The great French diplomatic ballet sometimes makes our partners dizzy. Once again, in mid-November, Emmanuel Macron had to reconsider his comments and clarify his intentions on the international scene after thunderous declarations. Let’s rewind: November 10, on the BBC, the French president calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, assuring that we “cannot fight terrorism by killing civilians”. Outcry in Israel.
A lack of “moral clarity”?
The next day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized him for having made “a serious error, both factually and morally.” Then, on November 12, Macron calmed things down by calling President Isaac Herzog to assure him that France supports “unequivocally the right and duty of Israel to defend itself.” Back to square one, or almost.
Faced with this confusion, THE Jerusalem Post reproach to the French leader for lacking “moral clarity”, after having demonstrated it in the immediate period after October 7, “when everyone was witness to the absolute evil embodied by Hamas”. “There is an obvious contradiction between support for Israel’s right to defend itself and a ceasefire,” said the Israeli daily. A ceasefire would mean that Hamas’s military capabilities are not destroyed and that ‘so he can continue to kill Israelis.’
On the Swiss side, The weather is surprised of the “diplomatic marathon” led by Macron who, in recent weeks, has been running from international summit to international summit, without identifying an obvious political line. “As a result, the first victim of these posturing is perhaps the clarity of the French position”, underlines the Swiss daily, before driving the point home: “The other victim of this all-out voluntarism could be the credibility of France . After being the last Western state to keep an open line with Moscow on aggression in Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron made a huge flop with his proposed coalition against Hamas.”