Israel's UN ambassador attends Le Pen meeting by 'mistake'
Ron Prosor says he arrived at a luncheon for leader of France's exreme-right party by 'accident' and left immediately; French media, however, reproted that Prosor stayed for 20 minutes and shook Le Pen's hand.
By Shlomo Shamir Tags: France UNIsrael’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, said over the weekend that his attendance at a luncheon for Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s extreme right-wing party National Front and presidential candidate, at the UN Headquarters in New York on Thursday was a "mistake".
"It was an event that I wasn't supposed to be at to begin with, and I got there by accident. When I realized my mistake, I immediately left the event,” Prosor said after the event.
Marine Le Pen is the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front party.
French media outlets reported widely on Prosor’s attendance at the UN event organized in Le Pen’s honor. French media noted that the Israeli ambassador shook Le Pen’s hand and remained at the event for 20 minutes. French newspapers also published a photograph of Prosor and Le Pen standing together.
Ambassador Prosor denied the contents of the French reports in a conversation with Haaretz. “After I saw Marine Le Pen there, I immediately realized that I had no place being there, and I left the room,” said Prosor.
The ambassador also said that no conversation took place between himself and Le Pen. “I didn’t remain there and I didn’t hear her briefing,” he said.
Prosor’s version of the events contradicts comments he made to reporters outside the event. Before he entered the hall, Prosor was asked by a French journalist if he is the “number one” Israeli diplomat at the United Nations. According to Prosor’s own recollection, he responded, “I replied to him that I am not a number, but a free man.”
When Prosor left the event, he was filmed by television cameras saying, “We spoke about Europe and other topics and I very much enjoyed the conversation.”
Le Pen herself was quoted by French news agencies on Saturday, saying that the Israeli ambassador’s presence at the event “was not an error.” According to Le Pen, “Please, no one actually imagines that the ambassador burst through the wrong door.”
The National Front leader added, “It is impossible to converse with Marine Le Pen for 20 minutes without knowing who she is.” According to Le Pen, “There was nothing unclear or ambiguous about our meeting.”
Israel Foreign Ministry spokesperson Yigal Palmor said that the meeting with Le Pen was “a fundamental mistake and does not reflect a change in Israeli policy towards the National Front.” According to Palmor, “[Prosor’s] arrival at the event was the result of a misunderstanding, and everything that occurred afterwards was the result of an unintended mistake in judgment.”
However, sources in the Foreign Ministry noted that it was a highly embarrassing incident. “By comparison, Congo’s Ambassador to the UN, who also came to the event, realized at the door what kind of event it was, and immediately turned around and left,” the sources said. “It was a serious error.”
קראו כתבה זו בעברית: שגריר ישראל באו"ם נפגש עם מנהיגת הימין בצרפת
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Prosor and Le Pen at the meeting. |
| Photo by: nationspresse.info |
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Marine Le Pen reacts after she was elected as the new president of France's far-right National Front party, January 16, 2011. |
| Photo by: AP |
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So Israeli ambassador attended event for one of the leading contenders for the French presidency. it doesn't mean Israel as a nation supports all tenets of NF program. Israel as a sovereign country is obliged to have open communication with any French government. This is a real-politic.
Israel currently has a far right administration it is only natural that Netanyahu's administration reaches out to them
if he is doing anything by mistake is his sitting at the united nation as the israeli ambassador.
I wonder who organized this event in UN headquarters. Was it UN staff? French representative in UN? Or was it Ms Le Pen with several supporters carrying signs "Occupy UN" (LOL)? So it is kosher for UN or French representative there to organize such an event but not for Israeli representative to attend it? There are many events in UN honouring such personalities that Ms Le Pen looks like a girl-scout in comparison.
LOLZ Mistake my foot. Likud have been courting European extremists for years now...
So Prosor is, like so many of Israeli leaders, another person who has a hard time telling the truth. Perfect that he works for Lieberman and Netanyahu.
That is the current Israeli government's philosophy. Beck, Le Pen, Danon, Lieberman, all peas in the same repugnant pod.
The picture of Prosor and Le Pen would have been complete had Lieberman was around.
The burgeoning popularity of Le Pen and others of her ilk is down to ordinary people's repugnance with the appalling results of Europe's irresponsible social engineering experiment. They are desperate and therefore view the far right parties as their only hope, forlorn as it may be. The far right parties can hardly be blamed for exploiting their desperation.
Instead of getting away from their old anti-Jewish ideology by turning to a humane weltanschauung, Europe's "New Right" leaders try to cover it up by discovering their sympathy for the Israeli occupational politics. Of course those folks would sell their grandmothers in order to come into power.
and what it says with what is said by most political parties in Israel, Marien Le Pen seems to be far left
how many Jews live in the Arab world?
As much as I am sickened by the behavior of the current Israeli Government, it still has a long way to go before it does what Hamas did a few weeks back, when it announced that no Jews would be allowed to live in Palestine. Isn't that as Racist as it gets?
As racist as it gets? Do you not remember far right parties in Europe? When Israeli politicians are befriending far right racist parties, then Jewish Israelis need to wake up and realise they are turning to the monster they thought they were running from.
Looks like the Israeli delagation at the UN is made out of real top guys. Or may be they are drunk, permanently drunk. They'd better be sent back to do some fishing in the Dead sea...
of course there was no mix up. there is plenty in common between LePenLieberman and Marine LePen: their hatred of muslims in particular. if anything was needed to prove it, here is the picture with the UN Ambassador. nobody else wanted to be photographed with her.
Cute picture.
As if Prosor is any better than Le Pen!
"Israel shouldn't alienate the future leader of France out of misguided political correctness." I agree, but it is worth alienating her for her neo-fascist views..
to prevent some other attempt at creating a Palestinian state