826 This International Incident Has Been Brought to You by the Letter ‘H’

Thank you, France! Comic relief is rare in the Israeli-Iranian nuclear showdown:

JERUSALEM (AFP) – French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Sunday he was misquoted by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper which reported him as saying Israel would “eat” Iran before Tehran developed a nuclear bomb.

“During the interview in English with journalists from Haaretz, (I) used the word “hit” and not “eat” about a possible Israeli response with regard to Iran,” the visiting minister said in a statement.

Kouchner however said he did “indeed evoke the possibility of Israeli strikes to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon”.

A spokeswoman for Haaretz would not immediately comment on the incident.

In its print edition, the Haaretz quoted Kouchner as saying in English: “I honestly don’t believe (a nuclear weapon) will give any immunity to Iran. First, because you will eat them before. And this is the danger.”

The statement from Kouchner, who is on a two-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, said he regretted any “phonetic confusion”.

” ‘it them! I said, ‘ ‘it them!’ Not ‘ ‘it them!’ ”

Speaking of nukes in the Middle East, here is an Egyptian initiative at the international level I can support: a nuclear-free region, policed, by agreement of all the countries, by the IAEA. Al-Masry al-Youm has translated their article of a few days ago here. Scroll down to the bottom of the article for highlights from the scrapped draft.

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  1. In French a lot of “h”s are silent and the distinction between “ea” and “i” in English is difficult. As any fan of the Pink Panther would know.

    Comment by arabist — October 6, 2008 #

  2. Which is precisely what’s so funny about this!

    I can understand French difficulties pronouncing ‘H’ at the beginning of a word. What I can’t understand is the tendency to put it where it doesn’t belong as well.

    Never mind. I often forget the gender of nouns and try to fake it with something somewhere between an “une” and an “un.”

    Comment by The Skeptic — October 6, 2008 #

  3. Kinda funny when the French make a pronunciation mistake, because I remember being sternly lectured by a French teacher not to underestimate the importance of correct pronunciation or think of it as an affectation, because, as she said, the difference between “beach” and “bitch” was significant, wasn’t it?

    And why were the French and Israelis talking in English anyway? What happened to good old manger vs frapper?

    Comment by SP — October 7, 2008 #

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