French President Nicolas Sarkozy asked the Knesset on Monday, June 23, 2008 to recognize that "France will always be Israel's friend" and then called for the division of Jerusalem and the expulsion of the Jews from parts of their National Home in Judea and Samaria.

The current Israeli government seems to have difficulties educating its guest as to the history of the Jewish people and remind him that on July 24, 1922, France, as a member of the League of Nations recognized

"The historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country."

France, is a signatory to the "Mandate for Palestine," a historical League of Nations document that laid down the Jewish legal right to settle anywhere in western Palestine, the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, including the whole of Jerusalem. It was also entrusted, however, with the duty to encourage "close settlement by Jews on the land, including state lands and waste lands not required for public purposes."

Nearly 30 years ago, Professor Yehuda Z. Blum, then Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations had the perfect observation which should have been read to President Sarkozy:

"A corollary of the inalienable right of the Jewish people to its Land is the right to live in any part of Eretz Yisrael, including Judea and Samaria which are an integral part of Eretz Yisrael. Jews are not foreigners anywhere in the Land of Israel. Anyone who asserts that it is illegal for a Jew to live in Judea and Samaria just because he is a Jew, is in fact advocating a concept that is disturbingly reminiscent of the 'Judenrein' policies of Nazi Germany banning Jews from certain spheres of life for no other reason than that they were Jews. The Jewish villages in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district are there as of right and are there to stay."

France failed to keep its commitment in violation of international law.