| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Israel shocked by Sarkozy's pick for FM |
| 2007-05-14 |
| Jerusalem was both "shocked" and "disappointed" by French President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy's reported selection of Socialist Hubert Vedrine as his foreign minister over the weekend. Vedrine is a well-known and not-much-beloved personage in Jerusalem, having served as foreign minister under prime minister Lionel Jospin from 1997-2002. During the height of the Palestinian violence that began in September 2000, Vedrine advocated economic sanctions against Israel within the EU. Litmus test |
| Posted by:gromgoru |
| #6 IIUC, védrine is out, and Bernard Kouchner (one of the only personalities from the left who actually approved OIF, along with Romain Goupil, and, huh,...) is in. But, still rumors. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2007-05-14 10:02 |
| #5 For now, it is just rumors. Sarkozy is not even President yet. Because Sarkozy wants to get a, sort of, National Union Governamnt, he is trying to open his governement to keft and left of center peole. he gets a couple significative peole from the left (BTW: there are some people in the "socislist" party who are realtively pro-market) then he will not need Vedrine. If vedrine is about the only defector he will have to cope with him. I am not enchanted with eth perspective of Vedrine as FM because he is to my tastes far too much a member of the cyniavcl and amoral tradition of diplomats. But, traditionally, Foreign lations have been part of President's with Foreign Minister playing a far lesser role than Ministers in other departments. He is not supposed to define France's foreign policy but to be a mouth piece and care about adminstrative tasks like selecting emlbassadors. In 2000, Vedrine was Chirac's and Jospin's minister, now his job is to be Sarkozy's |
| Posted by: JFM 2007-05-14 09:58 |
| #4 Note to Israel, we are shocked at your choice of Olmert for any position above street cleaner. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2007-05-14 09:26 |
| #3 Half measures never accomplish shit. No more wine and cheese. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2007-05-14 09:25 |
| #2 Any politician coming from Europe is like this. I would be thrilled if he just had a "support the Paleos morally and ignore Israel" approach. But, you go to bat against the governments they give you, not the government you want. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-05-14 09:15 |
| #1 But compared to Dominique de Vulpine (who is a man)? There's bad, and there's worse. Considering that Sarko is presumably going to pick his cabinet from the establishment, not some farmer in the southeast, this may be the best we can expect. I ask A5089 and JFM is there is a relatively high-up person who is at least neutral on Israel? |
| Posted by: Jackal 2007-05-14 08:37 |