Sentence:  The necessity <WSD>is</WSD> not clear to me , and , in any case , to present a case-hardened race-driver as saying he has left his car , which , or whom , he calls `` Giuseppe '' , parked `` on the Place Vendome sneering at a dozen Bentleys and Rolls-Royces parked around him '' is not a liberty ; it is an absurdity . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)