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Israel slams French envoy for making distinction between attacks on Israel, US |
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| TEL AVIV (AFP) — The Israeli foreign ministry on Thursday
slammed France's ambassador for making a distinction between the terror
attacks in the United States and those carried out by Palestinian
resistance fighters against Israel.
“Whoever makes a difference between terrorism and terrorism provides a justification for terrorism and the continuation of violence,” foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon told AFP. He added that Israel would “demand explanations” from France on the ambassador's comments. During a reception for the Jewish New Year, ambassador Jacques Huntzinger warned against likening the terror attacks which ripped through New York and Washington on Tuesday to anti-occupation attacks carried out against Israel. “We condemn terror, we condemn terrorism in Israel, but the terror here is linked with a situation of conflict between the Israeli and Palestinian people,” he said in English. “It would be completely irresponsible to make a confusion or an assimilation between the situation here and the situation in the United States,” Huntzinger added. He later played down the Israeli reaction and told AFP that “France had always condemned terrorism, of which it was also a victim in the seventies and eighties. “We continue to condemn terrorist acts in Israel and elsewhere.” Huntzinger was answering a question from a radio journalist asking why “France did not regard (Palestinian leader Yasser) Arafat as a Ben Laden,” a French diplomatic source explained. He said the Israeli accusations amounted to putting words in the ambassador's mouth.
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