France's Appeasement

This article first appeared in New English Review. 

Emmanuel Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron seems to be trying to match the disastrous legacy left behind by Angela Merkel. One really has to wonder what the French are thinking these days. Just days after the announcement that everybody in Gaza was entitled to come and live in France, Macron has announced that France is recognizing a Palestinian state (which is not a state and has never been a state in the first place.) He might as well recognize the Bermuda Triangle as a state.

France is not the first country to make this clearly political move of recognizing the Palestinians. Over 100 countries have done so, but France is now the most important nation to do so. President Trump has already dismissed it in his usual manner, but countries like the UK and Germany will feel added pressure to follow suit. It is a particularly delicate situation for Germany, given its history and special relationship to Israel. In my view, Germany’s international reputation would be seriously damaged if it recognized a Palestinian state while Israel is fighting for its survival.

What I find particularly objectionable in this move by France, especially the timing, is that it comes in the wake not just of the fighting in Gaza, but also in the wake of October 7, 2023. In effect, France is rewarding Hamas for one of the most horrific atrocities in modern history. It is also caving in to some of the most obnoxious and obscene protests on its streets, supporting Hamas. Similar protests-riots in most cases- are also being carried out in the streets of Germany, the UK, and other European cities. Attacks against Jews continue to rise all over Western Europe. Arguably, the worst example of this is in France, which has Europe’s largest Jewish population as well as Europe’s largest Muslim population. This recognition of a state of Palestine can only be interpreted as a craven submission to the Jew-haters, the supporters of Hamas, and Islamist supremacists. And to bring in who knows how many thousands of Palestinians from Gaza into France can only make the plight of France’s Jews even more intolerable. No doubt, this will increase the number of French Jews who conclude that they have no future in France. 

Of course, the French government will counter that this is all because of the horror they feel over what is happening in Gaza. I don’t mean to trivialize the suffering of the civilian population in Gaza, especially the children. But I continue to hold Hamas responsible for this after what they did on October 7th. Hamas started it, and Israel is finishing it. To do so, Israel has to fight a vicious enemy that deliberately uses its civilians as shields. It is Hamas who is responsible for the death and destruction as they hide in their tunnels below schools and hospitals. It is Hamas that is responsible for the hunger since they have engaged in stealing the food meant for their own civilians.

Again, not to make light of the situation, but did the French feel any sympathy for the hundreds of thousands of German civilians who died in Allied air raids over virtually every major German city in World War 2? Of course not. Nor did the US and UK (since it was our two countries carrying out the bombing). Our leaders knew that civilians were dying in those air raids, but our countries were fighting for our very survival, not to mention the survival of France. Defeat was not an option. When the war was over, we helped rebuild Germany-as well as Japan, which was also bombed into destruction by the US, not just Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but Tokyo and other Japanese cities as well.

Returning to the subject of France. Personally, I have no axe to grind against the French people. I have visited the country many times, I  know the language, and I have always been treated well by the French. But these latest moves, for me, tend to reinforce the old stereotype about the French only being guided by their own cynical self-interest regardless of any concept of good vs. evil.  Macron’s country is in deep trouble, largely due to the same forces that he is giving in to. If he thinks that those forces are going to feel appreciation and gratitude for these gestures and respond in kind, he is very foolish in his thinking. The opposite is true. Those people will only welcome these moves as a further sign of weakness on the part of France and the West in general. They don’t reciprocate acts of kindness. They interpret them as signals to attack even more.

Who knows what the next bombshell out of France will be? Maybe Macron will announce that they are moving the capital from Paris to Vichy. It would be fitting given the current scene in Paris.