French President Nicholas Sarkozy and U.S. President Barack Obama got caught sharing some untoward opinions about another, more embattled head of state.
From the Associated Press:
"In the remarks Thursday in Cannes, Sarkozy said: "Netanyahu, I can't stand him. He's a liar."
According to the French interpreter, Obama responded, "You are sick of him, but I have to work with him every day."
These remarks were supposed to be off the record, but the microphone between them was live, and the interpreters for the two heads of state relayed some of their private frustrations with the Israeli Prime Minister.
With the sudden release of WikiLeaks, the world is not less jaded, nor accepting, about the doubled-minded nature of international diplomacy. Officials present a warm, united front to the world all the time, yet in closed sessions or among their own corps they relate their fears and misgivings about fellow diplomats and chief executives.
Still, does this sudden outrage exchanged between these two Western leaders signal a growing rift with the Jewish State?
At this point, even if there were a growing rift with Israel developing between the French and American Presidents, the United States has already witnessed time and again as President Obama has betrayed his supporting coalition with Israel. From making manifold mea culpas to the Arab World, to refusing to demand for the ouster of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during 2009 protests in Iran, to demanding peace at any cost with the Palestinians, even suggesting that Isreal out to recede back to ist pre-1967 borders.
Frankly, we should be relieved that the Israeli Prime Minister is an irritant to the current U.S. President, a man who has let allies of Israel slip from power, standing idly by while hostile Arab states amass power and threaten the Jewish State.
Regarding the legacy of French President Nicholas Sarkozy's loyalties, the leader apparently shows solidarity with the Jewish State in the face of an existential threat from Iran. He has already cautioned that Iran must brace for a pre-emptive strike in the event that Iran develops nuclear capabilities. He has remained a firm ally, assuring community leaders of the World Jewish Congress that Israel must be recognized as a sovreign state with all rights and privileges pertaining to its existence in the Middle East. Only then can a lasting peace be brokered with the West Bank.
In all matters, including diplomacy, the world community must judge its heads of state by the actions they take, not their private communications.
President Harry Truman betrayed anti-Semitism in his private correspondance, but he was the first President to officially recognize the Jewish State. Sarkozy is a firm ally of the Jewish State, a center-right politicians who strengthened ties with the United States upon election in 2007, and who instituted strict reforms to impose law and order while serving as France's Minister of the Interior during volatile race riots throughout the Paris suburbs.
Only President Barack Obama has questions to answer regarding his near-obessession with forging peace, irrespective of the long-term intergrity of Israel. His relunctance to support the Jewish state stems from a center-left world view that demands equality as the greatest good, with all other values relegated to marginal status. Yet equality is an impossible goal as long as one member of negotiates will settle for nothing less than the eradication of the other.