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Middle East: is France still playing a role?

2020-01-21T18:28:07.279Z


Emmanuel Macron arrives in Jerusalem this Wednesday for a two-day visit to Israel.


A frozen drizzle descends on Jerusalem, the epicenter of the three great monotheisms and of so many conflicts. Emmanuel Macron will stop off this Wednesday in the millennial city, on the first day of his trip to Israel. A country he had not yet visited since the start of his five-year term. "Will he come to see us? Asks Momtaz Husseini, 52, behind his counter in the Khan al-Zeit Sheit souk in the Muslim quarter. It is not impossible…

In the program of the Head of State, only a visit to the national domain of Sainte-Anne, where there is a magnificent Romanesque church built in the 12th century is planned. Arab of Palestine, this trader - like many others - remembers the visit of Jacques Chirac and his blow of anger become legendary.

On October 22, 1996, in an alleyway in the old city, the late president was offended by the behavior of the Israeli security services, gaining lasting admiration in the Arab world. In this part of Jerusalem, it is by the yardstick of this French diplomatic line that the head of state is expected, and that he will be observed. “The French and the Europeans have a special responsibility and they have left us aside for years. But Macron can do like Chirac, it's not too late, ”hopes Khader Baidoun, 70. As if France should still play a role in the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ...

Priority to Iran

This is certainly not the purpose of this two-day visit. "It is a journey that has its own motive, that of memory," assumes the entourage of the president. His presence is linked to the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz camp. Once is not custom, the Elysée does not bomb the torso at the time of raising the diplomatic stakes of this displacement.

Besides, the center of tension that will be mentioned as a priority is Iran. It is not even a question of pretending to advance on the file of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the "PPPO", as the diplomats jargon, that is to say the peace process in the Middle East: it is to the point of death. "It is not an obligatory exercise which consists in going to see the Israelis then the Palestinians, then to balance all that and to make a speech here or there", swears a diplomat of high rank. Even if the head of state has planned to take a trip to greet Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, in Ramallah, between two official meetings in Israel. Manner of suggesting that France maintains its position of a "two-state" solution.

If the star of France has turned pale in East Jerusalem, it is hardly more brilliant in the West, on the Israeli side. The President may have supported the vote by the National Assembly of a resolution which combines anti-Zionism with a form of anti-Semitism, many Israelis, who applauded the approach, are very critical of the action of the head of the State. In particular on his attempts at mediation between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran, sworn enemy of the Hebrew State.

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According to an Ifop poll for the i24News channel, only 26% of Israelis believe that Paris is pursuing a policy favorable to Israel, 36% of them having a good image of the French president ... or twenty points less than Donald Trump, ardent support of the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A sign that on one side as on the other, the voice of France is no longer a dream.

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2020-01-21

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