Historically France and Israel have shared several important experiences together We have strong economic trade and business ties We have joint

Historically, France and Israel have shared several important experiences together We have strong economic, trade and business ties We have joint projects together. France puts trust in Israel.I know that Europe may bring up bad memories, but we should work on strengthening the relationship: we share a sea, we are neighbours, we have cultural similarities. The first reflex for Israelis is to turn to the United States for economic cooperation, but Europe must not be forgotten We can help Israel to realise her vision We can work together in the fields of hi-tech R&D. Surveys have shown that many Israelis believe that the French are anti-Semitic.
You must understand, and believe me, that we are aware of and are horrified by the anti-Semitic acts that have taken place in France We are fighting it. Anti-Semitism is not the problem of French Jews, it is the problem of the entire country of France. Coming from the outside, I cannot fully share your pain and suffering. France and Israel have stated their friendship; however we have many misunderstandings between us.

Israel likes France, but does not always believe that France reciprocates this feeling. Children need to oblige everyone and cannot take sides: they end up like pastry rolled so thin it crumbles. He should try to identify with the child inside himself that has suffered, not the selfish adult who pursues.The writer is a fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psycho-therapy . I had lived so long in a desert and almost given up hope of renewed love I actually opened up myself for the first time in my life.

She abandoned me.”For David Blunkett’s genuine grief I could not feel greater sympathy. But is it because he hides these feelings, or thinks they will somehow overwhelm or un-man him, that he will not give them due release? Perhaps he imagines if he goes further down the “soft” road of accepting pain and depression he will not survive? And so is driven into becoming the opposite of a caring father, as are so many men in similar circumstances.The overwhelming fact is that, given the mother’s rooted objection to a continued personal relationship with him, his only remaining obligation to his (claimed) offspring lies in providing information on his paternity and, if necessary, money.But the children’s interests would be best served by his public silence Any attempt to muscle in on their lives will cost them. A legal term for what they seek is their “rights”.So what “should” men like Mr Blunkett really be feeling? Well, he could say factual things like: “I was horribly played with then dumped”; “I have been cynically used by an obviously damaged female predator”; “Given her infertile marriage, perhaps she unconsciously sought out my potency and was reckless to get pregnant”.But much more to the emotional point would be admissions like: “She broke my heart. When love is withdrawn, such individuals try to gain power over the rejecter. Emotional rebuffs are regarded as challenges to be countered by resistance, retaliation or even revenge.

I would earnestly and passionately beg Mr Blunkett to try to see the situation from a wider, less obtusely masculine perspective.The harsh fact is that all love ends in some form of sadness and bereavement. But for men who have been socialised on Spartan lines, like Mr Blunkett at the Royal National College for the Blind, such sorrow tends to be managed by the stiff upper lip. Perhaps you agree with Andy Burnham MP, until Wednesday Mr Blunkett’s PPS, that “we can’t live in a culture where making a few mistakes – a few honest mistakes – is a hanging offence”. You may even approve of the Prime Minister’s parting reassurance to Mr Blunkett, hinting at a media witch-hunt, that “you leave the Government with your integrity intact”.If so, I ask you to think again. David Blunkett went for compelling reasons – abuse of power, financial irregularities, cuckoldry and verbal incontinence to name four – while the press played its distasteful role of sewer rather than sewerage with real distinction.

There are no heroes in this wretched, faintly rancid affair, but the only people to perform their public function correctly have been the hacks. As one who has made a good chunk of his living for years by chronicling some of the hypocrisies of this trade, it goes against the grain to write this.A sycophantic twerp of a very rare order indeed, Andy Burnham ascribes his boss’s downfall to “trial by media”. One could observe that at least he had a trial, which is more than than Mr Blunkett cared to grant the foreign terrorist suspects whose detention in HMP Belmarsh the law lords declared unlawful yesterday. More to the point, for the errant politician “trial by media” has become the only sort of trial there is.Irksome as the clich?as become, we live in something close to an elective dictatorship. This administration has, since taking power, placed itself above the traditional rules of political life. Mr Blair has taken us to war in defiance of the known facts and the will of the country.