Israelis Panic After Macron Says France Close to Recognizing Palestinian State
French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview on Wednesday that Paris could be months away from recognizing a Palestinian state, drawing a swift rebuke from top Israelis who seek to ethnically cleanse Gaza and the West Bank of Palestinians.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar posted on X: “A unilateral recognition of a fictional Palestinian state, by any country, in the reality that we all know, will be a prize for terror and a boost for Hamas.”
Joshua Zarka, the Israeli ambassador to France, also said the plan is “totally irresponsible,” according to RFI. “To talk about a Palestinian state today before having created the conditions that could lead to peace is doing exactly the opposite.”
Amos Schocken, the publisher of Haaretz, told an audience in London last year that the Israeli government has no intention of seeking a two-state solution and will do all it can to keep stealing more land in the occupied territories and keep in the occupied territories, despite international criticism, according to The Jerusalem Post.
He compared the current situation in the occupied territories and in Gaza as a “second Nakba of sending and creating refugees, even people who lived in the occupied territories in Area C and the people who live in the northern part of Gaza.”
Last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that there will be no two-state solution as long as he’s in charge. He was responding to a report that the Biden administration was working with Arab allies to lay out the groundwork for a Palestinian state. (The Trump administration is made up of Christian Zionists who have rejected the idea.)
“Israel categorically rejects international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians,” Netanyahu said, according to Reuters. “Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.”
Macron told France 5 television that the announcement could come during a UN meeting in June. He said Saudi Arabia could co-chair the proposal.
TRENDPOST: Gideon Levy, a columnist for Haaretz, addressed students at London’s Oxford University nearly a decade ago to discuss the two-state solution and how Israel, even back then, had no interest in implementing it.