Sarkozy vows to use all power at disposal to free captive IDF troops
In meeting with IDF soldiers' families, French President says will raise issue with Lebanese, Palestinians.
By Jack KhouryIn a meeting with family members of abducted IDF soldiers, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday he would use all the power at his disposal to return the three servicemen home safely.
Sarkozy spoke in depth on the matter of Gilad Shalit who holds joint Israeli and French citizenship, saying he considers the IDF Corporal kidnapped by Hamas over a year ago to be a fully fledged French national.
"He promised us that he's doing all the efforts he can in this matter," Gilad Shalit's father, Noam Shalit, said in English after the meeting. "He considers my son as a French citizen as well as an Israeli soldier.|
The President added that as such, he would involve himself in talks with Palestinian authorities to secure Shalit's return as soon as possible.
Addressing the issue of IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Udi Goldwasser who were abducted by Hezbollah last summer in a move that sparked the Second Lebanon War, Sarkozy said he considers Hezbollah to be a terrorist organization.
He said his estimation of Hezbollah has not changed despite his government's issuing of permission of members of the Islamic group to visit France for talks with rival Lebanese factions on the future of the Middle Eastern country.
He pledged to the families to raise the issue of the abducted soldiers with Lebanese representatives when they next met.
Family members of the abducted soldiers called the meeting "very positive," and expressed hope that France would use its clout in the Middle East, particularly in the Lebanese and Palestinian arenas, to expedite the return of their loved ones from captivity.
A meeting between the delegation of family members and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kushner is scheduled later Monday.
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French President Nicolas Sarkozy. (Reuters) |
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First of all Sarkozy is not a jew, but a catholic. He had a grand father who was a tunisian jew and that converted to catholicism to marry the president's grand mother. Second, holding french citizenship is not a secondary concern. Through history France has always gone to the extreme to get back its citizen. From the gold bars it payed the vietmin for the return of our prisoners, the body of our deads and the children fathered by our soldiers (automatically french citizen). This is a long french tradition.
Maybe it is too hard for you to imagine that France and Switzerland have different citizenship laws and traditions. Once you are a french citizen you always are in the eyes of the French republic. If one select to obtain a second citizenship, France does not care.
Patriot - A man should be judged by his actions, not by one's opinion of him or speculations. For all I know, Sarkozy is already involved in the negotiations for the release of Ingrid Betancourt and now Gilad Shalit... both positive initiatives contributing to peace. By the way, Israel didn't need his help to approve the release of 250 Palestinians... Now the fact that he has Jewish, Muslim, Colombian or Mongolian origins, that's secondary to me... Let's just see what's next. I'm convinced he'll contribute positively to the region's peace initiatives.
that's ok (altough calling Peru his homeland would look a little bit exaggerated). Should he keep his Swiss citizenship and decide to join the army of Peru (or become a member of the Sendero Luminoso) he surely will get into troubles, and I doubt, that the Swiss government (aside from putting him into jail for serving a foreign army) would do very much for him.
Israel Bashers. You are a Friend of Israel (as I am)
Congrats for the brilliant generalization which puts you at Andreas' level. Last summer, because of the war, I joined the Sar-El organization an spent three weeks in the IDF to show my support to Israel (I'm not jew btw). What did you do?
Gilad Shalit holds the rank of corporal. That is below the rank of sargent. He was not playing war games and he (with his rank of corporal) does not set military policy or goals. Coming from Switzerland, I am certain that this will be hard for you to grasp, to understand, but Israel has a military draft. I understand it quite well because in the United States, we had a military draft as well. I lost several friends of mine in Viet Nam, and do you think for one moment that they wanted to go to Viet Nam?
That is exactly what he did !!! Gilad Shalit was abducted from Israel proper, non disputed Israeli territory, while guarding the border with Gaza. But maybe you are insinuating that jews should not live in Israel at all. What else can the jews expect from a Swiss ?
foreign countries.
"The fact that Shalit also holds a French citizenship is secondary. This is my view." Based on what, other than your obvious racism?
he comforts the idf soldiers parents with his words, and i have no problem at all with that, my beef is that he neglects or discounts all those parents of the 10,000 arabs held in israel jails, and THAT to me is one anti-semite and anti-arab moron i have seen, sarkozy will go down in history as corrupt, wait and see.
Hope you and Kouchner will be able to help very soon free our three soldiers.
Sarkozy is a Jew. It is no secret. This explains his interest in freeing Gilat Shalit. The fact that Shalit also holds a French citizenship is secondary. This is my view. Sarkozy could use his dual heritage (I won't suggest dual loyalty) to help Palestinians and Jews reach a peace... if he does what stupid Bush and the warmonger neocons have been doing, surely he will do more damage to Israel than good....... history has shown that Israeli politician and the military get spoiled whenever helped... they always seem to misinterpret help into becoming more arrogant and relentless.... further sinking themselves into dismal and certain peril. We have seen this in the last war with Hizbullah, which gave them a bloody nose.
I'm worried about France becoming Franclebgeria. You have to do something to save the French culture and the way they look.