Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who is currently on a state visit to China, attacked the controversial remarks made by EU Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton, who equated Monday’s brutal murder in Toulouse with, presumably, the killings in Syria and Israeli preventive attacks on rocket launchers in Gaza.
Speaking at a meeting with Palestinians in Brussels, Ashton said: “When we think about what happened today in Toulouse, we remember what happened in Norway last year, we know what is happening in Syria, and we see what is happening in Gaza and other places – we remember young people and children who lose their lives.”
Minister Lieberman said Minister Ashton’s words were inappropriate and he hoped she would review them and apologize.
Lieberman also stressed that Israel is the world’s most moral country, and even though she is forced to fight terrorists who are operating from within the civilian population, the IDF is doing everything to avoid damage to the same population even while it is serving as protection for terrorists.
“There is no army in the world that can compare morally to the Israeli army, which endangers its own soldiers in order to minimize the likelihood of civilian casualties. The children Ashton should be paying attention to are the children of southern Israel, who are living in fear of rocket attacks from Gaza,” Lieberman said.
According to Maariv, during his visit to China Lieberman met Monday with the Governor of Sichuan and announced Israel’s plan to open a consulate in Chengdu by early next year.
With this fourth Israeli consulate, China will become the country with the largest Israeli delegation after the US.