The French presidency, in a note, however, describes the friendship with Tel Aviv as “unshakeable”.
The day the West was swept by pro-Palestinian demonstrations, a very tough clash took place between Benjamin Netanyahu and Emmanuel Macron. On the evening of October 5, the Israeli Prime Minister released an indicting video message against the French president and other leaders who are calling for an arms embargo on Tel Aviv: “Shame on them!” . Soon, the response from the Elysée arrived, condemning Netanyahu's use of “excessive remarks”. The French presidency, however, wanted to reaffirm its “unshakeable friendship with Israel”.
Netanyahu's video message
Netanyahu, in his tirade, began by listing the war fronts opened with certain countries in the Middle East: “We defend ourselves on seven fronts against the enemies of civilization.” The war in Gaza against Hamas, “the savages who murdered, raped, beheaded and burned our people on October 7.” The invasion of Lebanon against Hezbollah, “the most heavily armed terrorist organization in the world”. Again, Netanyahu said, “we are fighting the Houthis in Yemen and the Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria, who together have launched hundreds of drone and missile attacks against Israel.”
The Prime Minister also mentioned in the list the fight against terrorism in Judea and Samaria. And finally, the seventh open conflict, that with Iran, “which last week fired more than 200 ballistic missiles directly at Israel.” Netanyahu said that it is Tehran that leads “the forces of barbarism” and that while Israel fights them, “all civilized countries should stand firmly by their side.” Instead, the head of the Tel Aviv government lamented: “President Macron and other Western leaders are calling for an arms embargo against Israel. Shame on them. Is Iran imposing an arms embargo on Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas and its other proxies? Of course not. This axis of terror is united. But countries that should oppose this axis of terror are calling for an arms embargo against Israel. What a shame! Israel will win with or without their support, but its shame will linger long after the war is won. »
Macron's statements
Netanyahu concluded by asserting that by fighting the aforementioned enemies, “Israel is defending civilization against those who seek to impose on us all a dark age of fanaticism. Rest assured that Israel will fight until the battle is won, for our sake and for the sake of global peace and security. » The Israeli rebuke comes after Macron expressed his disapproval of Netanyahu's “choice” to send ground troops to Lebanon in recent hours. Calls for a ceasefire from Paris and Washington, Macron said, were ignored. From there the embargo proposal was born: “I think that today the priority is to return to a political solution, to stop providing weapons to continue the fighting in Gaza.” And France, he concluded, “does not supply weapons to Israel.”
