France is looking farther away from Israel than ever before. French, Israeli flags. Illustrative.
France is concerned that the potential for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict is slipping away, so they are calling for an international summit to be held on the matter to work towards hashing out a negotiated solution, according to The Guardian. And if the conference fails? Then France will recognize Palestine as a state unilaterally, according to French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.
Give the Palestinians what they want or France will? Not exactly a lot of motive for negotiating peace, noted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in response to the plan. “The substance of negotiations is compromise and the French initiative, as it has been reported, in effect gives the Palestinians in advance reasons not to do so,” said Netanyahu in comments by his office. “I believe that we will see a sobering up on this issue. In any case, we will work to bring this about and our position is very clear: We are prepared to enter into direct negotiations without preconditions and without dictated conditions.”
The Palestinians have repeatedly made preconditions for peace talks over the last several years, as official negotiations have largely been nonexistent. The current wave of Palestinian terrorism against Israeli civilians hasn’t made the climate any more receptive to a peace deal—especially one in which Israel relinquishes territory and security control to the Palestinians.
That situation was hammered home again on Sunday, as a Palestinian police officer opened fire on three Israeli soldiers. Israeli Prime Minister spokesman Ofir Gendelman said on Twitter the terror attack not only wasn’t condemned by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the initial hours after the shooting, but Abbas’ political faction praised the shooter.
“What is the only place in the world where the police & the ruling party call a police officer who committed terrorism “a hero”? The PA [Palestinian Authority],” tweeted Gendelman.
The Palestinians aren’t the only anti-Israel groups getting new support from France. Fabius met with his Iranian counterpart—Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif—last week according to a press release posted on the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.
The statement said the two diplomats “launched new formats for discussions between our two countries and signed two memorandums of understanding on cooperation: one on political dialogue and the other on establishing a joint economic committee between the two countries.”
One day later, Fabius made his demanded Israel capitulate to the Palestinians.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, January 31, 2016)