French President Emmanuel Macron has earned a reputation as a rather mediocre statesman. His American counterpart, Donald Trump, known for his blunt style, recently declared that "Macron understands nothing about international issues."
The numerous blunders signed off on by France's president are nothing new, but it seems Macron has managed to break his own record with the Élysée Palace announcement of France's intention to recognize a Palestinian state. This is a move that previous French presidents avoided, wanting not to damage the status quo and understanding that such a declaration contradicts principles of international law, where Palestinians do not meet the criteria for statehood.
Beyond the fact that nothing good awaits the Palestinians after the expected misguided declaration, it appears that Macron's positions regarding Israel are increasingly losing touch with reality. From the grotesque French move to exclude Israeli defense industries from the Paris Air Show, which only highlighted their technological and product superiority over French industries; through the rising antisemitism and the need to appeal to the country's growing Muslim base; to the aforementioned move, which has long been brewing in Paris.
The French parade of folly toward recognizing a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly next month increasingly appears, as time passes, to deserve the title of Black September. Through the opening Macron created, a series of European leaders (the German chancellor excepted) are calling for recognition of a Palestinian state — a move that demonstrates European lack of intellectual and ideological depth to challenge the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Establishing a state entity on our borders following the Oct. 7 atrocities not only fails to advance resolution of the conflict, but takes it backward and does not align with reality. The Hamas era in Gaza that ended (for now) with one of the most severe security disasters the world has known in recent decades, alongside the terrorism and governance challenges of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Judea and Samaria, demonstrate how unprepared Palestinians are to assume the burden of state independence, with all that entails.
A cautious assessment that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is not expected to live forever — an event that will itself require time to stabilize the "Palestinian system" — is enough to understand that recognition will not advance anything.
Avi Kalo Photo: Aloni MorBut responsibility for this failure does not stop in Paris and London — it extends in a direct line to Jerusalem. The government, suffering from deep strategic paralysis, has also broken its own records with systematic and sustained erosion of legitimacy for using force in Gaza, chronic refusal to address the day after and drift into an acute humanitarian crisis in Gaza that causes colossal damage to Israel.
The fact that Netanyahu is increasingly surrendering to a messianic-extremist vision of reclaiming an ancestral patrimony in Gaza prevents presenting any political alternative to the conflict, leaving the vacuum to hollow initiatives from leaders like Macron.
Recognition of a Palestinian state, even if it lacks significant practical value at this stage, constitutes a disgraceful Israeli strategic failure of the highest magnitude, whose long-term damage is still too early to assess.
Through its negligent conduct, the government is pushing Europeans to seek "instant solutions" to a charged 150-year-old conflict whose end is not near. But expectations among circles in Europe, riding waves of growing hatred toward Israel, for a quick solution are also unrealistic, and the encounter with reality will be painful. Precisely now, Israel faces an opportunity to shape the conflict, but similar to what has been said about the Palestinians over the years: the current government will not miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
It is possible to anticipate the inevitable and assess that Netanyahu's sixth government will leave behind chaos and mayhem — a political, administrative and strategic nightmare of the highest order that will require the very best to repair the damage. The Palestinian issue, like a long series of social, economic, security and political challenges, will be forced to await the political aircraft carrier that will steer Israel away from chaotic collision with the iceberg — just before it becomes too late.