Nicolas Sarkozy’s “Testimony: France in the Twenty-First Century” (Pantheon Books 2007) includes this description of his views on
We cannot make our relations with
conditional on the ups and downs of our interests in Arab societies. I feel close to Israel . Israel is the product of the Holocaust, which is a stain on the twentieth century and all of human history. All democracies are accountable for Israel ’s security, which is non-negotiable. That in no way prevents Israel from expressing disagreements with the Israeli government. But these disagreements, however major they might be, cannot call into question our relations with this small but so symbolic country, whose democratic practices and economic performance can only be admired. France
Scrolling down through BtB’s remarkable post yesterday (worth reading in its entirety for multiple reasons), one can find an excerpt from a fascinating article on Sarkozy’s background, his Jewish roots, and a potential connection with Benjamin Netanyahu.
Sarkozy’s Introduction also contains a beautifully written appreciation of the United States, and the "gift of liberty" given to France "[i]n 1917 and again in 1944 [as] hundreds of thousands of young Americans crossed the Atlantic to pull Europe back from the verge of collective suicide."
I am particularly sensitive to this gift of liberty in several ways: as a Frenchman, as a political leader who has always worked to promote freedom, and finally as a son who wants to honor his father, who settled in France in 1948 after fleeing Communist Hungary. . .
And now at the start of the twenty-first century, the United States and France again stand together in the same camp against a serious threat to global freedom. . . . Every time that terrorism strikes — whether in New York, Madrid, Beslan, Tel Aviv, Casablanca, Amman, or London — it is freedom that is the target. Facing such a threat, free countries have no choice but to pool their forces and work together.