Blog : PAF 2.0 - Politique Arabe de la France

Interviewé à la TV israélienne, BHL s'est exprimé dans ce sens à la veille de la « Conférence du Président » organisée a Jérusalem par Shimon Péres : il prit le fait de la plainte contre Olmert pour démontrer la qualité de la démocratie israélienne

C'est aussi le thème choisi par The Wall Street Journal

President Bush, Tony Blair and a host of other dignitaries are in Jerusalem today to celebrate Israel's 60th birthday. Meanwhile, their host, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, faces potential indictment over bribery allegations. We take no view of the substance of the claims, except to say that the very possibility that they could be brought is itself a tribute to the state Israelis have built.
Israel used to be the only democracy in the Middle East. That's no longer true, as democratic institutions take root in Turkey and Iraq. But Israel remains especially admirable in its insistence that elected leaders be answerable to the law as well as the public. Even in France, former President Jacques Chirac remained beyond the reach of investigators looking into similar bribery allegations while he remained in high office.
Israel's fidelity to the rule of law is all the more remarkable given that it has spent its entire existence in a state of siege. Israel's enemies promised its destruction in 1948 and 1967, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad does so today. Those threats must be taken seriously, especially as Iran and Syria consolidate their grip on Lebanon and deepen ties with Palestinian radicals in Gaza.
Israel has nonetheless consistently managed to defeat its enemies, often by means of pre-emption. These victories have served American as well as Israeli interests, not least when they destroyed the nuclear plans of Saddam Hussein in 1981 at Osirak and, more recently, of Bashar Assad.
We hope that Israel will someday live at peace with its neighbors. But its first obligation must be to its own defense as long as its neighbors still deny the Jewish state's right to exist. We're confident Israel will continue to thrive as a great nation ? especially as it adds the principles of free markets to its longstanding belief in the dignity of free men.