Israeli fury at Sarkozy call to "get rid" of Lieberman (Roundup)

Jun 30, 2009, 14:18 GMT

Jerusalem - An alleged remark by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in which he urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to 'get rid of' ultra-nationalist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman sparked outrage in Israel Tuesday.

'If the remarks are correct and were indeed said by the president, then the intervention by the president of a respectable democratic state in the affairs of another democratic state is grave and unacceptable,' a statement from Lieberman's office said.

The statement urged all political groupings in Israel to 'condemn this blunt meddling of a foreign country in our internal affairs.'

Israel's Channel 2 reported Monday night that Sarkozy made the comments in a closed meeting with Netanyahu in Paris last week.

According to the report, Sarkozy, in Wednesday's meeting in Paris, told Netanyahu of Lieberman that 'you need to get rid of this man. You need to remove him from this position.'

The French president urged Netanyahu to replace the bellicose Lieberman with Livni, the foreign minister in the previous Israeli government, who refused to join the Netanyahu coalition because of differences over how to pursue the peace process with the Palestinians.

Livni is a centrist, but a staunch believer in the two-state solution to the conflict.

Sarkozy, according to the report, said that with Livni, leader of the centrist Kadima party, and Defence Minister Ehud Barak, of the centre-left Labour Party, in the government, Netanyahu could 'make history.'

Netanyahu pointed out to the French president that Lieberman sounded different in private conversations, to which Sarkozy replied: 'In private talks Jean-Marie Le Pen is also a nice person.'

When Netanyahu protested the comparison, Sarkozy conceded that Lieberman and Le Pen were not the same.

Two cabinet ministers of Netanyahu's hardline Likud party, a lawmaker of the dovish coalition Labour Party, Israel's ambassador to France and an Israeli security adviser were also said to have been present at the meeting and one of them could have leaked the conversation, which was reported verbatim by the Israeli TV channel.

Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev, would neither confirm nor deny the reported dialogue with Sarkozy.

While Elysee Palace declined to react, with a spokesman saying it did not comment in principle on conversations between state leaders, the reported conversation sparked a host of reactions in Israel.

Lieberman himself told reporters in passing, that 'everything is paradise. It's not interesting, save for the fact that I'm in the same rank as world leaders like Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, and the Spanish prime minister, who Sarkozy had something to say about.'

Others were less laconic.

'This is serious meddling in Israel's domestic affairs and his (Sarkozy) statements must be flatly rejected. Israel is an independent country and it's the foreign minister's job to look out for the State of Israel's interests, not to be liked by the world,' Yariv Levine, of Netanyahu's ruling Likud Party, said.

Opposition lawmaker Yakov Edri said Sarkozy's remarks were 'unacceptable and undignified.'

'A way must be found to protest this,' he said.

'The situation is very worrying when any frog-eater permits himself to meddle in the Israeli government's sovereignty,' said Michael Ben-Ari, a legislator from the opposition far-right National Union party.

Uzi Landau, one of the leaders of Lieberman's Yisrael B'Teinu party, said he found it difficult to believe that 'the leader of a friendly country would express himself thus.'

He added that had he been prime minister and heard such things, 'I would have pounded on the table and made a protest.'

A dissenting voice came Haim Oron, the head of the dovish Meretz party, who said he did not need Sakrozy to tell him that 'the foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, is bad for the state of Israel.'

Former Israeli ambassador to Germany, Avi Primor, noted that the French were saying outright what others were only thinking.

Netanyahu told European Union ambassadors Tuesday that he had 'full confidence' in his foreign minister.

Senior officials in Netanyahu's bureau also denied a report that the premier had told the Israeli Ambassador to France not to update Lieberman on Sarkozy's comments.