Royal stumbles in row over attack on Israel as 'Nazi'

[cali]

Adam Sage, Paris


Ségolène Royal, the French presidential candidate, was embroiled in a damaging row on a visit to the Middle East yesterday after appearing to condone a Hezbollah MP who denounced US “insanity” and compared Israel to the Nazis.

<snip>

In a 20-minute tirade Mr Ammar attacked “unlimited American insanity” for sending troops into Afghanistan and Iraq. He then said that Israeli “Nazism” was no better than Hitler’s Third Reich.

Ms Royal, who is on her first overseas trip since winning the Socialist Party primary, replied: “Thank you for being so frank. I agree with a lot of the things you have said, notably your analysis of the US.”

<snip>

Ms Royal was trying to limit the damage last night. She said that her interpreter had failed to translate Mr Ammar’s comparison between Israel and the Nazis. If he had, she would have walked out, she said.

<snip>



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2485815,00.html

[Greeby]

1. D'oh!

Who does your PR Segolene?

[Mass]

2. This is not that important in France where the views about Israel and Palestine

are a lot more balanced than in this country.

And luckily for us, PR has a lot less to do with electing a president and real issues a lot more.

For those who read French, here is the news today about this incident and the visit she made in Israel.

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-823448,36-841435@51-822961,0.html
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-823448,36-841560@51-822961,0.html

Though, of course, the right is going to try. But the media do not belong to the right and can still give a balanced report of the incident, by opposition to CNN and FOX.

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-823448,36-841424@51-822961,0.html

[nealmhughes]

3. It just seems to be a pretty regular call for peace to me:

"The principles (of peace) are known: the Palesinian People have a right to a sovereign and viable state and Israel to durable security." (my translation, but it is pretty straight forward)

She then spoke about the difficulty and the complexity of the task and how human energy and will can overcome "fickleness" or "flightyness".

Hey, my French ain't that good...regardless of what grad school certified!

[liberalhistorian]

4. Is that really what she said? I don't know, because

my French is limited to about three phrases and maybe four or five vocabulary words. I hope that that is what she really said, because if it isn't, and she was, indeed, condoning what the Hezbollah leader has said regarding Israel and Nazis, that's pretty sickening and disgusting, not to mention unbelievably absurd.