One more blunder. By affirming, Saturday October 5, that the “priority” was now to stop “delivering weapons [à Israël] to lead the fighting on Gaza”, in order to return to a “political solution”, Emmanuel Macron lit a diplomatic fire which is not about to go out. “Shame!”, replied the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu , for whom “all civilized countries should stand firmly alongside Israel”.
The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, recalled this Monday, October 7, during a tribute ceremony on the site of the Nova music festival, where 370 people were killed a year ago by Hamas, that “France is unfailingly attached” to the security of Israel, this Macronian outing is not the first of its kind to arouse incomprehension – far from it.
“The Gaza crisis was poorly managed from the start, deplores Bertrand Besancenot, former ambassador to Qatar and Saudi Arabia. First, President Emmanuel Macron did not immediately go to Israel after October 7, 2023 And when he went there, he made a statement about the need to create an international coalition against Hamas, which was misinterpreted in all Arab capitals. This indeed gave the feeling that we were calling on the international community to act. ‘associating the strikes on Gaza: it was very clumsy.’
Particularly bad timing
More recently, on September 19, after the Hezbollah pager explosions attributed to Israel, a video of the French president, broadcast in Lebanon via social networks, paid tribute to the “civilian victims and bereaved relatives”, without mentioning the pro-Iranian militia. and the danger it represents. “The oversight” will only be repaired… eight days later by the Élysée: “Yes, we condemn the strikes and the actions of Hezbollah. No, Lebanon must not become the new Gaza.”
The sequence of this weekend is just as unfortunate, even if Emmanuel Macron is not wrong, in affirming that “we do not fight against terrorism and against terrorists by sacrificing a civilian population”. Not only is France ulcerating Israel at a particularly ill-chosen moment – two days before the anniversary of the October 7 massacres. Worse, it risks annoying the Americans, who are nevertheless essential in the Middle East. Indeed, with France not delivering military equipment to the Jewish state used in Gaza, Macron was essentially targeting American President Joe Biden, Tel Aviv’s main arms supplier. Difficult to understand, at the very moment when Paris and Washington are trying to find ways out of the crisis.
“It’s an oddity which reveals once again that there is no real strategy, at a time when the Franco-American initiative at the UN Security Council [appelant le 25 septembre à un cessez-le-feu au Liban] could suggest that France was regaining a form of relevance”, regrets former diplomat Michel Duclos, who recalls that in 2006, it was a Franco-American document which put an end to the war between Israel and Hezbollah. And the special advisor at the Montaigne Institute added: “France must not lose its freedom of language, but it must do it at the appropriate time, when it is useful and this is not the case” .
Since the start of the conflict in the Middle East, even if Paris claims a balanced position, the swings in one direction or the other from the Elysée create an impression of confusion which only weakens France’s voice. . To the point that Emmanuel Macron sometimes gives the impression of improvising when, on this issue, every word counts. “We must not have any illusions, France cannot carry weight on its own. We must be very careful to play in coalition in this matter, with European and Arab countries capable of pushing for reasonable solutions, but also with the United States”, continues Michel Duclos. The only way for France to regain influence in the Middle East.