In Gaza, according to Macron, Israel cannot have a “free pass.”
The relationship between France and Israel reached a new low due to Gaza as a result of a number of discussions, with Israel accusing the French president of “a crusade against the Jewish state.”
The war of words between France and Israel worsened on Friday when French President Emmanuel Macron warned in a speech at the opening of a security conference in Singapore that the West risked “losing all credibility with the rest of the world” if Israel were granted “a free pass” in Gaza.
If the humanitarian crisis is not addressed in the next few hours, Mr. Macron warned reporters at a meeting earlier in the day that he would “harden the collective position” of the European Union towards Israel. The precise manner in which European countries would accomplish this was unknown.
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry of Israel retorted that the government was making it easier for humanitarian aid to enter. “Macron is not interested in the facts,” it stated.
The relationship between Israel and France has reached its nadir in years. Mr. Macron’s apparent intention to recognize a Palestinian state, which he hinted at once again in Singapore, has infuriated Israel, while France and other European powers, including Britain, have lost patience with Israel’s continuing attack in Gaza.
Following a string of recent French warnings that Jerusalem deemed to be provocations, Mr. Macron’s remarks infuriated Israel, who charged him with leading “a crusade against the Jewish state” and wanting to reward terrorists “with a Palestinian state.” Without a question, October 7 will be its national day.
In the deadliest day in the nation’s 77-year history, Hamas assaulted Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking around 250 captives. In reaction, Israel launched a lethal attack in Gaza that has resulted in the deaths of around 56,000 Palestinians. A two-month blockade has also been imposed, which was partially loosened last week.
The Israeli foreign ministry released a statement stating that its attempts to permit aid into Gaza, where there are acute shortages of food and medicine, were not subject to a humanitarian embargo, which is a clear falsehood. The ministry criticized Mr. Macron for putting pressure on Israel rather than Hamas.
In his speech, Mr. Macron argued that there could be no “double standards” between the war in Gaza and the war in Ukraine, implying that the European Union could not condemn Moscow for its aggression against Kyiv while remaining silent about Israel’s bombing of Gaza.
The growing tension is exacerbated by a United Nations conference next month, jointly led by France and Saudi Arabia, to discuss a peace agreement that would result in a two-state conclusion. Despite not making any commitment, Mr. Macron has stated that he will attend and has hinted that France could recognize a Palestinian state.
He told the media in Singapore that “the establishment of a Palestinian state” was “not merely a moral obligation, but a political necessity.”
He outlined six requirements for the establishment of a Palestinian state: the liberation of the remaining captives held by Hamas; the demilitarization of Hamas; the exclusion of Hamas from the governance of any Palestinian state; reforming the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank; the eventual Palestinian state’s recognition of Israel and its right to live in security; and the creation of an unspecified “security architecture” for the entire region.
Israel Katz, the defense minister of Israel, rejected Mr. Macron’s proposals during a trip to the West Bank on Friday. “They’ll recognize a Palestinian state on paper, and we will build here on the ground the Jewish state of Israel,” he stated. “The paper will be tossed in the garbage, and the state of Israel will prosper and flower.”
“Islamic terrorism will explode in the faces of all French citizens,” Itamar Ben-Gvir, the extremist national security minister, wrote on social media, adding that “Macron plays into the hands of Islamic terrorism.”
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Mr. Macron have had periodic disagreements. The French president has attempted to strike a balance between his response to the war and the need to maintain peace in a nation with the biggest Muslim and Jewish communities in Western Europe.
Incensed by Mr. Macron’s teachings on the founding of Israel, Mr. Netanyahu reminded him last year that Israel was established in 1948 through “the victory achieved in the War of Independence with the blood of heroic fighters, many of whom were Holocaust survivors — including from the Vichy regime in France.”
During its rule over a rump France from 1940 to 1944, the Vichy government collaborated with Nazi Germany in the deportation of 76,000 Jews from France to their deaths in Hitler’s concentration camps.
The United States’ participation in the upcoming United Nations meeting is unknown. France has been resolute in attempting to separate the larger peace initiative from earlier attempts headed by Washington. The United States, however, is the only voice that counts for Israel.
It seems that the Trump administration is pursuing a different diplomatic course. This week, it offered Israel and Hamas its own proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza. According to those informed about the negotiations, an earlier plan suggested a 60-day ceasefire during which Hamas would release around 10 live hostages and half of the remaining corpses in return for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
