"If Mali is on France’s doorstep, Gaza is in Israel’s living room"

French soldier, wearing death mask, in Niono, northern Mali, January 2013: 
The wearing of the mask "is unacceptable behavior” said Col. Thierry 
Burkhard. “This image is not representative 
of action by France in Mali.”[Image Source]

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
24 January '13..

France's newest military activities in its former colony Mali have been the subject of two of our recent posts: "14-Jan-13: How do you say "proportionality" in French?"; and "17-Jan-13: 'Kidnapping' 'militant' 'hostage-taking' Islamists and the Algerian terror attack now underway".

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed Israel's support for France's air strikes on Islamist rebels, said to be connected to al-Qaeda, in Mali's north. Addressing French President Francois Hollande, Netanyahu pointed out that

“While there are countries for which the threat of terrorism is thousands of kilometers away from the homes of their citizens, we in Israel are familiar with the threat of global terrorism from up close. For us it is only a few hundred meters away from our homes.”

Netanyahu discreetly said nothing about the proportionality of France's actions, though the temptation must have been great given the bitter criticisms directed at Israeli defensive actions in recent years by France and other states. It's a messy and complicated conflict [see Wikipedia's account] in northern Mali, though hardly more so than what we face here with our Hamas jihadist neighbours in Gaza. Already, certain news sources including Al Jazeera are highlighting massacres and other excesses perpetrated by the French and their associates [here for instance] but the Western media, for the most part, are ignoring such claims or at least minimizing their significance.

But criticism of Israel - as for instance delivered up by Scotland's Minister for External Affairs and International Development, Humza Yousaf, in November 2012 - gets far broader media attention:

(Continue)

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