During WWII, the Royal Navy attacked the fleet of its former ally to keep it from Nazi control.
Though Netanyahu's history was faulty — it was the Royal Navy rather than the RAF that struck the French fleet — his analogy was revealing.
The Kriegsmarine — the German Navy — was a fraction of the size of the Royal Navy, and thus too small to escort vulnerable troop transports.
Vichy France would be allowed a meager army, and the French Navy would be confined to its home ports.
This was no repeat of the Battle of Trafalgar, when the Royal Navy smashed a Franco-Spanish fleet off Spain in 1805.
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