SHITTY LITTLE AMBASSADOR GOES HOME


Daniel Bernard
Ciao
Making room for new shitty little ambassador?

Israel-bashing French ambassador to UK recalled
French Ambassador to the UK Daniel Bernard, who achieved notoriety when he described Israel as "that shitty little country" which threatens world peace, is being recalled. The decision to recall Bernard, 18 months after his undiplomatic remarks were first reported is said to be connected to the outcome of the recent French elections, in which prime minister Lionel Jospin's socialist government was replaced by a conservative administration.

Bernard sparked a diplomatic stir at a luncheon he attended at the London home of Lord Black of Crossharbor, chairman of Hollinger Inc., which owns The Jerusalem Post , and his wife, columnist Barbara Amiel. In her column, which lamented that anti-Semitism has become respectable at smart London dinner tables, Amiel said the ambassador of a major European Union country "politely told a gathering at my home that the current troubles in the world were all because of 'that shitty little country Israel.'" "Why," she quoted him as saying, "should the world be in danger of World War III because of those people?" (Jerusalem Post)