PARIS, March 12: Israel is sending to Paris its Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Michael Malchior, in an attempt to “explain” Franco-Israeli bilateral relations.

Meanwhile, in off-the-record comments, French political leaders are accusing Israel of “meddling” in internal French affairs, indeed in attempting to put Franco-Israeli relations at the center of the French presidential campaign.

Rabbi Malchior will be making a much awaited speech on Thursday before the Paris-based foreign press club, during which he will be speaking on “bilateral relations between France and Israel” as well as the “present situation and the perspectives for peace in the Middle East.”

The vice-minister is also making the presentation in his capacity as president of an Israeli forum that “coordinates the fight against anti-Semitism.” Indeed, Rabbi Malchior has been the target in recent weeks of French diplomatic complaints for the unfounded accusations of anti-Semitism he has been making against France.

The accusations have taken the form of the publication in January of a list of 312 “incidents of anti-Semitism,” incidents which he said at the time “are not taken seriously by French authorities who hesitate about taking action.”

Rabbi Malchior has also characterized France as “the worst country in the West for the number of incidents of anti- Semitism.”