France's President Nicolas Sarkozy promised on Tuesday that if re-elected his first foreign visit would be to Germany and his second to Israel and the Palestinians to push a European peace initiative.
"I hope that France, and behind France all of Europe, take the initiative so that 2012 can be the year of peace between Israel and the Palestinians," Sarkozy said, in a television interview on his re-election campaign.
"I regret that Europe has not been more determined," he said, referring to the stalled international attempts to revive the peace process between Israel and its Palestinian neighbours.
He said that "if there is a people in the world that can understand the aspirations of Palestinians to statehood, it is the Israeli people.” “The Jewish people has waited so long for his state that that he can understand the aspiration of the Palestinians which is exactly the same.”
Mr Sarkozy also recalled that the Shoah, the extermination of 6 million Jews during the Second World War, "was done in Europe, not in the Middle East".
Sarkozy also expressed doubt that, given the US electoral calendar, that the United States would be able to play its usual role as the main guarantor of the Middle East peace process in the coming months.
"There is also a presidential election in the United States," he said.
"President Obama, who is a very great president, won't take the initiative before he's re-elected -- and I hope he will be -- but there's a place for France and a place for Europe," he said.