French President Emmanuel Macron’s planned recognition of a Palestinian state would have negligible impact on the Middle East, but it has dangerous geopolitical and security ramifications in Europe.
First, Macron’s move is seemingly an attempt to sabotage US President Donald Trump’s shift from peace frameworks that are based on a “divide the baby” approach, such as the two-state solution, to win-win deals that enrich all parties, such as the Abraham Accords.
Second, Macron is undermining Palestinians who seek to liberate themselves from the Palestinian Authority and join the Abraham Accords as clans. As reported in The Wall Street Journal, 21 prominent sheikhs from the Hebron area are promoting this new path to peace. As one of them said, “to think only about making a Palestinian state will bring us all to disaster.”
This is occurring as France and Europe continue to oppose Trump’s Gaza relocation proposal. In doing so, they are robbing Palestinians of the basic human rights to flee a war zone. Palestinians are apparently needed under the rubble in Gaza to advance France’s “Palestinian state.”
US Secretary of State Macro Rubio called Macron’s decision “a slap in the face to the victims of October 7,” noting that “this reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda.” Yet, last week, the French leader got support from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who threatened that if Israel will not halt its operations against Hamas, the UK will also recognize such Palestinian state.
Starmer might have single-handedly prolonged the war, leading to more deaths, as he gave Hamas an incentive to reject a hostage deal. If the war lasts till September, per Starmer, the UK will reward Hamas with a Palestinian state. This gives official British affirmation to Hamas’s long-held stand that terrorism pays off – a message heard loud and clear by others who are developing national aspirations.
Those developments underscore that in order to have peace in the Middle East, Trump must force Europe out of Israeli-Palestinian affairs. This would not only remove a hurdle to peace, but also allow France and Europe to redirect their energies to the rising threat to global security emanating from Europe.
On the one hand, escalating riots in France are beginning to bear symptoms of a nascent national movement, and on the other, there are increasing reports of mushrooming anti-Muslim violence in France, the UK, and throughout Europe.
Huckabee called for Palestinian state within France
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee suggested in June that if France is so determined to see a Palestinian state, it should “carve out a piece of the French Riviera, and create a Palestinian state.”
After all, the term Palestine has traveled before; it was first associated with the Jewish homeland. It then migrated in the 20th century to denote local Arab nationalism. It seems that in the 2020s, it is migrating to the West, as the Palestine flag is waved in protests for various causes. Indeed, some of those rioting in France wear a Palestinian keffiyeh and wave the flag of Palestine.
Huckabee noted last Friday that Macron did not specify where the Palestinian state would be. Similarly, Dutch politician Geert Wilders, whose party won the most votes in the 2023 elections, tweeted a map of France, with a section of its southern coastline highlighted, noting: “Here will be the new Palestinian state. Big parts of France are already Islamic anyway.”
While many Muslims in Europe, like those in Hebron, vehemently reject the idea of a European Muslim state, the primary impact of Macron’s Palestine declaration is the fueling of such a far-fetched idea. The European Muslim national movement is so nascent, that it does not even have a name yet. Last week, Macron might have given it its name: Palestine.
The writer is the author of The Assault on Judaism: The Existential Threat Is Coming from the West and Judaism 3.0: Judaism’s Transformation to Zionism and is chairman of the Judaism 3.0 think tank (Judaism-Zionism.com). For more of his analysis: EuropeAndJerusalem.com