French President Hollande didn’t want Bibi at the Paris march, but Netanyahu came anyway.

Netanyahu, Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, France’s President Francois Hollande, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, EU President Donald Tusk, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas march during a rally in Paris. Jan. 11, 2015. (AP)

From ZeroHedge.com:

Hollande Furious After Netanyahu Participates In Paris March, Disobeying French President’s Request

by Tyler Durden

There was one world leader who was out of step with the rest of political elite during yesterday’s theatrical procession of world leaders for French unity and for press freedom (even as the bulk of them engage in prosecution of freedom of speech across their own nations): Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In fact, as Reuters reports, he managed to “ruffle a few feathers while taking part in the “Charlie Hebdo” rally in Paris on Sunday” because this was an event his office initially said he would not be attending following a specific request form French president Hollande not to come to Paris, but ultimately ended up participating in much to the Chagrin of the French president.

As Reuters further reports, “a video posted on Facebook, the news footage mockingly set to the Looney Tunes cartoon music, showed Netanyahu maneuvering his way to the front of the rally with the help of several bodyguards, allowing him to be photographed arm-in-arm with other leaders, including French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Those pictures were quickly posted on Netanyahu’s Twitter feed, while the banner on his Facebook page was changed to a photograph of him in the front row, shoulder-to-shoulder with Hollande, Merkel, Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and EU leaders Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk.

Not shown in the picture was Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who was standing alongside Tusk, six feet (two meters) from Netanyahu. The two broke off peace talks last April and tensions between them have risen since, with Netanyahu accusing Abbas of inciting violence against Israelis.

The irony is that neither Netanyahu nor Abbas initially planned to be in Paris.

What happened is that according to sources in Netanyahu’s office said that in a phone call on Friday evening an adviser to Hollande had suggested it would be “complicated” and “uncomfortable” if the Israeli leader attended the Sunday march, largely because of security concerns.

There is more, of course.  Go here.

But anything that gets the goat of Hollande is, frankly, nifty in my book.

BZ