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Lost In Translation
Ségolène Royal has run into a spot of bother in the Middle East. The French presidential candidate, who is on a publicity-raising tour of the region, appeared to give her approval to a Hezbollah politician who compared Israel to the Nazis and attacked the US as "insane."
Royal was in Beirut to meet MPs from all sides of the religious divide. Of course, this being the Middle East, foaming nutters are only to be expected, and one would expect a potential President of France to nod politely as they rant.
Thus, Ali Ammar - a Hezbollah MP - spoke for 20 minutes, criticising America's "unlimited insanity" for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. He then moved on to Israel:
"The Nazism that has spilt our blood and usurped our independence and our sovereignty is no less evil than the Nazi occupation of France," the Telegraph reports he said.
Ms Royal's response? “Thank you for being so frank. I agree with a lot of the things you have said, notably your analysis of the US.”
France's centre-right - due to face off against the Socialist MP in April's presidential elections - pounced. Foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy described her vision of the Middle East as simplistic. Her likely opponent Nicolas Sarkozy's adviser, Francois Fillon, said,
"To talk to a member of Hizbollah, an organisation that calls for the destruction of Israel, provoked and led a war against Israel by entering Israeli territory and taking hostages was an error."
Research minister François Goulard was more succinct: “Ségolène Royal obviously doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
Royal is not exactly known as a foreign policy heavyweight, but her expression of solidarity with Hezbollah was delightful gift for her opponents; It took her 24 hours to build up the front to respond.
She said she only meant to criticise US policy in Iraq, not Americans in general (though why did she describe Ammar's rant as "analysis?")
Furthermore, she didn't hear his comparison of Israel with the Nazis, and if she did, she would have walked out, Royal claimed. She claimed her interpreter had not explained Ammar's speech.
This figures, in a sense. Translations from the Arabic for the benefit of do-gooding westerners are often rumoured to be full of peace-loving platitudes and promises to work together - only native speakers get the full story, which often has quite a different perspective. Observers have noted that Yasser Arafat would speak of peace to western reporters, then switch to "cut their throats in their beds" mode for a home audience.
Was Royal another victim of this double-talking diplomacy?
For EURSOC, anyway, the most interesting thing about this story is not that Ségolène Royal has a cloth ear for international affairs - indeed, her apparent enmity towards the US and dislike of Israel is hardly likely to distance her from the left wing vote.
No, it's hearing French politicians condemn Hizbollah in the strongest possible terms. Who could have thought this could come from a Frenchman, formerly a front-bencher:
"To talk to a member of Hizbollah, an organisation that calls for the destruction of Israel, provoked and led a war against Israel by entering Israeli territory and taking hostages was an error."
Funny old world.
