France's Segolene Royal, Socialist candidate for next year's presidential election, will take her first overseas trip since winning her party's nomination with a trip to Israel. She is due to arrive in Israel for a two-day visit on Sunday. Reportedly, she will hold talks with Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and FM Tzipi Livni.
The two largest Israeli newspapers, Maariv and Yediot Aharonot, also speculated that Royal was likely to hold talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Before arriving in Israel she will stop in Lebanon for talks with Lebanese leaders, both newspapers said.
At least part of her reasoning for going on this trip has to do with the fact that she has been getting heat from Jewish groups in France for not accepting an invitation to speak at the main Jewish organization there, CRIF. Her opponent Nicolas Sarkozy has already scooped up much of the Jewish vote because of his strong support for Israel and the fact that his mother is Jewish.
Posted by: Boz | Nov 29, 2006 at 15:23