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Europe
French nearly fired at Israelis
2006-11-09
French troops serving in Lebanon have been only seconds away from firing on Israeli aircraft, the French defence minister says. Michele Alliot-Marie told parliament the jets dived towards UN positions in October and were perceived as a threat. "Two seconds later there would have been a shot against the aircraft which were directly menacing our forces," the defence minister said.

France has previously complained about Israel violating Lebanese air space. Ms Alliot-Marie last month called the intrusions "extremely dangerous". She raised her concerns with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Jean-Marie Guehenno, the French head of the UN peacekeeping operations.

The head of France's troops in Lebanon even suggested their rules of engagement might need to be changed so that they could reply with force to Israel's air violations.

Ms Alliot-Marie said of the October incident that a "catastrophe" was avoided only thanks "to the judiciousness of our troops".

The foreign minister said France would issue a caution to Israel.
sidebar:
"It is a miracle that nothing serious happened, because there could have been a response on the part of French troops."

Philippe Douste-Blazy
French foreign minister

I'd pay to see that!
Posted by:Nimble Spemble

#13  I got $20 says the Israelis don't even work up a sweat.

I see your $20 and double down. (As it were)
Posted by: Zenster   2006-11-09 22:35  

#12  Spot on Al. The IDF would char up a tasty batch of French fries and be back in time for corn flakes (so to speak).
Posted by: Rex Mundi   2006-11-09 19:04  

#11  French fighting the Jews? Not unless the jews are unarmed and loaded in cattle cars. I got $20 says the Israelis don't even work up a sweat.
Posted by: Weird Al   2006-11-09 18:54  

#10  Shame that patriotic French military will have to die for the fecklessness of Jacques and Dhimminique and Michele....(one of them is a woman, I can't remember which...). Light up an IAF jet and reap the consequences
Posted by: Frank G   2006-11-09 18:43  

#9  IDF, the french don't matter. They are not much more than buffoons who have not been able to do anything of substance since Napoleon.
Posted by: Xenophon   2006-11-09 18:33  

#8  I wouldn't discount the possibility of a non-authorized incident - 15% of French military is Muslim.
Posted by: mrp   2006-11-09 12:45  

#7  You can bet the UN GPS coordinates have been registered to the last foxhole.
Posted by: ed   2006-11-09 12:43  

#6  Ima thinking this is a really bad idea. The French did well against the Greenpeace hippies at the Battle of the Rainbow Warrior, but the Israelies have a lot of practice lately shooting at people and things.
Posted by: SteveS   2006-11-09 12:40  

#5  The anti-israeli stance is indeed part of the equation to placate the restless Youths (the others being the endless stream of subsidies, and the apologist culture of the mainstream ideology).

Fun part is, this whole anti-israeli stance is in itself fueling the restlessness of the Youths, by applying the full force of the MSM to entrench them in their worldview... kinda like the Tf1 star anchorman having a lapsus yesterday, while presenting the 18 dead paleos with the usual french MSM progaganda bia (IE giving only the arab point of view, while palying the emotional chord with shots of dead bodies,...), by saying "americans" instead of "israelis"...

By legitimizing the "armed resistance", "liberation struggle",... in Israel, and in Iraq too, the french System is incidentally justifying violence in France. It's a vicious circle. All hail our Glorious Arab Policy!
Posted by: anonymous5089   2006-11-09 12:39  

#4  That would have been the last goddamn thing the French troops would have done.
Posted by: DarthVader   2006-11-09 12:31  

#3  wow. This should be frontpage news. But we just voted in the party that will support France.
Posted by: anon   2006-11-09 12:30  

#2  I'm not a fan of conspiracy theories, buuuuuttt,
is this France's payoff to keep their OWN intifadah under control?
Posted by: AlanC   2006-11-09 12:28  

#1  JFM might be right in his assessment of yacoub ben shiraq needing an open, shooting war with Israel to run for a third time and hopefully get re-elected.

This is crazy, but then again french politics are getting crazier and crazier, aloof from reality, and driven by personal ambitions hiding behind failed ideologies and addicts to political power and taxpayers money
Posted by: anonymous5089   2006-11-09 12:24  

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