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Nick Cohen

ByNick Cohen, Nick Cohen

Opinion

Ambassador, how you spoil us

November 23, 2011 10:46
3 min read

I struggle to believe that Ron Prosor, Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, does not know that Marine Le Pen is the leader of the French National Front. He struck me as a boorish man when I met him last year, but I did not take him to be that great a fool.

Anyone with a fleeting knowledge of European politics must have heard that the National Front is Europe's most successful far-right party, with roots in the collaborationist Vichy regime, and a history of dismissing the murder of France's Jews as a "point of detail".

Perhaps Prosor forgot. Perhaps the "le Pen" name rang no bells and he was unaware that Jean-Marie le Pen, the National Front's famous and indeed infamous leader, had handed over control of his party to his daughter.

It is possible, I suppose. But even the United Nations, not an organisation noted for displaying squeamishness when it comes to ushering brutes into its conference rooms, knew who she was and wanted nothing to do with her. Marine le Pen invited 100 diplomats to her UN reception. Only Prosor and three others turned up.