FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
PARIS — The French president Emmanuel Macronthe Egyptian president Abdel al-Sisi and the Jordanian king Abdullah II they are calling on Israel for an immediate ceasefire and on Hamas for the release of all the hostages in Gazathen warning Israel of «dangerous consequences» of an offensive in Rafah.
“The war in Gaza and the catastrophic human suffering it is causing must stop immediately”, reads thespeech signed by the three heads of state published in four newspapers in France (Le Monde), United States (Washington Post), Jordan (Al-Rai) and Egypt (Al-Ahram).
Negotiators from the United States, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and Hamas met Sunday in Cairo for yet another attempt to reach a truce that includes the release of the hostages. There would be significant progress in the talks but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Monday that a date had already been set for the offensive on Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, despite opposition from the United States and other Western allies , including France.
In the article, Macron, Sisi and Abdullah also call for a “massive increase in the supply and distribution of humanitarian aid” in Gaza because “famine for the Palestinians is no longer just a risk, it is already happening”.
The three leaders then return to support the two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once and for all, despite this outcome being explicitly discarded by the Israeli government. “No peace in the Middle East can come from terrorism, violence or war. It will arise from two-state solution», we read in the text, which then urges Israel to put an end to “colonization activities” and “land confiscation” and to “prevent settler violence”.
Why Macron decided to write a letter with Egypt and Jordan
The choice of the leaders of France, Jordan and Egypt to publish a joint letter to explain their position on the Gaza conflict seems on the one hand a sort of admission of the impotence of traditional diplomatic channels, and on the other hand it responds to the desire to address one’s own public opinions. By choosing a common position with Egypt and Jordan, the two Arab countries that were the first to make peace with Israel, Macron seems to want to clearly take part for the reasons of the Arab-Muslim world close to the West and opposed to the rejectionist front (formed by Iran , Syria and their allies Hezbollah and Houthis), and at the same time distance itself now clearly and clearly from the government of Israel.
The “rip” with Germany
The fact that Macron signed a text with Jordan and Egypt and not with the other countries of the European Union is eloquent, and shows the deep divisions that exist within the EU, particularly between France and Germany.
The situation in Gaza seems to be a further opportunity for disagreement between Paris and Berlin, and another reason for the difficulties of the “French-German engine” of Europe, which has been in crisis for months. Just as Macron takes another step to distance himself from Israel and the ongoing massacres in Gaza, this Tuesday the Germany must defend himself at the International Court of Justice in The Hague against the charges of «promoting genocide in Gaza by supplying weapons to Israel».
Nicaragua took the case against Germany to the Hague Court. In hearings that opened Monday, Nicaragua argued that Germany is facilitating “the commission of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza by providing Israel with military and financial aid,” and called for emergency measures that would pressure the German government to stop its war support for Israel.
Berlin denies having violated the Genocide Convention and defends itself today in The Hague with a delegation of international lawyers. Germany is Israel’s second largest arms supplier after the United States, and in 2023 it approved arms exports to Israel worth more than 300 million euros, a sum about 10 times higher than that approved the previous year. «For us, the existence of Israel is a question of state»declared Katrin Göring-Eckardt, vice-president of the German Parliament, evoking Germany’s “special responsibility towards Israel” after the Shoah. Germany’s unconditional support for Israel it does not facilitate the formation of a common European position, especially given the opposing sensitivities in other countries.
Is France towards the recognition of the Palestinian state?
The head of European diplomacy, the Spaniard Josep Borrell, who is also largely irrelevant and overtaken by initiatives such as that of Macron with Sisi and Abdullah, is even harsher than Macron in his criticism of Israel, and in recent months has gone so far as to accuse Israel of having «created» and «financed» the Islamist movement Hamas, responsible for the terrorist attacks of 7 October which triggered the Israeli response.
In the opposite direction to the direction of Germany, The idea of recognizing the Palestinian state is gaining ground in many European countries.
Thursday 4 April Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez he assured that he will act “as soon as possible, when the conditions are right and in such a way that this decision has the most positive impact possible”, while his Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, also announced the deadline July 1st by which the recognition will be proclaimed.
Ten of the twenty-seven member states of the European Union already recognize the Palestinian state, mostly the former countries of the Soviet orbit. Since the fall of the Wall, only Sweden has been added, in 2014. In addition to Spain, also Ireland, Slovenia and Malta they announced their willingness to recognize Palestine in a letter dated March 22, e France could follow after Macron declared at the end of February “the recognition of a Palestinian state is not a taboo”.
