Same Old Same Old

Nelson Ascher forwarded this AP report:

French President Jacques Chirac blocked the European Union from ending a two-day summit Friday with a harshly worded statement condemning Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s remarks about Jews a day earlier.

Backed by Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, officials said, Chirac objected to a few short sentences in a 19-page summit statement deploring Mahathir’s comment at an Islamic leaders summit that “Jews rule the world by proxy.”

Foreign ministers Thursday night had drafted a text that said: “His unacceptable comments hinder all our efforts to further interethnic and religious harmony, and have no place in a decent world. Such false and anti-Semitic remarks are as offensive to Muslims as they are to others.”

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told reporters Thursday night Mahathir’s remarks were “gravely offensive.”

But when the paper was handed to EU leaders Friday morning, Chirac said there was no place in an EU declaration for a text of this kind, diplomats said. Other leaders agreed, although the Netherlands wanted the wording to stay in the declaration.

Doesn’t Chirac realize that the Nazi Occupation is long over? He can quit collaborating already.