The indirect exchange quickly turned into a diplomatic crisis. To the extent that the Élysée issued a press release last night assuring that France remains a “friend of Israel” and condemned Mr. Netanyahu’s “excessive” expressions.
“Shame on them,” the Israeli prime minister said, referring to the French president and other Western leaders who he says want an arms embargo on his military.
Mr Macron addressed the arms issue in an interview with France Inter radio station, which was taped on Monday and broadcast on Saturday. “I think today, the priority is to get back to a political solution, to stop arms deliveries to fight in Gaza.”
“France does not deliver such weapons,” he was quick to clarify, a comment that was an indirect criticism of the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden, a month before the US presidential election.
“I believe that those who deliver (them) cannot call for a cease-fire with us every day and continue to supply them,” he said later during a press conference at the closing meeting of Francophone countries in Paris.
At the same time, the Israeli army announced that it had declared its forces on high alert as the October 7 anniversary approaches, due to concerns that new attacks will take place.
“As Israel battles the forces of barbarism led by Iran, all civilized countries should stand firmly by Israel’s side,” Mr Netanyahu countered.
There will be some events in Israel tomorrow for the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on southern sectors of the country’s territory, which shocked the country and triggered the war in the Gaza Strip, which has now spread to neighboring Lebanon, where the Israeli military has been conducting heavy air strikes and ground operations against Hezbollah.
The toll from the Hamas onslaught on the Israeli side has reached 1,205 dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data. A year later, 97 hostages still remain in captivity in the enclave, 33 of whom have been declared dead by the Israeli military.
Israel’s large-scale retaliatory operations in the Gaza Strip have so far killed at least 41,825 people, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry.
The French president criticized Israeli operations on Lebanese soil, while reaffirming the Jewish state’s right to self-defense.
“I regret that Prime Minister Netanyahu made another choice,” instead of heeding Paris and Washington’s call for a cease-fire and “assuming that responsibility, especially (by ordering) ground operations on Lebanese soil,” he said.
Insisting on the “consistency” of the French position, Mr Macron simultaneously reiterated Paris’ “solidarity” with Israel which needs to protect its “security”.
The note from his services to the French presidency recalls that France “mobilized its military means” to help intercept Iran’s attack on Israel with some 200 ballistic missiles at the beginning of the week.
Emmanuel Macron also announced that he will welcome families of French-Israeli hostages held in Gaza tomorrow at the Elysée.
Four months after the Hamas attack, he had paid tribute on January 7 to the French victims — at least 43 — of what he called the “greatest anti-Semitic massacre of our century” in an official ceremony.
On the floor of the UN General Assembly, on September 25, the French president demanded that Israel and Hezbollah cease hostilities.
Hezbollah, which has opened a front with Israel on the border since the day after the attack on the Gaza Strip, has been taking “for too long the unbearable risk of Lebanon going to war,” he said.
In Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is making a “mistake” that will harm “Israel’s security tomorrow,” the French head of state said in an interview with France Inter, warning against the “hate” that breeds what is happening to the besieged and ruined Palestinian enclave.
The international community is concerned about the risk of a regional conflagration after Iran fired about 200 missiles at Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for the killings of Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas Ismail Haniya.
Israel is “preparing retribution” for her, an Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
#Diplomatic #crisis #France #Israel #Shame #Netanyahu #friends #replies #Macron
