Netanyahu unsettled by Macrons push to recognise Palestinian statehood

A prominent Israeli diplomat has told Middle East Eye that French President Emmanuel Macron’s push to recognise Palestinian statehood “is serious and has the backing of most of the European Union and Saudi Arabia”.

Alon Pinkas, who was an adviser to four Israeli foreign ministers and served as the country’s consul general in New York, said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is unsettled because he knows Donald Trump’s support is brittle and tentative”.

“Both the EU and the US will be looking for something they can work together on and alleviate tensions,” Pinkas said.

“You need one or two European leaders to placate Trump and let him feel like it’s his idea.”

Unlike 147 of the 193 United Nations member states, France does not recognise the state of Palestine, a position it shares with other western nations including the UK, US and Australia. 

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But France is now pushing for Australian and European powers, including the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, to recognise Palestinian statehood at a UN conference it is co-hosting with Saudi Arabia in New York later this month.

Paris hopes that recognition of Palestinian statehood will kickstart a peace process and help accelerate momentum for a two-state solution. 

'Israel's intransigence on everything'

Pinkas, a longstanding critic of Netanyahu, said he believed Macron’s push for Palestinian statehood was also related to “general fatigue and disillusionment with Israel over its intransigence on everything”.

Last year, Spain, Norway and Ireland agreed to recognise a Palestinian state.

Israel condemns such moves as rewarding the actions of Palestinian armed groups.

In recent weeks, European nations, including the UK and France, have taken a much firmer rhetorical line with Israel, while continuing to support it as its war on Gaza continues. 

'The humanitarian blockade is creating a situation that is untenable on the ground'

- President Emmanuel Macron

Pinkas told MEE he thought that the EU’s position on the war had not really changed, it has simply become “unequivocal and public”.

He said that while there was no meaningful domestic support in Israel or in the Knesset for Palestinian statehood, the international community’s pitch to Israel over ending the war should be that “we are your friends, we want you to succeed, this cannot go on... Netanyahu is driving you to unmitigated and irreparable disaster. Wake up, we are here to help."

At a press conference in Singapore on Friday, Macron said France was committed to working towards a political solution, as he reiterated his support for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. 

“The humanitarian blockade is creating a situation that is untenable on the ground,” Macron said.

“And so, if there is no response that meets the humanitarian situation in the coming hours and days, obviously, we will have to toughen our collective position,” he said, adding that France might consider applying sanctions against Israeli settlers. 

While diplomats say the French president is leaning towards recognition of a Palestinian state, Paris has yet to take any concrete steps to target Israel in its war on Gaza.

Macron does seem to enjoy a good relationship with US President Donald Trump, who Pinkas said could work with EU nations to put pressure on Israel. Asked about a viral video that appeared to show the French president being slapped by his wife Brigitte, Trump said: "He's fine, they're fine. They're two really good people, I know them very well."

'Militarised distribution sites'

Israel claimed to have partially ended an 11-week long aid blockade on Gaza last week, but barely any aid has entered the largely destroyed Palestinian enclave and civilians have been killed at the new US-Israel sponsored aid distribution sites, which see Palestinians crammed into tight spaces between fences. 

Israel's foreign ministry said the assertion that there was a humanitarian blockade of Gaza was “a blatant lie”. 

It said nearly 900 aid trucks had entered the Gaza since the blockade was eased and that the new US-backed system had distributed two million meals and thousands of aid packages.

“But instead of applying pressure on the jihadist terrorists, Macron wants to reward them with a Palestinian state,” the Israeli ministry said in a statement reported by Reuters.

The charity Islamic Relief condemned the new aid system in a statement on Monday, saying that “massacres of people trying to get food aid must not go without consequence”.

“Three months since Israel tightened its total siege of Gaza, dozens of Palestinian children, babies and elderly people have starved to death and desperate parents are being shot and killed as they try to get food aid at new militarised distribution sites,” the statement said.

“Many more people across Gaza will soon die from hunger and disease unless international governments urgently put meaningful pressure on Israel to fully end its siege, reopen all crossings and allow large-scale, safe and unimpeded humanitarian access,” Islamic Relief said.

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