Israel and France on Tuesday took some of the heat out of their row over Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's call on French Jews to flee rising anti-Semitism, with both sides calling the spat a misunderstanding.
"There is no crisis between the two countries but rather a cultural misunderstanding which we must try hard from now on to dispel," senior Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner told AFP.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier also sought to soothe tensions, making clear he was waiting for an explanation but also reiterating that he would go to the Jewish state later this year.
"I'm not going to stir up controversy over a proposed visit, but there is a very serious misunderstanding," the minister told Europe 1 radio.
But he noted: "In the context of the relations that we want to maintain with the state of Israel and its people - a friendly people - we must take the time to make people understand what is really going on in our country."
The row erupted on Sunday when Sharon, speaking to a group of American Jews in Jerusalem, urged all French Jews to emigrate immediately to Israel in order to escape what he called the "spread of the wildest anti-Semitism."
France is home to Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim communities, estimated at 600,000 and five million respectively.
French President Jacques Chirac responded icily, with his office issuing a statement late Monday saying a visit by Sharon to France would not be considered until Paris received an explanation of the controversial remarks.
No date had been set for the Israeli prime minister's trip to France.
"For us, the prime minister's appeal to Jews throughout the world, and not only France, is one of the fundamental ideologies of the state of Israel, while the French have seen it as something else," the Israeli spokesman said.
"The prime minister had no intention of offending anyone and paid tribute to the firm action taken by President Chirac against anti-Semitism," added Pazner, who is a former ambassador to Paris.
Earlier this month, the French leader called for perpetrators of anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic acts to face tough punishment, and excluded racist crimes from his annual July 14 clemency for prisoners.
The number of racist and anti-Semitic acts committed in France soared in the first half of 2004, according to interior ministry statistics, with 135 physical acts carried out against Jews and 95 against other ethnic groups.
Barnier said Tuesday it was "a matter of honour for our republic ... that each citizen is guaranteed the same protections, the same freedoms, whatever their religious belief."
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