Macron tries to navigate the maze of recognizing the State of Palestine

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2025/06/05/macron-tries-to-navigate-the-maze-of-recognizing-the-state-of-palestine_6742032_7.html

Posted by LeMonde_en

6 comments

  1. **Two months ago, the French president suggested he would take that step during a conference scheduled for mid-June in New York. But as the date approaches, and as Israel and the US repeatedly voice their opposition, Emmanuel Macron remains vague about his precise intentions.**

    Two French envoys quietly arrived in Israel during the night of Monday, June 2. Anne-Claire Legendre, Emmanuel Macron’s adviser for North Africa and the Middle East, and Romaric Roignan, director for the same region at the French foreign ministry, were tasked with easing tensions with Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Angered by Macron’s criticisms of the ongoing war in Gaza, the Israeli prime minister was also furious that the French president was considering recognizing the State of Palestine at a conference slated for June 18 at the United Nations headquarters in New York. In Israel, such a gesture would be seen as a reward for Hamas, responsible for the October 7 attacks.

    “We are determined to recognize the State of Palestine,” the two French diplomats told the Israeli news outlet *Ynet*, while emphasizing that the decision would not be “unilateral.” “It is not about isolating or condemning Israel, it is about paving the way for an end to the war in Gaza,” they added. “Recognition of a Palestinian state remains on the table, but not as a product of the conference. It will remain a bilateral matter between states.”

    Their statements, which suggested Macron might back down under Israeli pressure, deepened the confusion among observers who had spent the past two months trying to decipher the president’s comments on the issue. “This is the final stretch, the lobbying phase. It must be explained that France is not taking a hostile stance toward Israel,” said Rym Momtaz, editor-in-chief of the “Strategic Europe” blog at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

    **Read the full article here:** [**https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2025/06/05/macron-tries-to-navigate-the-maze-of-recognizing-the-state-of-palestine_6742032_7.html**](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2025/06/05/macron-tries-to-navigate-the-maze-of-recognizing-the-state-of-palestine_6742032_7.html)

  2. Here’s a solution that no one should have an issue with:

    Peace in Gaza, recognition of a Palestinian state in Gaza and West Bank.

    Exchange: Hamas disbands completely, any remaining leaders are tried as war criminals for endangering the entire populace of Gaza and governorship of the strip is turned over to a UN of countries until the people of Gazs elect a new government in 6 months time.

    Israel bears the brunt of reconstruction along with all accounts of Hamas leaders frozen and drained to assist (11billion or so)

  3. The problem i see recognizing the State of Palestine is that there isn’t a state of Palestine in the ground, it should exist but what we have is an skeleton of state, without a well defined populace, without well defined borders and without a institutionalized government exercising sovereignty in people’s name.

    We have a population under occupation with some limited self government granted to an adhoc corp previously named Palestinian Authority and since a few years ago “The State of Palestine”. 

    While Israel declared independence almost inmediatly the Arab side waited and when declaration time came they controlled nothing and even some claimed territory was under some other Arab country control making hard to establish formal state institutions, if it had to make a comparison would be with the likes of Polisario, having some representation and right to self determination but not a state. 

    Recognizing or not the RoC doesn’t change that Taiwan is a de facto state, but recognizing or not The State of Palestine doesn’t change either that there is a lot more to do before there is another Arab State in the former Mandate of Palestine. 

    I think that everybody needs a proper conclusion to Oslo Accords that ends up with peace and justice giving both populations a fair enough delimited territory maximalist aims from Israel to annex the entire are and from the Arab Palestinian side to the destruction of Israel and Replacement by a single state won’t be able to bring a peaceful living arrangement for everyone in the region. 

  4. Saying they’re prepared to recognize a “State of Palestine” has to be only symbolic in nature. They’re smart enough to know the almost impossible and impractical nature of actually doing it without a cohesive Palestinian government and the Israelis

  5. Why ? why not just stay out of it? no upsides, only downsides.

    Also, unilateral acts invites the same from the other side, meanwhile you’ve positioned yourself (and Israel) on a hostile footing to each other because you support the people who invaded them kill their kids & raped their families to death and tell them they do it again and again, pushing Israel away from cooperating with anything by you in the future (probably worse). not to mention, when you meddle in the middle east, the middle east usually meddle with you at home too.

  6. The Israeli internet defense force is working hard today, huh?

    Still won’t matter though…

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