The French and Israeli ambassadors to the US got into a Twitter fight this week about one of the world's most controversial conflicts: Israel-Palestine.
The squabble began on Monday, when Gerard Araud, France's ambassador to the US, tweeted a statement by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius about the ongoing Syria peace talks:
#Syria." There can't be a political negotiation when one side is murdering the other". L. Fabius, French MFA.
— Gérard Araud (@GerardAraud) February 8, 2016
Though the statement was about Syria—not Israel—some Israeli Twitter users saw a similarity to France's current position on the Israel-Palestinian conflict. In late January, Fabius announced that France would formally recognize a Palestinian state if a French-led international conference to negotiate a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine failed.
Israeli leaders objected to Fabius's statement, saying it provided a disincentive for the Palestinians to negotiate if they knew ahead of time that France will recognize their sovereignty regardless.
Israelis immediately started attacking Araud over the tweet:
@GerardAraud #France's nonsensical ultimatum to @Israel? Welcome to the #MiddleEast, where no one likes westerners superimposing solutions
— יעקב אהרן סולטן (@YaacovSultan) February 9, 2016
Israel's ambassador to the UN soon saw Araud's tweet and decided to weigh in, too. He wrote: "Hmmm. Wonder if that wisdom will one day be applied to when Jews are being murdered in Israel."
@GerardAraud Hmmm. Wonder if that wisdom will one day be applied to when Jews are being murdered in Israel
— Amb. Ron Dermer (@AmbDermer) February 8, 2016
Araud appears to have restrained himself from responding to Dermer's barb, but later that day the French official, who served from 2003-2006 as France's ambassador to Israel, posted a tweet lamenting how the rhetoric on Israel-Palestine is so polarized:
Israel/Palestine. So predictable that any pretext leads one side to declare that the other one is evil.
— Gérard Araud (@GerardAraud) February 9, 2016
The next morning, the Twitter feud was apparently still on Araud's mind. He posted a tweet saying that "passion" and a lack of objectivity are the obstacles to peace:
Israel/Palestine. Feeding the passion instead of analyzing the situation from both sides is a good way to escape the real issues.
— Gérard Araud (@GerardAraud) February 9, 2016
Fabius announced Wednesday that for he's stepping down from his post as French Foreign Minister. His resignation appears to have had nothing to do with the spat between Dermer and Araud, however, as it had been reported before the Twitter quarrel happened.
