[Peace-discuss] France's Fallujah: The Battle of Cote D'Ivoire

[C. G. Estabrook]

...as its avid co-operation in the US coup in Haiti demonstrated; the
French jackal is able to put its distaste for US war aside when its own
pelf is involved.

And there's some indication that some other animals were moiling about in
the jungle of Ivorian politics:

	Analysis: Israel hand seen in Ivorian clash
	By Martin Sieff, UPI Senior News Analyst
	United Press International
	17 November 2004

http://www.wpherald.com/Africa/storyview.php?StoryID=20041117-021251
-9832r

WASHINGTON -- New allegations that Israeli arms dealers helped the
army of Ivory Coast attack a French military base look likely to
reignite long-tense relations between Israel and France.

"Israeli mercenaries assisting the Ivory Coast army operated
unmanned aircraft that aided the aerial bombing of a French base in
the country on Nov.9," France's TF-1 television station reported
Wednesday.

Also Wednesday, the respected Paris newspaper Le Monde reported that a
group of 46 Israeli advisers were running an electronic- surveillance
center for the Ivory Coast army, which has turned on French peacekeepers
invited in by the government two years ago.

Israel Radio cited an Israeli defense source as denying the reports.
The attacks on French bases cost the lives of at least nine French
soldiers.

"Israel is unaware of such a thing," the Jerusalem Post quoted the
Israeli Foreign Ministry saying.

Earlier, French troops at Abidjan airport in Ivory Coast, now Cote
D'Ivoire, seized an Israeli-built drone, or unmanned-surveillance
aircraft. In September, France called on Israel to clarify its role
in Ivory Coast.

On Nov. 9, the Israeli Defense Ministry's Director General Amos
Yaron promised to stop supplying military equipment to the army in
the poor West African nation.

"The decision was made in the light of recent developments in this
country and at the request of the French government," a Defense
Ministry statement said. "It will remain in effect until the
situation in that country becomes clear."

The allegations are political dynamite for many reasons. France was
so incensed by the deadly Nov.9 air attack on its troops it
responded with overwhelming force, wiping out the entire Ivory Coast
air force. In retaliation, enraged mobs attacked French troops and
citizens in the former French colony and France evacuated more than
5,000 Westerners in the country.

The U.N. Security Council Monday approved an arms embargo on Ivory
Coast, a move that was a blow to President Laurent Gbagbo, who had
pledged to rebuild the air force. On Wednesday, the African Union
called for an urgent meeting of its Peace and Security Council to
prevent Ivory Coast from collapsing into full-scale civil war like
its West African neighbors, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The AU issued
a statement that called for "the early convening" of the PSC "to
review developments in Ivory Coast and agree on steps to be taken to
contribute tot eh restoration of lasting peace and security."

France has significant economic interests in Ivory Coast as well
long-time ties to the country, but in recent months its 2002
intervention there has become a hot potato and President Jacques
Chirac might well want to divert popular attention from the
casualties that French troops have suffered.

Israel makes some of the most advanced unmanned drone surveillance
aircraft in the world and has been a significant arms exporter to
sub-Saharan Africa for more than 35 years. But the Israelis are not
eager to infuriate the French government or rally the French public
around Chirac who has often clashed with Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon on many issues. France is one of the most powerful
nations in the 25-country European Union. It also has the largest
Jewish community in Europe and one that has been targeted by
Islamist extremists from the country's Algerian-Muslim community.
The last thing French Jews would want is for Israel, and by
implication them, to be scapegoats for mainstream French
nationalists because of the deaths of French troops in Ivory Coast.

Tensions between Israel and France are based on serious policy
differences between the governments but there is much more personal
animus to them than between Israel and most other members of the EU.
A few years ago at a large dinner, France's ambassador to Britain
was reported as having described Israel as "a shitty little
country." More recently, Sharon enraged the French government and
many Frenchmen by calling on French Jews to immigrate to Israel for
their own safety. Few took his advice.

The tensions are particularly ironic as no nation did more to help
Israel during the first and most dangerous 20 years of its struggle
for existence than France. Under both the Fourth and Fifth
Republics, Israel received more important weapons for its army and
air force from France than from any other country. Israel won the
1967 Six Day War with then state-of-the-art Mirage fighter-bombers
supplied by France when neither the United States nor any other
European nation would or could supply comparable weapons.

Ivory Coast is the largest cocoa exporting nation in the world and
its resources have long made it a magnet for Westerners eager to do
business. But Israel is now finding out, as France already has, that
the messy complications involved may not be worth it.

**********************************************************

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004, Matt Reichel wrote:

> In a marked display of ignorance, the mainstream American press and
> analysts from both sides of the political spectrum have effectively
> painted a rosy picture of France this election season: making the
> country out to be pacifistically opposed to the U.S. war in Iraq.
> Undoubtedly, the French citizenry is overwhelmingly opposed to what
> Bush has done in Iraq, and simultaneously supported his defeat this
> election season. But have no illusions about the French government:
> from Napoleon to Chirac, this is a land of empire......
> 
> 
> http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov2004/Reichel1118.htm
>