Opposition politicians are planning to attack the French Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, in the National Assembly this afternoon as the French domestic uproar over Mr Jospin's gaffe in Israel continues for the fifth consecutive day.
President Jacques Chirac personally telephoned at least three leading right-wing politicians to coordinate the onslaught against Mr Jospin, after the Prime Minister slighted the French head of state on his return from Israel and the Occupied Territories at the weekend. Mr Chirac had demanded to see Mr Jospin to discuss his remarks about the Lebanese Hizbullah.
But while the President waited by the telephone on Saturday night, Mr Jospin went out to dinner with his wife. At 11 p.m., exasperated by what he called Mr Jospin's "offhandedness", Mr Chirac telephoned him at a dinner party.
The President reminded the Prime Minister of the "constancy" of French foreign policy and its "balance" in the Middle East, a midnight communique from the Elysee said. "To put into question this impartiality would damage the credibility. . . of France's capacity to act in favour of peace," the statement added.
Mr Chirac and Mr Jospin will meet for the first time since their icy telephone conversation tomorrow morning. Their run-in over Middle East policy has created the worst crisis in their three-year cohabitation and is widely regarded as a political setback for Mr Jospin, who hopes to win Mr Chirac's job in the 2002 presidential election. The image of the Prime Minister being pelted with stones by Palestinians will not easily be erased from the minds of voters.
On February 24th, in the presence of the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Jospin condemned the "terrorist actions" of Hizbullah, including "when they are carried out against Israeli soldiers".
The remarks showed Mr Jospin's ignorance. France helped to broker an April 1996 understanding under which Hizbullah and the Israeli army are allowed to attack one another in southern Lebanon, providing they spare civilians. Earlier this month, Paris condemned Israel's bombing of civilian power plants.
Mr Jospin's error was the subject of front-page headlines in France's three main newspapers yesterday. The right-wing Le Figaro also published a half-page opinion piece by the former Foreign Minister, Mr Herve de Charette - who negotiated the 1996 accord - calling Mr Jospin's Middle East trip "a failure for France" and accusing him of seeking domestic political advantage abroad. Le Figaro's editorial said Mr Jospin had infringed on the President's prerogative to conduct foreign policy. Liberation, which usually supports Mr Jospin, concluded that he has "lost a round" in his contest with Mr Chirac and was "overtaken by the consequences of his own action. . . It's what you call providing the stick for your own beating."
