Editorial: A good idea for the French

Issue of May 29, 2009 / 6 Sivan 5769

Helpful France weighed in on Jerusalem this week. “In France’s eyes, Jerusalem should, within the framework of a negotiated peace deal, become the capital of two states,” declared a spokesman for the French foreign ministry.

He was responding to Benjamin Netanyahu's own declaration, at a Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) ceremony at Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav, that his government had no intention of surrendering sovereignty of holy sites and that Jerusalem will remain Israel's undivided capitol forever.

There's nothing new in what Netanyahu said and nothing new in the French remarks either. French President Nicholas Sarkozy said the same thing in a speech to the Knesset last year.

In all fairness, the French foreign ministry also called upon the Palestinians to accept Netanyahu's offer of new talks without preconditions, and to “without delay” comply with the commitments the Palestinian Authority has already made to Israel in previous talks but has not honored.

But that's really the point, after all. The Palestinian Authority has made and failed to honor numerous commitments to Israel, yet Sarkozy and others demand that Israel now agree to cut its capitol in half without a shred of realistic hope that it will receive anything meaningful in return for its sacrifice.

It was no accident, we believe, that it was on America's Memorial Day that France made its “helpful” comments about dividing Israel's capitol — Israel, a sovereign nation that has been forced numerous times to fight — and win — with its back to the wall.

There is terrible irony there since it is through no fault of the French, themselves, that their own capitol, Paris, is not a German-speaking city today. It is only due to the sacrifices of thousands of American boys who are buried on French soil that the Third Reich's invaders were sent packing.

Put bluntly, France's ignominious military history suggests that its leaders are in no moral position to comment on the affairs of a country that actually knows how to defend itself.

In that vein, we offer an observation and a suggestion to France that we believe might be useful in future military engagements. Perhaps Benjamin Netanyahu can bring this up when he visits with Sarkozy in France later this year.

As you might know, France's national colors, like those of the United States, are red, white and blue. Unlike the Stars and Stripes, however, France's flag is blue on the left, red on the right and white in the center. A careful observer might realize that, with surrender at the center of the French ethos, the white portion of its flag is well placed at the center.

Here's the suggestion: issue to the French military their familiar blue, white and red French flag, but perforate it along the lines between each color. That way, when it comes time for France to surrender — and recent history shows that sooner or later it's always time for France to surrender, or, as in this case, to call on someone else to do so — the French soldiers can tear away the red and the blue and — voila! — a white flag, ready for waving.