A Paris-Jerusalem Spat Over a Palestinian State Widens as Netanyahu’s Son Insults Macron

Paris and Jerusalem are attempting to smooth relations after Prime Minister Netanyahu’s son, Yair, insulted President Macron by writing “screw you” over France’s advocacy of a Palestinian state at the United Nations.Mr. Macron said last week that he would act as co-chairman of a UN conference on the “Palestinian question” in June, and indicated that France would then become the first permanent member of the UN Security Council to recognize the state of Palestine. Following the October 7, 2023, atrocities, such recognition is opposed by most Israelis, who also consider the UN to be hostile to the Jewish state.“The UN is not a good venue for such gatherings,” a former Israeli ambassador to India who also served as the country’s deputy UN ambassador, Daniel Carmon, tells the Sun, referring to the June powwow. “A conference under the UN roof, complete with endless hostile speeches, is bad news for Israel.”Mr. Macron “wants to show he’s active on Mideast issues,” Mr. Carmon adds. Yet, the likely outcome of the UN conference could resemble a March Arab League declaration at Cairo, which was “deliberately written like a General Assembly resolution.” It called for recognition of a Palestinian state and for a return of all Arab refugees to Israel — which would end its Jewish majority.The French president declined to publicly refer to the insult that his Israeli counterpart’s son hurled at him Sunday. On Tuesday the elder Mr. Netanyahu called Mr. Macron in an apparent attempt to smooth feathers. On the substance, though, Mr. Netanyahu stuck to his guns, saying after the call that he explained to the president that his intention to endorse a Palestinian state would “constitute a huge prize to terrorism.”Such a state, “established a few minutes away from Israeli cities would become an Iranian stronghold,” Mr. Netnayahu wrote on X Tuesday. “The vast majority of the Israeli public opposes that categorically,” he added. “No Palestinian body — including those of the Palestinian Authority — has condemned the Oct. 7th massacre,” and under that Ramallah authority “children are educated to destroy Israel and the murderers of Jews are awarded monetary prizes.”The Israeli-French dispute broke open last week. “We must move towards recognition,” Mr. Macron said after visiting Cairo, where he announced his intention to be co-chairman of the UN conference with Saudi Arabia. “Yes to a Palestinian state without Hamas,” Mr. Macron reiterated on X Sunday in a posting that raised concerns at Jerusalem.“A unilateral recognition of a fictional Palestinian state by any country,” Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, wrote in a post, “will be a prize for terror and a boost for Hamas.” That response was within accepted diplomatic discourse. A posting by the young Mr. Netanyahu, though, made even some Israelis squirm.Over Mr. Macron’s X posting saying “yes” to a Palestinian state, Yair Netanyahu wrote, “Screw you! Yes to independence of New Caledonia! Yes to independence to French Polynesia! Yes to independence of Corsica! Yes to independence of the Basque Country! Yes to independence of French Guinea! Stop the neo imperialism of France in west Africa!”A “readers added context” under Mr. Netanyahu’s posting noted, “French Guinea does not exist; the Republic of Guinea seceded from the French Empire in 1958. New Caledonia has held, and continues to hold, frequent democratic referendum on the issue of independence.”On Tuesday the French president slightly tweaked France’s outright support for a Palestinian state. Rather than an immediate endorsement for a Palestinian state, he wrote on X, one of the goals of the UN’s June conference will be to “reopen the prospect of a two-state political solution.”The “two-state solution” has long been thrown around at the halls of the UN as the ultimate Mideast panacea. Yet, fewer Israelis or Palestinians now believe in it. Yair Netanyahu’s insults aside, will Mr. Macron hear them?

A Paris-Jerusalem Spat Over a Palestinian State Widens as Netanyahu’s Son Insults Macron

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