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https://www.timesofisrael.com/frenc...e-macron-flip-on-israel-putting-them-at-risk/
On a solidarity visit to Israel last month, French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to stand by Israel for the duration of its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“I want to assure you that you will not be left alone in this war against terrorism,” Macron on October 24 told President Isaac Herzog at a meeting in Jerusalem following Hamas’s deadly October 7 attack on Israel. Macron even proposed that France participate in a coalition fighting against Hamas, as it did against ISIS.
Less than three weeks later, however, Macron became the first leader of a major Western power to demand that Israel “stop bombing” in Gaza. He added to this plea vivid language rarely used by French heads of state in describing the actions of a friendly country.
“Civilians are bombed,” Macron told the BBC on Saturday. “These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop.”
The about-face surprised Israeli diplomats. It also shocked French Jews, some of whom experienced it as a betrayal that they fear will only fuel the surge of antisemitic incidents that is causing them to live in fear.
“These remarks by Macron really took us by surprise especially because of how squarely supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself President Macron had been just a couple of weeks ago,” an Israeli official told The Times of Israel.
Macron tried “to correct the impression” by calling Herzog on Sunday to say that his BBC interview was not meant to suggest that Israel targets civilians, noted the official.
But Macron had diplomatic reasons for changing his tune, Christophe Barbier, a former editor of L’Epxress daily, said Sunday on BFMTV. “We’re a month after the tragedy of October 7, we’re past the emotional stage, we’re in the political one,” he said.

This picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip on November 11, 2023, shows smoke rising over buildings in the Gaza Strip, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Hamas terror group. (Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD/AFP)
It was a reference to how France and the world are getting over the shock over the atrocities committed by the force of about 3,000 Hamas terrorists who on October 7 invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 victims and abducting some 240 others, among other war crimes.
Israel is now over a month into the massive military operation it launched to topple Hamas in response to the onslaught. According to unverified numbers from officials in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, at least 10,000 Palestinians have died as a result of the campaign — a number Israel says includes terror operatives and civilians killed by hundreds of misfired rockets aimed at Israel — and coverage of the conflict has shifted from a focus on Israeli victims to Palestinian suffering.

People gather around an ambulance damaged in a reported Israeli strike in front of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on November 3, 2023. (MOMEN AL-HALABI / AFP)
The Israeli official, who spoke to The Times of Israel under the condition of anonymity, said he believed the change came about due to “internal politics in France.” He declined to elaborate on those dynamics.
Philippe Karsenty, a French-Jewish media analyst and former deputy mayor of the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, was more specific. “Macron is seeking to avoid a civil insurrection by Muslims. He doesn’t want another French intifada, so he’s betraying Israel,” said Karsenty.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin at the Sorbonne University in Paris on October 26, 2023. (Thomas SAMSON / POOL / AFP)
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on October 12 issued a nationwide ban on rallies against Israel, citing concerns that they risk exacerbating a surge of antisemitic incidents. Since October 7, the CRIF umbrella of French Jewish communities has documented more than 1,000 antisemitic incidents — more than double the 2022 tally.
Macron addressed the ban in a televised address on October 13. “Let us not bring ideological adventures here by imitation or by projection. Let us not add national fractures… to international fractures,” Macron pleaded. “Let us stay united.”

A protester holds a sign reading ‘Genocide in progress in Gaza, and the French government is banning demonstrations in support of Palestinian people. We won’t forget’ in Paris, on November 4, 2023 (Geoffroy VAN DER HASSELT / AFP)
Thousands of protesters have flouted the ban, resulting in several violent clashes with police amid fears of a repeat of one of the periods of civil unrest that have engulfed France in recent years, sometimes in connection with Israel, and often featuring large numbers of demonstrators in or from heavily Muslim neighborhoods.
Macron on October 19 acknowledged in more explicit terms that he’s worried that the conflict between Israel and Hamas might spill into France unless it’s handled correctly. “If we handle this poorly, this could become an element of division,” he told a journalist during a meeting with young adults.

Riot police officers patrol as smoke billows from burnt vehicles on the third night of protests sparked by the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old driver in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, France, June 30, 2023. (AP/Aurelien Morissard)
In June and July, a deadly wave of protests rocked France for weeks following the death of a 17-year-old Muslim killed by police, reportedly after failing to pull over when driving without a license. Rioters wounded hundreds of security officers, torched nearly 6,000 vehicles and vandalized at least 1,000 buildings in clashes that resulted in the arrest of some 3,500 suspects and the death of two of them.
The riots died down eventually following the indictment for manslaughter of a police officer, but clashes erupted again in September, during a march in Paris against alleged police brutality. Hundreds vandalized a bank office and hurled objects at police.

A fire burns in Sarcelles, France, following a rally that turned into a riot by pro-Palestinians, July 20, 2014. (Cnaan Liphshiz/JTA)
In 2014, a round of hostilities between Israel and Hamas triggered riots by Muslims against Jews and police officers who tried to restore public order. Streets in central Paris were filled with tear gas and fighting, and at one synagogue, Jewish men held off Muslims as hundreds of worshipers were barricaded inside the house of worship.
“We’re fresh on the heels of the July riots, and Macron is appeasing the rabble to prevent a rekindling,” Veronique Chemla, a journalist and blogger from Paris, told The Times of Israel. “That’s very serious: French diplomacy is being held hostage by internal Muslim agitation. This is a new stage.”

FILE: Rioters throw projectiles at French riot police officers in Sarcelles, a suburb north of Paris, on July 20, 2014, after clashes following a demonstration denouncing Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. (Photo credit: AFP/ PIERRE ANDRIEU
By accusing Israel of killing children, women and the elderly in the BBC interview, “he’s diffusing a blood libel against Jews, and in France right now that means inciting violence by Muslims against Jews,” Chemla said.
On a solidarity visit to Israel last month, French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to stand by Israel for the duration of its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“I want to assure you that you will not be left alone in this war against terrorism,” Macron on October 24 told President Isaac Herzog at a meeting in Jerusalem following Hamas’s deadly October 7 attack on Israel. Macron even proposed that France participate in a coalition fighting against Hamas, as it did against ISIS.
Less than three weeks later, however, Macron became the first leader of a major Western power to demand that Israel “stop bombing” in Gaza. He added to this plea vivid language rarely used by French heads of state in describing the actions of a friendly country.
“Civilians are bombed,” Macron told the BBC on Saturday. “These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop.”
The about-face surprised Israeli diplomats. It also shocked French Jews, some of whom experienced it as a betrayal that they fear will only fuel the surge of antisemitic incidents that is causing them to live in fear.
“These remarks by Macron really took us by surprise especially because of how squarely supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself President Macron had been just a couple of weeks ago,” an Israeli official told The Times of Israel.
Macron tried “to correct the impression” by calling Herzog on Sunday to say that his BBC interview was not meant to suggest that Israel targets civilians, noted the official.
But Macron had diplomatic reasons for changing his tune, Christophe Barbier, a former editor of L’Epxress daily, said Sunday on BFMTV. “We’re a month after the tragedy of October 7, we’re past the emotional stage, we’re in the political one,” he said.

This picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip on November 11, 2023, shows smoke rising over buildings in the Gaza Strip, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Hamas terror group. (Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD/AFP)
It was a reference to how France and the world are getting over the shock over the atrocities committed by the force of about 3,000 Hamas terrorists who on October 7 invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 victims and abducting some 240 others, among other war crimes.
Israel is now over a month into the massive military operation it launched to topple Hamas in response to the onslaught. According to unverified numbers from officials in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, at least 10,000 Palestinians have died as a result of the campaign — a number Israel says includes terror operatives and civilians killed by hundreds of misfired rockets aimed at Israel — and coverage of the conflict has shifted from a focus on Israeli victims to Palestinian suffering.

People gather around an ambulance damaged in a reported Israeli strike in front of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on November 3, 2023. (MOMEN AL-HALABI / AFP)
The Israeli official, who spoke to The Times of Israel under the condition of anonymity, said he believed the change came about due to “internal politics in France.” He declined to elaborate on those dynamics.
Philippe Karsenty, a French-Jewish media analyst and former deputy mayor of the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, was more specific. “Macron is seeking to avoid a civil insurrection by Muslims. He doesn’t want another French intifada, so he’s betraying Israel,” said Karsenty.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin at the Sorbonne University in Paris on October 26, 2023. (Thomas SAMSON / POOL / AFP)
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on October 12 issued a nationwide ban on rallies against Israel, citing concerns that they risk exacerbating a surge of antisemitic incidents. Since October 7, the CRIF umbrella of French Jewish communities has documented more than 1,000 antisemitic incidents — more than double the 2022 tally.
Macron addressed the ban in a televised address on October 13. “Let us not bring ideological adventures here by imitation or by projection. Let us not add national fractures… to international fractures,” Macron pleaded. “Let us stay united.”

A protester holds a sign reading ‘Genocide in progress in Gaza, and the French government is banning demonstrations in support of Palestinian people. We won’t forget’ in Paris, on November 4, 2023 (Geoffroy VAN DER HASSELT / AFP)
Thousands of protesters have flouted the ban, resulting in several violent clashes with police amid fears of a repeat of one of the periods of civil unrest that have engulfed France in recent years, sometimes in connection with Israel, and often featuring large numbers of demonstrators in or from heavily Muslim neighborhoods.
Macron on October 19 acknowledged in more explicit terms that he’s worried that the conflict between Israel and Hamas might spill into France unless it’s handled correctly. “If we handle this poorly, this could become an element of division,” he told a journalist during a meeting with young adults.

Riot police officers patrol as smoke billows from burnt vehicles on the third night of protests sparked by the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old driver in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, France, June 30, 2023. (AP/Aurelien Morissard)
In June and July, a deadly wave of protests rocked France for weeks following the death of a 17-year-old Muslim killed by police, reportedly after failing to pull over when driving without a license. Rioters wounded hundreds of security officers, torched nearly 6,000 vehicles and vandalized at least 1,000 buildings in clashes that resulted in the arrest of some 3,500 suspects and the death of two of them.
The riots died down eventually following the indictment for manslaughter of a police officer, but clashes erupted again in September, during a march in Paris against alleged police brutality. Hundreds vandalized a bank office and hurled objects at police.

A fire burns in Sarcelles, France, following a rally that turned into a riot by pro-Palestinians, July 20, 2014. (Cnaan Liphshiz/JTA)
In 2014, a round of hostilities between Israel and Hamas triggered riots by Muslims against Jews and police officers who tried to restore public order. Streets in central Paris were filled with tear gas and fighting, and at one synagogue, Jewish men held off Muslims as hundreds of worshipers were barricaded inside the house of worship.
“We’re fresh on the heels of the July riots, and Macron is appeasing the rabble to prevent a rekindling,” Veronique Chemla, a journalist and blogger from Paris, told The Times of Israel. “That’s very serious: French diplomacy is being held hostage by internal Muslim agitation. This is a new stage.”

FILE: Rioters throw projectiles at French riot police officers in Sarcelles, a suburb north of Paris, on July 20, 2014, after clashes following a demonstration denouncing Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. (Photo credit: AFP/ PIERRE ANDRIEU
By accusing Israel of killing children, women and the elderly in the BBC interview, “he’s diffusing a blood libel against Jews, and in France right now that means inciting violence by Muslims against Jews,” Chemla said.