Exasperated by Netanyahu, France Prepares to Recognize Palestinian State
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/exasperated_netanyahu_france_prepares_re
cognize_palestinian_state_20160131/
Posted on Jan 31, 2016
By Juan Cole
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (ChameleonsEye / Shutterstock)
This post originally ran on Truthdig contributor Juan Coles website.
Even the staunchly pro-Israel French Socialist Party has had it with Israeli
expansionism and aggression. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius
announced Friday that France would make one last push to restart diplomatic
negotiations between Israel and Palestine, but said that if the endeavor
failed then France intended to recognize the Palestinian state. Paris is
obviously implying that the failure of diplomacy and the abrogation of the
Oslo peace process are primarily the fault of the Likud government of
Israel.
Laurent Fabius via Wikipedia
The French parliament urged recognition of Palestine in a vote in 2014.
Sweden has recognized Palestine and a number of other European countries
have raised the Palestinian mission in their capitals to the rank of full
embassy.
This tendency toward recognition of Palestine holds severe diplomatic and
economic dangers for Israel. Such recognition gives aggrieved Palestinians
the possible right to sue Israeli squatters and the politicians backing them
in European courts. Already, the French, British and Dutch governments
advise their corporations not to do business with Israeli squatters on the
West Bank, since they are opened to being sued by the actual owners of that
land. The European Union recently insisted that squatter produce be so
labeled and not be dishonestly represented as Israeli. Even the US State
Department has backed the EU on this measure.
On Tuesday in an address on policy to the diplomatic corps in Paris, French
President Francois Hollande had said,
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to be felt throughout the Middle
East. It would be naive, dangerous even, to look the other way. Each day, we
see the risk of a flare-up. Every missed deadline takes us further away from
the two-state solution, which is nonetheless the solution backed by the
international community. France has therefore once again taken the
initiative, as announced by Laurent Fabius, of mobilizing the Arab actors
and the European and American partners in the framework of an international
support group and the Security Council. This proposal is still on the table
and it is the only one, currently, that would enable the dialogue to be
resumed.
The remarks came after a review of French steps to fight terrorism, and it
seems clear that establishing a Palestinian state is seen by Paris to be a
form of counter-terrorism, having potential for tamping down tensions in the
Middle East. Paris was hit by significant terrorist attacks twice in 2015,
with most of the perpetrators being marginalized, angry French and Belgian
second-generation Arab immigrants. Something on the order of 5% of French
are Muslim, and that community tends to support Palestinian rights and to
pressure the French government to do so. French Muslims vote heavily for
the ruling Socialist Party in France, fearing the anti-immigrant sentiments
common on the French Right, including among Gaullists.
France also has good and close relations with many Arab governments, and is
pressured by them about Israeli mistreatment of the Palestinians, as well.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has become more and more strident
and arrogant in dealing with European and international politicians, acting
as a sort of Donald Trump of the Middle East.
He recently has gone around accusing everyone from UN Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon to Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström of being terrorists for
complaining about his oppression of the Palestinian people. (Netanyahu
maintains, laughably, that Palestinian resistance activities have nothing to
do with their being militarily occupied by the Israelis, and reacts to
suggestions that he might by his policies be producing Palestinian violence
with the casuistic charge that making this observation encourages
terrorism). At the same time, his government just this week cheekily
announced that it was stealing another 150 hectares of Palestinian land on
the West Bank, which it had pledge in the Oslo peace accords to turn over to
Palestine.
France roundly condemned the further land theft.
On Friday Fabius slapped down Netanyahu for his insults to Ban Ki-moon and
lamented that unfortunately the colonization [of Palestinian land by
Israelis] continues.
No American politician can call Israeli policy what it is, colonization, for
fear of vicious reprisals by the bullies in the Israel lobbies.
http://www.truthdig.com/ http://www.truthdig.com/
Exasperated by Netanyahu, France Prepares to Recognize Palestinian State
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/exasperated_netanyahu_france_prepares_re
cognize_palestinian_state_20160131/
Posted on Jan 31, 2016
By Juan Cole
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (ChameleonsEye / Shutterstock)
This post originally ran on Truthdig contributor Juan Coles website.
Even the staunchly pro-Israel French Socialist Party has had it with Israeli
expansionism and aggression. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius
announced Friday that France would make one last push to restart diplomatic
negotiations between Israel and Palestine, but said that if the endeavor
failed then France intended to recognize the Palestinian state. Paris is
obviously implying that the failure of diplomacy and the abrogation of the
Oslo peace process are primarily the fault of the Likud government of
Israel.
http://www.juancole.com/images/2016/01/Laurent_Fabius_January_2015.jpg
http://www.juancole.com/images/2016/01/Laurent_Fabius_January_2015.jpg
Laurent Fabius via Wikipedia
The French parliament urged recognition of Palestine in a vote in 2014.
Sweden has recognized Palestine and a number of other European countries
have raised the Palestinian mission in their capitals to the rank of full
embassy.
This tendency toward recognition of Palestine holds severe diplomatic and
economic dangers for Israel. Such recognition gives aggrieved Palestinians
the possible right to sue Israeli squatters and the politicians backing them
in European courts. Already, the French, British and Dutch governments
advise their corporations not to do business with Israeli squatters on the
West Bank, since they are opened to being sued by the actual owners of that
land. The European Union recently insisted that squatter produce be so
labeled and not be dishonestly represented as Israeli. Even the US State
Department has backed the EU on this measure.
On Tuesday in an address on policy to the diplomatic corps in Paris, French
President Francois Hollande had said,
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to be felt throughout the Middle
East. It would be naive, dangerous even, to look the other way. Each day, we
see the risk of a flare-up. Every missed deadline takes us further away from
the two-state solution, which is nonetheless the solution backed by the
international community. France has therefore once again taken the
initiative, as announced by Laurent Fabius, of mobilizing the Arab actors
and the European and American partners in the framework of an international
support group and the Security Council. This proposal is still on the table
and it is the only one, currently, that would enable the dialogue to be
resumed.
The remarks came after a review of French steps to fight terrorism, and it
seems clear that establishing a Palestinian state is seen by Paris to be a
form of counter-terrorism, having potential for tamping down tensions in the
Middle East. Paris was hit by significant terrorist attacks twice in 2015,
with most of the perpetrators being marginalized, angry French and Belgian
second-generation Arab immigrants. Something on the order of 5% of French
are Muslim, and that community tends to support Palestinian rights and to
pressure the French government to do so. French Muslims vote heavily for the
ruling Socialist Party in France, fearing the anti-immigrant sentiments
common on the French Right, including among Gaullists.
France also has good and close relations with many Arab governments, and is
pressured by them about Israeli mistreatment of the Palestinians, as well.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has become more and more strident
and arrogant in dealing with European and international politicians, acting
as a sort of Donald Trump of the Middle East.
He recently has gone around accusing everyone from UN Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon to Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström of being terrorists for
complaining about his oppression of the Palestinian people. (Netanyahu
maintains, laughably, that Palestinian resistance activities have nothing to
do with their being militarily occupied by the Israelis, and reacts to
suggestions that he might by his policies be producing Palestinian violence
with the casuistic charge that making this observation encourages
terrorism). At the same time, his government just this week cheekily
announced that it was stealing another 150 hectares of Palestinian land on
the West Bank, which it had pledge in the Oslo peace accords to turn over to
Palestine.
France roundly condemned the further land theft.
On Friday Fabius slapped down Netanyahu for his insults to Ban Ki-moon and
lamented that unfortunately the colonization [of Palestinian land by
Israelis] continues.
No American politician can call Israeli policy what it is, colonization, for
fear of vicious reprisals by the bullies in the Israel lobbies.
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