French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday at the annual dinner of CRIF, the representative umbrella body of French Jewish organizations, that it’s urgent to revive direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, stressing that "the best guarantee of Israel's security is the presence at its side of a democratic, viable and sovereign Palestinian state."
Recalling that for France Israel's security is "not negotiable", the president called on Israel to negotiate in order to build peace. "There will be no security for Israel without peace," he stressed in his speech.
Sarkozy was for the second time since his election in 2007 the guest of honour at the CRIF dinner attended by 1,000 people, including half of the French government, politicians from the majority and the opposition, religious leaders, diplomats, Jewish, Christian and Muslim personalities, at the Pavillon d’Armenonville in Paris.
According to Sarkozy, "peace between Israelis and Palestinians is a problem for each of our democracies because this conflict provides the feeding ground of terrorism and extremism from which we also suffer."
He also spoke of the events in Tunisia and Egypt, describing them as the "beginning of a spring of peoples which is encouraging because it is positive and authentic. "
"Protesters in Tunisia or Egypt do not cry “Down with the West, Down with America, or Down with Israel," he said. "They did'nt advocate a return to a past mythical Islamic golden age. They didn’t attack any minority ", the French president argued.
But he said he was careful "not to make conclusions too quickly." "Who can say what the next steps are? Who can rule out brutal or totalitarian drifts? Nobody," he said.
Speaking before Sarkozy, the head of CRIF, Richard Prasquier, said he "admires" the revolution without precedent in several Arab countries while remaining "vigilant".
"Under the banner of democracy and freedom there are hidden people who seek to destroy freedom and democracy. This is the case of the Muslim Brotherhood. Their ideology may cause the return of a rhetoric of war against Israel," he said.
In his speech, Sarkozy also stressed France’s "Jewish roots." He said Judaism "has helped shape the identity" of France.
"If France has Christian roots," he added, "it also has Jewish roots. The presence of Judaism in France is attested even before France was Christianized" .
But he said France doesn’t forget the Dreyfus affair nor the dark period when French collaborated with the Nazis in an anti-Semitic policy.
"This is not our France. Our France is the one that we've built together, a common history," Sarkozy said, citing French Jewish figures such as Camondo, Mandel, Mendes-France, Cassin and Simone Veil.