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Source: http://europe.newsweek.com/avi-dichter-paris-conference-israel-palestinian-violence-peace-543104
France Does Not Understand the Middle East
(Newsweek) Avi Dichter - The Paris conference was not a peace conference. Never before have so many senior international officials been so removed from the horrible crimes that are happening today between Arabs and Muslims across the region. The ongoing wars in a collapsed Libya, the occupation of Yemen by the Iran-backed Houthis, the chaos in Iraq, Iranian operations in the strategic Bab el Mandeb Red Sea shipping lane, the wave of terrorism in Egypt, the six years of violence perpetrated on the Syrian people by Bashar al-Assad, and the terror attacks in Nice, Paris, Berlin, Istanbul and elsewhere in Europe have no connection to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. The gaps in French understanding of what is really happening in the Middle East are a serious cause for concern. We are the ones who will decide about our future here in Israel. The French have the right to state their opinion, but not the right to make decisions on our behalf. The writer, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, is a former head of the Israel Security Agency.