France Puts Wall Of Shame Around Israel While Iran Attacks
While the Jewish state endures ceaseless rocket fire from Iran, Le Bourget Airport cloaks Israeli booths while welcoming every other weapons dealer.
While Iranian missiles light up the skies above Israel, the Le Bourget international arms exhibition in Paris decided this week to black out the one country in the world that has turned missile defense into a life-saving science.
At this year’s Paris Air Show at the Paris–Le Bourget Airport, the Israeli pavilion and Israeli defense firms were walled off. Black curtains encased the exhibition booths of Elbit, Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), concealing them from public view, even though they were officially invited to participate. No other country was treated this way.
It wasn’t a security measure. It was a political statement.
In the middle of a global defense showcase, France chose to isolate and humiliate the Israeli defense industry. The logos of Israel’s premier defense innovators hung like ghosts, visible from above but stripped of presence. It looked like a ghetto. A modern wall of exclusion built not out of concrete, but out of shame and antisemitism.
Only one hastily scribbled message—later erased—attempted to restore sanity: “Behind this wall is one of the world’s best defense systems, used by many nations. Because it protects the State of Israel, the French government tries to hide it.”
Indeed, these systems—Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Iron Beam—aren’t theoretical. They intercept thousands of rockets fired by Hamas, Hezbollah, and now Iran. They are the reason Israel isn’t a graveyard. They are why millions of civilians—Jews, Muslims and Christians—are alive today.
Israel didn’t just develop these systems for itself. It has sold them, at scale, to countries across Europe, Asia and even to Arab states such as Morocco, the UAE and Bahrain. Its defense exports reached $148 billion in 2025, a 13% increase over last year; double what it was just five years ago.
But that success is precisely what makes some Western capitals uncomfortable.
France, which prefers the illusion of moral neutrality, finds it easier to signal disapproval of Israel than to reckon with who the aggressors are. While the Jewish state endures ceaseless rocket fire, Paris cloaks Israeli booths while welcoming every other weapons dealer with open arms.
This isn’t neutrality. It’s moral bankruptcy.
Israel sells its technology only to democracies and responsible partners. It uses its weapons to defend lives, not to destabilize regions. To exclude it while Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran escalate their genocidal war isn’t just hypocritical. It’s complicity.
The irony is hard to miss. As Iranian warheads streak toward civilian targets, Israeli air defense systems launch to meet them in mid-air. Some explode in brilliant white flashes—tons of explosives intercepted and neutralized in the sky. Those watching from Israel’s south witness what real defense looks like: a fight to save life, not end it.
And yet in Paris, the Jewish state is covered in black cloth.
In moments like these, it becomes clear that antisemitism doesn’t always march with torches. Sometimes, it hangs curtains. Sometimes, it calls itself diplomacy. But the effect is the same: to erase, isolate, and blame the Jewish state for daring to survive.
Israel doesn’t need validation from Le Bourget. But the free world needs to decide: will it stand with those who build shields, or with those who launch missiles?
Because what happened in Paris wasn’t just an insult. It was a warning.