Sources in the Prime Minister’s Bureau said Sunday that when contacts were first made with the French over Netanyahu’s trip this week, they were told that the visit could “cause difficulties.” According to the sources, the Israelis understood that the French were referring mainly to security issues. They added that after the security arrangements were made, Hollande told Netanyahu in a phone call on Saturday evening that he would be happy to see him.
Associates of Netanyahu said that at no point did the French tie Netanyahu’s visit in with that of Abbas.
Netanyahu’s shameful behaviour in Paris
It was the Israeli prime minister’s duty to march for freedom and equality alongside world leaders; but instead of representing us in a dignified manner, he disgraced us.
By Simon Shiffer, Ynet OpEd
January 13, 2015
Let’s agree that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to take part in the march of the millions in memory of the victims in the Paris terror attacks.
Israel is a rightful member of the club of countries which have adopted the principles of freedom, equality and harmony.
In addition, Israel has assumed a moral commitment to the fate of Jews around the world, just like the Jews of the Diaspora are likely concerned about what is happening here and will rush to help us in times of need. This connection is unshakable.
So when four of the victims were slain by a villain simply because they were Jewish, it is the prime minister’s duty to march alongside world leaders, pointing to Israel’s shared fate with France.
So far we all agree.
From this point, we would have expected the prime minister to represent us in a dignified manner, not to shame us. There is no other word to describe it.
I was ashamed seeing the Israeli leader push his way through to the leaders’ first bus, and then elbow his way to the front row of heads of states, who marched silently while he waved at residents standing on balconies along the boulevard.
What would have happened if he had decided to march in the second or third row? How about some modesty, some acknowledgement of the sensitivities of the hosting country? Why Netanyahu knew that the Élysée Palace had not wanted him to come due to concerns, which proved to be justified, that he would take advantage of France’s national mourning in order to boost his chances of remaining prime minister in Israel.
Ironically, the more Netanyahu pressured the French government, the more he increased their desire to get back at him. The French rushed to invite Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who got the exact same reception as Netanyahu. And so, the Palestinian leader, who heads a joint leadership with Hamas, marched arm-in-arm with heads of important states in the first row, alongside the Israeli prime minister.
But Netanyahu did not settle for a cynical exploitation of the disaster for his personal needs. He also used it to teach the Europeans in general, and the French in particular, a lesson in what they are required to do now – fight radical Islam. It’s a shame that his report card in these issues has a D average.
It’s enough to mention that he was the one who freed Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, released more than 1,000 terrorists in exchange for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, and in the past summer he was in charge of an entire country whose kindergarten children learned how to bend down in hiding places while the adults lay on the side of the road as rockets launched by Hamas from Gaza exploded over their heads. It was on his watch that three teenagers were kidnapped from an educational institution in Gush Etzion and murdered, and our “Mr. Security” failed to prevent the horror.
Netanyahu’s vulgar behaviour at the Paris march reflects two things about him. The first is that our prime minister has become a loathsome personality among Europe’s leaders, and it for this reason that the French did not want him at the event. The second is that his conduct was not aimed at reinforcing the Israeli dignity, but at marketing himself at all costs. Even at our expense.
You may ask: What do you have against Bibi? When will you find some room to praise and glorify him?
Here’s my response: Netanyahu is facing the voter’s test now, and it is our right to point to the sources of his decisions. It is the media’s duty to hold a mirror up to the reader in a country which wants to remain a member of the club of states enjoying freedom, harmony and equality.
Netanyahu’s Paris appearance was a PR disaster
Benjamin Netanyahu finds out he missed the bus: An uncomfortable look at the prime minister’s embarrassing trip to France.
By Asher Schechter, Haaretz
January 12, 2015
The Paris trip was supposed to be good for Benjamin Netanyahu. The anti-terrorism march, held on Sunday in Paris in the wake of last week’s gruesome attacks and which broke attendance records,alongside solidarity marches across France, with an estimated 3.7 million participants, was supposed to provide the Israeli prime minister with plenty of opportunities to present himself at his diplomatic best: marching shoulder-to-shoulder with the likes of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, holding hands with leaders of the free world, positioning himself as one of the leaders in the battle against global terrorism. This was all supposed to remind the world of Netanyahu as powerful, authoritative, internationally-renowned.
That was not at all what happened. Netanyahu’s trip to Paris turned into a series of unfortunate humiliations. First, there was the fact that he had been asked, by French President Francois Hollande, not to attend the march in an effort to keep the Israeli-Palestinian conflict out of Europe’s show of unity. Netanyahu initially planned not to go, but he changed his mind after learning that his two main competitors in the upcoming election for the votes of the Israeli right-wing, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Economy Minister Naftali Bennet, would be attending.
Then there was the matter of the march itself, which supplied Netanyahu’s political rivals with a enough images, videos, gifs and memes for four election campaigns, not one.
Netanyahu was captured by news cameras elbowing his way into the front row, gently pushing aside the President of Mali Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. The French weekly Paris Match later reported that Netanyahu’s place in the front row (alongside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) was in fact determined by the organizers of the rally, but by that point the videos showing Netanyahu’s break into the first row were already out. The damage was done.
During the march Netanyahu was caught off-guard again, waving to the crowd in response to a pro-Israel shout from the audience, looking rather cheerful in comparison to his grim and somber compatriots, who kept their cool and did not respond to the crowd.
Yes yes, this is all for me, thank you. Photo by AFP.
Of course, Netanyahu’s biggest humiliation was a video that has since gone viral, in which he is seen waiting for a bus to take him to the rally, after missing the bus that ferried other world leaders to the march.
The footage, captured by a French TV station, is remarkable: The prime minister of Israel looks nervous, dejected, beaten down, surrounded by his security detail yet still standing in the middle of the street, looking exposed to danger in a way world leaders should never be. Netanyahu appears furious, annoyed, confused, trying to busy himself with talking on his phone or fixing his hair, constantly looking over his shoulder to check whether his bodyguards are still there. Even the French news anchors had to sympathize with his distress.
Have they forgotten me?
In no time, Netanyah’s anguish over the bus like was memefied and joked about. His gauche waving became the subject of scorn and derision, his apparent shoving the subject of intense criticism.
“Such behaviour as cutting in line, sneaking onto the bus by pushing and shoving, using elbows to get to the front at some event is so Israeli, so us, so Likud Party Central Committee, that I want to shout: “Je suis Bibi!”wrote my Haaretz colleague columnist Yossi Verter.
Netanyahu’s Paris disaster could be seen as a campaign stunt that backfired. Lieberman and Bennett had visits that were far more productive, devoid of PR disasters. Or one could see it as something more sinister: a disturbing glimpse into the level of isolation Israel has reached under Netanyahu, and an even more disturbing glimpse at its possible future.
Netanyahu, after all, is not a private person. He is an elected official, the elected leader of the State of Israel. Gauche manners aside, the way that world leaders treat him is a reflection of what the world thinks of Israel. It wasn’t just Netanyahu who was excluded from the bus — it was Israel itself. Or, more accurately, its current policies — its constant building in West Bank settlements, its disregard for human rights, its unwillingness to negotiate with the Palestinians, its narrowing democracy — of which Netanyahu is the chief representative.
The France that left Netanyahu out in the cold is, after all, the same France that has repeatedly condemned Israel in the past 12 months, over its construction in East Jerusalem and its conduct during this summer’s Gaza war. It was only a month ago that Netanyahu himself called Hollande and beseeched him to halt the French initiative to have the UN Security Council set a two-year timetable for reaching a permanent agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, including a Palestinian state. (France eventually sided with the Palestinians). The Palestinians’ Security Council bid ultimately failed, but the animosity toward Netanyahu among European nations (and the Obama administration) remained.
Even if what happened to Netanyahu in Paris was not deliberate — and given the obvious security hazards, it is more plausible that it was not — it is still a stunning metaphor for the depths of isolation Israel has reached in recent years. One video of Israel’s prime minister, waiting in the cold for a bus that’s not coming, speaks more loudly than a hundred resolutions recognizing a Palestinian state.
Israel begins 2015 with its international status at a record low, its supporters dwindling. It is a liability, a burden. Netanyahu, as prime minister, put it there.
Unfortunately, the joke isn’t just on Netanyahu. It’s on the country that elected him and that might soon reelect him.
Outside the Hyper Cacher supermarket; a solemn-looking PM hopes people have forgotten what he said in the summer about Israel being in grave danger from Hamas rockets. Actually, all French Jews should move to the only safe haven for Jews, Israel. Photo by Erez Lichtfeld /Sipa / Rex
Charlie Hebdo attacks: Benjamin Netanyahu visits Paris supermarket
Israeli prime minister faces a storm of criticism for hammering home his “move to Israel” message to French Jews
By David Chazan, Paris and Robert Tait in Jerusalem, The Telegraph
January 12, 2015
Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Paris supermarket on Monday where four Jewish hostages were shot dead last week, amid tension with French leaders over his call for the country’s Jews to emigrate to Israel for safety.
The Israeli prime minister faces a storm of criticism for hammering home his “move to Israel” message to French Jews alarmed by last week’s attacks, at a time when world leaders are uniting against Islamist terrorism.
Helping more of the Jewish diaspora migrate to Israel is a central policy of Mr Netanyahu’s right-wing government, which faces elections in March.
However, his calls irritated European Jewish leaders and infuriated the French government, which has announced a massive increase in security for potential Jewish targets. Nearly 5,000 extra police are being deployed to guard Jewish schools, synagogues and community centres.
The prime minister, Manuel Valls, whose wife is Jewish, has been at pains to reassure Jews that France will protect them, saying: “France without Jews is no longer France.”
Mr Netanyahu’s remarks were implicitly criticised by the Israeli president, Reuven Rivlin, who said emigration should be out of choice rather than fear of antisemitism.
Rabbi Menachem Margolin, director of the European Jewish Association, said that instead of calling for Jews to move to Israel after antisemitic attacks, the Jewish state should “employ every diplomatic and informational means at its disposal to strengthen the safety of Jewish life in Europe”.
Mr Netanyahu, who was ridiculed for elbowing his way to the front of Sunday’s mass solidarity march in Paris and trying to jump a bus queue, looked strained as he arrived at the Kosher supermarket, surrounded by a phalanx of armed Israeli security agents.
His gaffes were further compounded by reports that he had attended the march despite being urged to stay away by the French president, François Hollande, who wanted to avoid the event being overshadowed by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Mr Netanyahu initially agreed, only to change his mind after learning that two Israeli political rivals – Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister, and Naftali Bennett, the industry minister, both leaders of far-right parties – would be taking part.
Faced with Mr Netanyahu’s insistence, Mr Hollande then invited Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority leader, as a counterweight, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
Nevertheless, a crowd of about 200 mainly Jewish people waiting outside the supermarket gave him an enthusiastic welcome, shouting his nickname, “Bibi”, and singing the French and Israeli national anthems.
He laid a candle in front of the store and spoke briefly to one of the surviving hostages freed by police on Friday when they stormed the supermarket and killed the gunman, Islamist extremist Amedy Coulibaly.
However, not all of those in the crowd agreed with his calls to leave France.
“I’m staying,” said Samuel Malih, 33, a businessman. “This is a beautiful country.” However, Katya Berman, 49, a chemist, was one of many who said they planned to emigrate.
“They’ve announced more security so my kids will go to school under the protection of the army, but after a few months the protection will be relaxed, and then there’ll be another attack. It was the same after Merah,” she said, referring to a 2012 shooting spree in the south of France by Mohamed Merah, who killed seven people, including three Jewish schoolchildren and a teacher.
Since the Merah shootings, the number of Jews leaving France for Israel has climbed steeply.
Last year about 7,000 French Jews left for Israel, double the number that did so in 2013, amid fears of rising anti-Semitism in Europe. The official Israeli body that oversees migration, the Jewish Agency, has predicted that immigration from France could more than double again this year to a record 15,000.
That would still represent a relatively small proportion of France’s estimated 550,000-strong Jewish community, the third-largest in the world after Israel and the United States.
The prediction is based on a dramatic leap in the number of calls from French Jews inquiring about emigration since last week’s attack, according to a spokesman for the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem.
“We are on course for a big increase,” he said.
Links
Israelis tell ‘cowardly’ Europeans: we told you soIf Jews leave, France will no longer be France, see in particular ‘Netanyahu to French Jews: Israel is your home’.
“A horrific act like the one we saw [in Paris] today will not be the last,” unless the Western nations wage a united and determined war against Islamic terror, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday night in response to the attack on Charlie Hebdo. Haaretz January 7th (the day of the massacre).