[VIDEO IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu today, Wednesday, 27 Adar 5772 met with French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe ahead of the levaya for the Toulouse terror attack victims.  The following remarks at the start of the meeting:

“I welcome French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe to Jerusalem.  I wish that the meeting could have taken place under better circumstances.  I appreciate the clear and decisive stand that has been taken by President Sarkozy and the French Government against this horror.  I believe that the struggle against terrorism requires greater clarity.  Terrorism is a systematic and deliberate attack on civilians, a deliberate attack against children.

“There is a substantial difference between such deliberate attacks against civilians and children and unintentional strikes against civilians that are part of legitimate actions to fight terrorism.  If we do not make this distinction, if we allow such a mendacious analogy, then the terrorists will have won.  If we make this moral distinction, then we will have defeated terrorism.

“I believe that this is the position of France; this is the position of Israel.  I also think that we must fight this extraordinary propaganda against Israel and Jews everywhere, against innocents, which leads these people to perpetrate such barbaric acts.  I believe that we stand together on all these issues and this has been made clear in recent days.  I would like to express the appreciation of the Israeli people, who alongside the French people were shocked by this barbaric act, to the French Government.”

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(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)