Netanyahu in Paris

by Stephen Lendman

He finds ways of giving chutzpah new meaning. Gatecrashing his latest offense. Showing up where not wanted.

French President Francois Hollande's national security advisor, Jacques Audibert, asked him not to come.

Through his Israeli counterpart, Yossi Cohen. Saying Sunday's event wanted to demonstrate solidarity with France.

Avoid divisive issues. Like Israeli/Palestinian relations. Longstanding unresolved conflict.

Daily Israeli state terror against millions of long-suffering Palestinians.

Audibert hoped Netanyahu would avoid controversy and stay home. Especially not take advantage for campaigning purposes.

With Israeli elections two months away. Haaretz said he first agreed not to come. He'd postpone his trip until Tuesday for a Jewish community event.

He lied. He's a serial liar. Even in relations with close allies. He showed up. Saying he'd join Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett. Both said they were going.

According to Haaretz, "Audibert made it clear that in light of Netanyahu's intention to arrive, an invitation would also be extended to Abbas."

"(S)everal hours after (he said) 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 (Sunday evening's) ceremony," said Haaretz. Held at Paris' Grand Synagogue.

"(A)ttended 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," he walked out. A snub easily noticed.

Earlier, Netanyahu "elbowed his way…smack in the middle of world leaders at the front of the marchers," said Haaretz.

So did longtime Israeli collaborator/enforcer Mahmoud Abbas. Five world leaders to the left of Netanyahu.

Next to EU Council President Donald Tusk. One removed from Germany's Angela Merkel.

A virtual rogue's gallery of world leaders showed up Sunday. Including Merkel. France's Hollande. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Britain's David Cameron. Outgoing US Attorney General Eric Holder and US ambassador to France Jane Hartley representing America.

Holder found time for Sunday TV interviews. None to join World leaders on Sunday. Hartley alone represented Washington. The lowest level government official participating.

Haaretz's Yossi Verter called Netanyahu's manners polar opposite "Parisian…refinement. Maybe he should be called "Grayshirt Bibi," he said.

"Such behavior 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!"

An event Netanyahu almost shunned for so-called security reasons became one "almost inappropriate to hold without his presence right up front," said Verter.

He took full advantage. Outraging his host. Urging French Jews to emigrate to Israel where they'd be safe.

Tweeting: "To all the Jews of France, all the Jews of Europe, Israel is not just the place in whose direction you pray, the state of Israel is your home."

Haaretz said he'll create a "special ministerial committee." (D)iscussing steps to encourage immigration from France and from Europe in general."

If Hollande or other world leaders encouraged their Jewish populations to leave for other countries they'd be called anti-Semites.

Netanyahu saying the same thing is called "Zionism," Ali Abunimah explained.

European Jewish Association director Rabbi Menachem Margolin criticized Netanyahu.

Citing the 2012 Toulouse Jewish school murders. Saying "after every anti-Semitic attack in Europe, the Israeli government issues the same statements about the importance of aliyah [immigration to Israel], rather than employ every diplomatic and informational means at its disposal to strengthen the safety of Jewish life in Europe."

On the one hand, Netanyahu spurns peaceful Israeli/Palestinian relations. Wages wars at his discretion.

Slaughters Palestinians in cold blood. Commits daily atrocities. Attacks neighboring countries. Destabilizes the region.

Yet urges French and other European Jews to emigrate to Israel. Where they'll be safe, he claims.

Where Palestinians are persecuted daily. Kidnapped from their home pre-dawn.

Children accosted at play. Going to school. Coming home. Shot at for target practice. Murdered in cold blood.

Gazans entrapped in the world's largest open-air prison. Suffocated to make them disappear.

One adult and three newborns died from exposure in freezing cold. Exacerbated by storm conditions and flooding.

Gazan civil defense head Raed al-Dahshan said he and his staff face "a difficult situation…compounded by a lack of infrastructure."

Electricity only a few hours a day. Shortages of vital necessities. Thousands living in rubble or makeshift accommodations.

Following Israel's summer aggression. Conditions impossible for most people to understand.

Imagine living in makeshift huts or tents in the dead of winter. Isolated by blockade. Subject to Israeli attacks by land, sea or air.

The majority of tens of thousands of homeless Gazans are children. Including an estimated 1,500 orphans. Their parents killed last summer.

The Palestinian Prisoner Club said Israel tortures Palestinian prisoners by detaining them outdoors.

In freezing cold conditions. With no adequate clothing. An appeal to Israel's High Court said interrogators inflict this treatment as torture.

Subjecting them to potential severe frost bite or death. Head of the Palestinian committee for prisoners, Issa Qaraqe, urged human rights groups to intervene.

Last January, Israel put Palestinian children in cages. Outdoors in severe cold. Subjecting them to storm conditions.

Unprotected. Torture by any standard. Leaving many children traumatized. Some affected permanently.

Efforts to end these type abuses prove futile. Israel does whatever it damn pleases. Including against defenseless women and children.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has his own cross to bear.  Heading Turkey's repressive government. Involved with Washington's war on Syria. Sharing responsibility for tens of thousands of deaths.

Lambasting Netanyahu for "daring" to participate in Sunday's Paris rally. Saying he could "hardly understand how (he) dared to go."

After his mass slaughter of noncombatant Palestinian men, women and children last summer. "(M)assared," said Erdogan.

"How can you this individual, who carries out state terrorism by massacring 2,500 people in Gaza be waving his hand?"

"He is waving his hand as if people are very enthusiastically waiting for him." During Israel's summer aggression, he "surpassed Hitler in barbarism," said Erdogan.

In 2009, he walked out of the World Economic Forum after an angry exchange with then Israeli president Shimon Peres.

"Turkey will continue to fight…against Israel's reckless actions that do not recognize law," he said.

Who'll fight for Palestinians? Ordinary French people Brits.  Germans. Ukrainians. Other Europeans, Americans and others against their increasingly repressive governments?

Britain, France, Italy and other EU states intend stiffening hardline policies. Expect America to do likewise.

Enhancing police state powers. Destroying fundamental freedoms more than already. France militarized its streets.

Mobilizing thousands of security forces. Including combat troops. Will tanks roll down the Champs-Elysees next?

Will mass arrests follow? Will people be afraid to go outside? Will soldiers have license to kill no questions asked?

Deploying militarized forces to protect Jewish schools, synagogues and other facilities while ignoring threatened Muslims shows official contempt for their security and welfare.

According to National Observatory Against Islamophobia head Abdallah Zekri, French Muslims are being attacked.

In the last two days, 16 mosques were targeted with firebombs and live fire. Veiled women face crude insults. Online threats are increasing.

A climate of fear grips Europe. Muslims are the target of choice. Ordinary people threatening no one. Wanting peace and security.

Equity and justice. What everyone deserves. About six million French Muslims alone are at risk.

Who's protecting them? Who cares about their rights? What about millions of persecuted Palestinians? Long-suffering for decades.

Western leaders able to help do nothing. Justice is systematically denied. Nothing in prospect suggests responsible change.

In Occupied Palestine, Europe or America. Expect worse ahead, not better.

Expect jackboots on French streets heading for neighborhoods near you. Expect tyranny to replace free societies.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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