10 June 2007

De Gaulle and the Seven Day War

Robert Fisk cites the following comment from Charles de Gaulle, then president of France, on the Israeli attack on Egypt in June 1967:

Only the president of France, General de Gaulle, moved into political isolation by telling a press conference several months later that Israel "is organising, on the territories which it has taken, an occupation which cannot work without oppression, repression and expulsions - and if there appears resistance to this, it will in turn be called 'terrorism'"


As Fisk points out in his article, de Gaulle was the only French politician at the time to see it as it was and have the courage to speak it. He may well have been the only non-Arab politician!

A year later, the events of May 1968 in France pushed de Gaulle out of power.

1 comment:

A.V. Michaels said...

Great blog! Easy on the eyes, intelligent, interesting links.