Macron scolds Netanyahu, backs review of Europe-Israel trade ties By David Isaac
https://www.jns.org/macron-scolds-netanyahu-backs-review-of-europe-israel-trade-ties/
French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “unacceptable” and “shameful” behavior for the blocking of aid to Gaza, and agreed Europe should revisit its cooperation agreement with Israel.
Speaking during a three-hour interview special on French television titled “The Challenges of France,” Macron said of Netanyahu, “What he does is a shame. It’s shameful.”
During the interview, on French channel TF1, the French president fielded questions from public figures and regular citizens on a host of subjects.
“We must fight absolutely to reopen first,” Macron said of Israel’s closing of its borders with the Gaza Strip.
Asked why France does not sanction Israel, Macron said his administration had taken action on several occasions. “We’ve even refused to send [Israel] equipment that would allow them to go into combat. We’re giving them equipment that allows them to protect themselves, particularly against Iranian missiles. But we’ve made things a lot harder,” he said.
Netanyahu responded sharply to Macron’s comments in a statement issued by his office on Wednesday afternoon. “Macron has once again chosen to stand with a murderous Islamist terrorist organization and echo its despicable propaganda, accusing Israel of blood libels,” Netanyahu said.
“Instead of supporting the Western democratic camp fighting the Islamist terrorist organizations and calling for the release of the hostages, Macron is once again demanding that Israel surrender and reward terrorism,” Israel’s prime minister added.
Macron called for a halt on arms deliveries to Israel in early October 2024, earning a sharp rebuke from Netanyahu, who said Israel will “win with or without their support, but their shame will continue long after the war is won.”
The French president also attempted to ban Israeli defense firms from displaying their wares at two major Paris arms fairs, Eurosatory and Euronaval. A French court reversed those bans as discriminatory.
The French president told TF1 that the Dutch and others have raised the question of whether changes should be made to the European Union-Israel Association Agreement, which governs trade ties between the E.U. and Israel.
“I tell you, in all conscience, we cannot act as if nothing is happening. So we’re going to have to increase the pressure on these issues,” he said.
On May 7, Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said that the Netherlands is “drawing a line in the sand” over Israel’s actions in Gaza, the Associated Press reported, calling for a review of the trade pact.
On April 7, the Netherlands announced stricter licensing procedures for weapons exports to Israel, with Veldkamp accusing Israel of war crimes.
On May 20, E.U. foreign ministers will hold formal talks over the Dutch demand to review the E.U.-Israel agreement, AP reported. “The frustration among the member states that we can’t stop this is tremendous,” E.U. foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters on May 8.
The French president also said he was urging the Americans to pressure Israel, as they have far more leverage over Jerusalem.
“I fell out with Prime Minister Netanyahu,” said Macron. “France alone, even with other Europeans, can exert all the pressure in the world. But he doesn’t depend on us. It depends on the Americans. And so I work very closely with the American president, telling him, ‘You obtained a ceasefire a few weeks ago.’ There was a ceasefire for a few weeks at the beginning of the year. He saved a lot of lives there. Since the beginning of March, the ceasefire has been broken, which is terrible. All humanitarian roads have been closed.”
On March 2, Israel blocked all aid into the Gaza Strip after Hamas refused to accept a framework for ceasefire talks proposed by U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) in its latest update on Monday said Gaza’s population faces “high levels of acute food insecurity.”
David Mencer, spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office, told press on Monday that the IPC has been “wrong many, many times, in fact, throughout this conflict. They’ve constantly talked about famine. Famine has never happened.” He said what hunger there is has been “engineered” by Hamas, which is “stealing the aid.”
In Tuesday’s interview, Macron also called for the demilitarization of Hamas and a two-state solution. “We have to fight to demilitarize Hamas, release the hostages and build a political solution. The only way to achieve this is for there to be a State of Palestine and a State of Israel that live side by side,” he said.
Netanyahu has said repeatedly that he will not accept the establishment of a Palestinian state. Most recently, at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem on April 27, the prime minister said the notion that a Palestinian state will produce peace is “folly, nothing more than folly.”
“I’m saying this for the ambassadors who are here,” he said. “We just tried a Palestinian state in Gaza,” he continued. “You saw what that brought, right?”
“Why replace one regime that is sworn to our destruction with another regime that is sworn to our destruction?” he said.
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