News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has strongly criticized French President, Nicholas Sarkozy, for blatantly interfering in Israeli internal affairs by urging visiting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to replace Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman with another figure more acceptable to European and other leaders. He also compared Lieberman to Jean-Marie Le Pen, the far-right, anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant French politician.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “The ZOA strongly criticizes the blatant interference by President Sarkozy in Israeli internal affairs that are solely the prerogative of the elected Israeli government. We cannot imagine that President Sarkozy, on any other Western leader, would dare to voice such statements and seek to determine the composition of another democratic government in the case of any other country or even the Palestinian Authority.” In a statement to the press, Klein rhetorically asks how Sarkozy would react if a visiting Israeli leader would tell Sarkozy to remove one of his senior Cabinet ministers. “President Sarkozy must surely be aware of the exceptional breach of respect and protocol he committed in making these statements and should apologize for having done so,” the ZOA president added.