Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said France should change its position and stand by Israel so that the two countries can work together to bring stability back to Lebanon.
Netanyahu spoke with the French daily Le Figaro after French President Emmanuel Macron criticized the Israeli leader in a closed government meeting, saying that Israel was created by a UN decision and thus cannot disregard UN resolutions.
In response, Netanyahu's office issued a statement criticizing Macron's remarks and evoking the French government's collaboration with the Nazis occupation during World War II.
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Benjamin Netanyahu, Emmanuel Macron
(Photo: Christophe Ena / AFP, Ludovic Marin / AFP)
Netanyahu told Le Figaro that Israel does not receive weapons from France and expects its nearing allies to support its fight against the terror of Iran and its proxies. He said the fight against Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian regime is a fight for the values Israel and Europeans share.
The prime minister also said Macron had distorted history in his remarks and said the United Nation's recognition of the right of the Jewish people to a homeland did not create the state of Israel. "The Jewish people were connected to the land of Israel for 3,500 years and the state was established by those who fought for its independence including Holocaust survivors.
He repeated his position that Israel must maintain security control from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Netanyahu also said Israel was not opposed to the presence of UNIFIL forces in Lebanon but claimed Hezbollah used the peacekeepers' positions to for protection as they launched missiles against Israel and had dug underground tunnels and fortifications where large amounts of the newest Russian-made weapons were stored.
He told the French publication that since the end of the 2006 Second Lebanon war, and the security council's vote to pass resolution 1701, it was not enforced at all. "How many Hezbollah missiles had UNIFIL prevented? Zero," he said.
Netanyahu told Le Figaro that a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia was possible and could come earlier than expected.
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