French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent statements on the Israel question gave rise to one of his usual delicate balancing acts. In an interview on British television, he said unequivocally that there was “no justification” for Israel bombing Gaza. This statement drew the ire of the Israelis, forcing Macron to then apologise in a telephone conversation with the president of the Jewish State, Isaac Herzog. And in France, the French president’s amateurism in foreign policy matters is once again under fire.
Interviewed by the BBC on the Israeli-Palestinian war on Friday, November 10th, Emmanuel Macron began by explaining his support for Israel, saying that France “shared its desire to get rid of terrorism.” But he then moved on to a condemnation of the bombing of civilians in Gaza: “De facto, today, civilians are being bombed. These babies, these women, these elderly people are being bombed and killed,” he explained, saying that these bombings had “no justification,” before adding: “It is important, in the medium and long term, and for the security of Israel itself, to recognise that all lives count.” “It is impossible to explain that we want to fight terrorism by killing innocent people,” he stated forcefully.
Israel reacted quickly to the French president’s stance. The French head of state’s remarks “caused a great deal of pain and annoyance in Israel,” the Israeli presidency said on Saturday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Macron had made a “serious mistake, both factually and morally.” He said that Israel was doing its best to avoid civilian casualties, but the war against Hamas terrorism demanded a firm and uncompromising response from the aggressors: “We have to draw a moral line; we cannot offer immunity to terrorists.” Netanyahu was particularly insulted because he considers the French president to have given him an ill-advised “moral lesson”—a term echoed by Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister: “I wonder where Macron got the nerve to lecture us in the middle of a war,” said the minister.
Receiving a lecture from the French president on the treatment of civilians was particularly unwelcome, especially as evidence is mounting of Hamas’s strategy of using hospitals as human shields.
Faced with the heated controversy caused by his remarks at a particularly sensitive time, when the French political class was preparing for a major demonstration against antisemitism, which Emmanuel Macron had announced he would not attend, the French President had to pick up the phone to call Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, in an attempt to put out the diplomatic fire he had started.
The Israeli presidency issued a statement about the conversation: “President Macron made it clear that he had no intention of accusing Israel of intentionally harming innocent civilians as part of the campaign against the terrorist organisation Hamas.” In the statement, it is explained that the French head of state, in the interview with the BBC, was only concerned by the humanitarian situation.
In the minutes of the interview published on the Élysée website, the French presidency deliberately did not go back over the controversial BBC interview. It officially reaffirmed “Israel’s right to defend itself” and “France’s solidarity with Israel in its fight against terrorism,” while reiterating that the fight “must be conducted in compliance with international humanitarian law and taking into account the protection of civilian populations.”
The president’s poor communication was widely criticised in France. This is not the first time that Emmanuel Macron has been attacked for his amateurism and the inconsistency of his statements, damaging France’s international image. But the real problem here goes way beyond poor communication or diplomatic misunderstandings. It points to a genuine divide in the upper echelons of French and European politics about whether they are seriously committed to supporting Israel’s war against the genocidal Islamists of Hamas and its allies.
This time, the French diplomatic corps was particularly alarmed—not by Macron’s blatant criticisms of Israel, but by the overtly pro-Israeli signals that their president later sent out during his apology call with President Herzog. Reporter Georges Malbrunot, a former hostage of the Islamic Army in Iraq and an expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, revealed in Le Figaro on Tuesday, November 14th, the existence of a joint memo drafted by a group of around ten French ambassadors in the Middle East and North Africa who contest the presidential statements. These top diplomats object that Macron’s later defence of Israel broke with France’s traditional policy inherited from General de Gaulle, which has always been concerned with taking Arab interests into consideration. The diplomats were alarmed at France’s loss of credibility and influence in the Arab world, which they effectively blamed on the president’s communication. The Élysée refused to comment on the confidential memo. But it highlights once more the deep divisions with the French political class about how to deal with the Israel-Hamas war and the shallow basis of true European support for Israel in its life-and-death struggle, despite all the formal statements of support.
With his about-turns and political flip-flops, President Macron has just proved that he is once again in the impossible situation of trying to please two camps at once—at the risk of upsetting everyone.
