France hands BDS its biggest victory ever. Here's how Israel should respond.

From Times of Israel:

French authorities have banned Israeli defense firms from exhibiting at a trade show next month near Paris, organizers said on Friday.

“By decision of the government authorities, there will be no stand for the Israeli defense industry at the Eurosatory 2024 fair,” organizers Coges Events said.

Coges did not offer an explanation, but France’s defense ministry released a statement saying that “the conditions are no longer right to host Israeli companies at the Paris show, given that the French president is calling for the cessation of IDF operation in Rafah.”

The announcement came days after an Israeli strike targeting two top Hamas terrorists in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah sparked a fire in a complex housing displaced Palestinians, killing dozens of civilians and triggering international outrage and protests in France.

An Israel Defense Forces probe into the strike found that a hidden store of weapons may have been the actual cause of the deadly blaze, and that the airstrike that targeted an adjacent area had used small munitions that would not ignite such a fire on their own.

Responding to the fatal blaze, in which Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza said 45 civilians were killed, French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “outraged” and demanded an “immediate ceasefire.”

This has nothing to do with Rafah. French officials already started creating new rules, just for Israel, back in March, as Calcalist reported:

 In the shadow of the ongoing war in Gaza, France is taking an unusual step to toughen conditions for the participation of defense companies from Israel in the Eurosatory arms exhibition scheduled for Paris in June, Calcalist has learned.

Companies intending to participate in the exhibition, showcasing new developments and central weapon systems, have been informed in recent days that the equipment they wish to reveal must obtain an import license granted in advance by the French Ministry of Defense. Without this license, they will not be able to present their products on French soil. According to a source in one of the companies, the French Ministry of Defense will have the authority to prohibit the presentation of Israeli weapons at its discretion.

Senior officials in the defense industries, in conversations with Calcalist, have expressed resentment towards the new French demand, calling for an in-depth investigation at the political level. Many of them have extensive experience participating in security exhibitions worldwide. France hosts two of the most prestigious and respected arms exhibitions globally, the Paris Air Show at Paris–Le Bourget Airport and the Eurosatory military exhibition, held in rotation once every two years.

"I have participated in many exhibitions like this, and there has never been such a demand, which simply diminishes Israel's status," an executive at one of the companies told Calcalist. "Requiring prior approval from authorities to bring exhibits to the exhibition is humiliating and cannot stand."

This is outrageous on so many levels. 

Israel is fighting a war to destroy Hamas terrorists. There is no more righteous war that exists. The incident in Rafah happened despite Israel doing everything possible to minimize collateral damage when striking an undisputedly high-value, legal military target. 

And the French government is not only punishing Israel for being more conscious of civilian casualties than France ever was, but also is penalizing dozens of Israeli companies that have nothing to do with the war. All the time, meanwhile allowing Turkey, which has killed thousands of Kurdish civilians, and Saudi Arabia, which has killed thousands of Yemeni civilians, to promote their own weapons.

The decision is another example of antisemitic double standards that apply only to Israel. 

Israel should forcefully protest using diplomatic channels this insult. 

Beyond that, the banned Israeli companies should contact their international customers, asking them to express their displeasure that a major portion of the show has just disappeared.

And the Israeli exhibitors should immediately rent out a space as close as possible to the show, and set up their own independent exhibition there, allowing free access to those with Eurosatory badges. And they should hand out flyers at the entrance of the Eurosatory show to let all the attendees know where to go to see the latest, cutting edge Israeli defense industry products. 

Beyond that, there is blatant hypocrisy from France itself. There were many civilians killed in the US-led coalition fighting against ISIS, but unlike Israel, there was no transparency as to who was responsible for airstrikes that killed civilians. France took credit for many airstrikes but never release the dates of those strikes so no one knows how many civilians it was responsible for killing. 

If anyone could compare the care that France took in airstrikes in urban areas compared to Israel, the results would probably be embarrassing to France. But they won't tell you, and no one angry at France for this opacity. Yet the world blames Israel for incidents that Israel wasn't even responsible for, it demands Israel adhere to standards that no other Western nation ever approached, and it demands instant investigations and transparency that no army in world history has ever done.

The hypocrisy of Israel's Western critics cannot be starker.

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