Emmanuel Macron lost his cool during a walkabout in Jerusalem’s Old City on Tuesday and television cameras captured the moment for posterity. “Everybody knows the rules,” shouted the president of France, directing his wrath at Israeli security officials. “I don’t like what you did in front of me. Go outside!”
The confrontation took place outside the Church of Saint Anne, a possession of the French government which is regarded as French territory. According to reports Macron snapped when Israeli security men attempted to accompany him into the church.
It’s not the first time that a French president has had a fit of Gallic pique in Jerusalem; Jacques Chirac famously clashed with some Israeli soldiers in 1996, asking of them in English less fluent than Macron’s if “you want me to go back to my plane?”
But Macron’s meltdown is a sign of the pressure he’s under on all fronts. It’s also, if one may be topical, his Meghan moment.
Like Meghan, Macron took the job expecting to be treated with due reverence.
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