Sarkozy urges Netanyahu: Get rid of Lieberman
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent Last update - 21:54 29/06/2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1096504.html

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
to "get rid" of hard-line Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Channel Two
reported on Monday.

The Foreign Ministry responded to the report by lambasting the French leader
for his "intolerable intervention in internal Israeli affairs."

Sarkozy spent a good portion of his meeting with Netanyahu last Wednesday
discussing the composition of the Israeli official, according to the report.
The presence of three other Israeli officials at the meeting did not deter
the French leader from expressing his true opinion of the foreign minister,
said Channel Two.

The French president reportedly told Netanyahu that while he usually
scheduled talks with Israel's top foreign envoys on visit to Paris he could
not bring himself to meet with Lieberman. According to Channel Two, this
statement was accompanied by disparaging hand gestures.

Sarkozy then advised Netanyahu to fire Lieberman and bring former foreign
minister Tzipi Livni back into the coalition, according to the report.
Netanyahu reportedly told Sarkozy that Lieberman came across differently in
private than his public appearances would suggest.

French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen also comes across as a nice person
in private, Sarkozy reportedly responded, to which Netanyahu replied that
Lieberman was not Le Pen and that there was no basis for comparison. Sarkozy
then responded that he did not intend to compare.