Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by telephone Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Paris’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state. Macron insisted on a ceasefire in Gaza and told Netanyahu that it was the only hope for retrieving the remaining Israeli hostages from Gaza.
Macron wrote at “X” that he had reaffirmed France’s commitment to Israel’s security. He said the liberation of all Israeli hostages is an absolute priority, as well as the demilitarization of Hamas.
It is interesting that Macron speaks of the demilitarization of Hamas, which is a civilian political party with a paramilitary wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades. Netanyahu, of course, speaks of destroying Hamas, which apparently means killing all its members and their wives, children, relatives and neighbors.
Macron said, “A ceasefire is the sole means of assuring the release of the hostages still held by Hamas.”
The French president insisted that the opening of all the checkpoints into Gaza to the entry of humanitarian aid is a vital necessity for the civilian population in Gaza. He recalled how he learned firsthand in his recent visit to El-Arish in Egypt, to which some Palestinians from Gaza have fled, that aid is blocked into the Strip. He said that this aid must reach civilians as quickly as possible. “The ordeal that the civilians of Gaza are living through,” he asserted, “must come to an end.”
He expressed hope that current negotiations would allow the Israeli government to agree to a ceasefire and that all the hostages would be released. He said these steps would reopen, in the end, the prospect of a two-state solution. “It is in this context,” he averred,”that I envisage the conference in June, taking into account the security interests of Israel and of everyone in the region. Peace, as soon as possible.”
Netanyahu blew Macron off, saying there would never be a Palestinian state, that the creation of one would serve as a reward for terrorism, and that any such state would just be a military base for Iran. None of these things is true, of course. Israel already signed the Oslo Peace Accords of 1993 that promised a Palestinian state by the end of that decade.
Macron said in an interview that the June conference, to be co-hosted with Saudi Arabia in New York, would kick off a series of recognitions of the State of Palestine. In turn, he said, several Arab states that had not done so would recognize Israel.
“Recognizing Palestine,” Digital, Dream / Dreamland v3 / ChatGPT, 2025.
Macron had announced his intention of recognizing Palestine during a trip to Egypt on 6-7 April. The announcement was controversial in France, and some politicians and pundits attacked him for it.
Last May, Ireland, Norway and Spain recognized Palestine, out of disgust with Netanyahu’s total war on Palestinian civilians and his disregard for the rulings of the International Court of Justice. In June, Slovenia followed suit. Many Eastern European countries had recognized Palestine in the Soviet era and had not ever rescinded the recognition, as with Poland.
Macron’s plan, of offering Israel more widespread recognition in the Arab world as a quid pro quo for Israel’s recognition of Palestine and for ceasing to occupy militarily 5 million stateless Palestinians, was already tried by King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia. He had pledged Arab League recognition of Israel if the latter would withdraw from the Palestinian territories it seized in 1967.
The Israelis were never interested in the Arab League plan, because they want a Greater Israel and don’t care if the Arab countries recognize them.
The Israelis won’t be interested in Macron’s plan either. They know that Donald Trump will back them to the hilt. France is the world’s 7th largest economy, with a nominal GDP of $3.2 trillion and a population of 66.7 million. It also ranks 7th in the world for military power. But it is a middle power, not a superpower, and has no levers to influence the extremist-fascist Israeli government. Israel did export $1.43 billion to France last year. But Israel’s annual global exports are $61 billion, so the trade with France is relatively minor.
Macron must know that Netanyahu actively despises any prospect of peace other than the peace of the graveyard for his enemies. I wonder if he is mainly doing this to strengthen his ties with the Arab and Muslim worlds, where French diplomacy is often valued.
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