- The new French ambassador to Israel was involved in a
diplomatic row yesterday after a report that he had called Israel a "paranoid
country" and its Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, "a punk".
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- Silvan Shalom,Israel's Foreign Minister, ordered its
embassy in Paris to seek official "clarification" of the report
in Yedioth Ahronoth.
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- The newspaper's Paris correspondent, Boaz Bismout, said
that Gerard Araud, who is yet to take up his post in Tel Aviv, made the
remarks last week in a private conversation at a cocktail party for senior
French diplomats given by Dominique de Villepin, the Foreign Minister.
The report said M. Araud had "repeatedly" used the word "voyou"
of Mr Sharon and had criticised the controversial fence being built to
cut off the Palestinian territories.
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- The dispute may partly focus on the meaning of voyou
- a term sometimes used by parents of misbehaving children. Mr Bismout's
report says the French-Hebrew dictionary defines the word as "punk,
thug, hooligan, criminal, crook".
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- An Israeli Foreign Ministry official said that if the
remarks had been said as reported they were "severe". But he
said the ministry was not going to rush to judgement before it had an official
response from Paris.
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=439003
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