FRANCE BACKS SOFTER CONDITIONS ON PALESTINIANS

UNITED NATIONS September 22, 2006 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert should agree to talk with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas even if Hamas declines to explicitly recognize Israel's right to exist but joins a government that does, France's foreign minister said on Friday.

Hamas appears divided on whether to join a government of national unity, but if it did, the ruling Islamist group sworn to Israel's destruction would hold only a minority of seats in a Palestinian cabinet, Philippe Douste-Blazy* said.

If a majority of the government did recognize Israel, "in such a condition I believe it is really in Olmert's interest to talk to President Abbas and to move very quickly toward setting up a Palestinian state," he told a press breakfast on the sidelines of a U.N. General Assembly meeting.

This is no big deal for France, as she openly supports Hamas even though Hamas is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the EU, a political union to which France purportedly conforms.

"I think it is better today to encourage the moderates. If you don't do that, I believe President Abbas when he says it is not Hamas that is going to collapse in two weeks but the whole of Palestinian society, and that would be dreadful," Douste-Blazy said.

But there are no Palestinian moderates to be encouraged. There are Palestinians who openly advocate for the destruction of Israel and there are Palestinians who play coy. It is Hamas that will be encouraged having gained and conceded nothing.

Douste-Blazy said Israel and the United States "should fully understand today that to help Mahmoud Abbas is the right attitude and the right solution."

France strongly supported the international conditions on an aid resumption, he said.

"But we must also take note that the Hamas party would take at most a third of the national unity government in joining in with Fatah. And as Fatah recognizes Israel ... one could assume that implicitly this government would also recognize Israel," Douste-Blazy said.

Or one could assume M. Douste-Blazy is more concerned with scoring diplomatic brownie points at Israel's expense. Or one could assume M. le Ministre hopes to curry favor with Hamas and its Arab paymasters at Israel's expense. Or one could assume France is taking a position at variance with the United States for the pleasure of contrariety at Israel's expense. Or one could assume France lacks the spine to hold out against terrorists. Or one could assume M. Douste-Blazy is out of his depth.

There are recurring themes in French Middle East diplomacy. 1) There are no parties with which the French will not have a sit-down. Moral depravity is not an obstacle for a nice chat. 2) Everyone is an equal partner with equal claims. Those parties favored by France, however, are more equal. 3) Everything is negotiable -- demands, concessions, obligations, principles, justice. 4) Ongoing violence and its incremental gains are always preferrable to war, as long as the gains are by favored parties. 5) History holds no lessons.

What does France care? She risks nothing. Certainly nothing for "that shitty little country".

* The dimmest bulb in the dark Chirac marquee™.

PFFT (What is this?): Imminent dreadful collapse 0 | French dread 0 | French tears 5 | Rayonnement français 0